User experience (UX), what is it? How do we factor it into our design? How do we test the results? One of our senior developers, Wayne Ashley, takes a look.

 THE WHAT

UX is the overall impression a visitor retains of your business as a result of interacting with one of it’s digital arms. This would typically be through a website, but it may include apps or indeed any electronic media.

In short, UX is the interactive presentation of your brand, products or services.

THE HOW

When it comes to great UX, we should be thinking about great design and all it encompasses. Creativity, clarity, functionality, simplicity…the list goes on.

When ib3 develop a website, UX is initially driven by the experience of our senior design team. Put simply, they already have a great understanding of “what works and what doesn’t work” when it comes to online. The benefits of experience cannot be taught. Always enquire of your agency how many years professional experience the design team have. Furthermore, check specifically if they use junior designers. As part of their ongoing development our designers keep themselves abreast of latest trends across the web. This allows them to better deliver to the users’ preconceived notions of an easy-to-use/modern online platform.

Our designers will perform searches of the leaders within your sector, aggregating online profiles to develop an initial data-driven framework. A great starting point for your website from a UX perspective, is to build something new upon foundations already familiar to potential new clients.

Such competitor analysis helps the design team better understand specific market requirements. The analytical process is further augmented by our much broader, cross-sector, insight into current trends and the technology shaping them. All this goes into a big pot which we use to bake new processes, surprises and occasionally radical re-thinking into our concept work.

During the initial development discussions, the team will look to understand the drivers behind the new website. These drivers may include ROI, brand modernisation, disruption of an established marketplace etc. We will also take into account any broad-stroke views regarding presentation, from corporate funky to, well, plain old corporate

So already we can see that good UX is shaped by good communication between client and agency, the more we talk, the more we learn. Are we trying to increase online communication, phone contact, collection of user data, sales on specific lines, or making a bold brand statement etc. Such conversations have a significant impact upon the design and ultimately, the client satisfaction achieved

THE TECHNICAL

ib3 invest a great deal of R&D into the delivery of systems which make the complex look and feel effortless. Whether the user is a member of the public or a member of your team, we work to deliver market leading experiences for your organisation

Analytics, hotspots, goals and filters are then monitored after launch to build an understanding of user interaction in the wild. Analysis of this data alongside a review of the original targets discussed in the build phase, may then lead to further work – AB Testing for instance

AB Testing allows alternate versions of the full/partial site to be presented to different users at the same time. The analytical data from such tests allows the site to be incrementally improved based on real-world data analysis.

Thanks,

Wayne

 

Plenty of food for thought from the expert! If you have any further questions or require more information on UX, get in touch.

Frank

frank@ib3.co.uk
07850 729444