THE BUSINESS OF UX: HOW USER EXPERIENCE ELEVATES YOUR BRAND

Learn how UX can increase customer satisfaction, boost your brand credibility, and help your New York business grow in a digital-first market.

By: Potoula Anagnostakos

Think of your favorite product, service or company. What is it that you like about it? Do you visit their website or mobile app often and why? Is it something you use everyday? Does it solve a problem that you no longer have to deal with?

Questions like these tie into what UX is and how it plays a role in a successful business. UX refers to user experience. It’s how users experience or navigate a product, system, or service. In UX, the goal is to create something that is easy to use, enjoyable, familiar, intuitive, efficient, and solves a problem. Empathy and advocacy for users are at the heart of UX and are what keep the process in check.

To understand how the UX design process works and how important this is for any business, we’ll start at the beginning.

RESEARCH

The first part of the process is research. As UX designers, we use research methods, such as user interviews and market research, to gather meaningful insights on what problem we are fixing and who we are designing a solution for.

Think back to the questions mentioned earlier. We dive into the 5 W’s of the users: who, what, where, when, why, and sometimes how. We need to understand the needs, behaviors, goals, and pain points of users as well as how best to solve this problem that will benefit them and the business itself. 

These insights help with market research as it’s crucial to understand the business’ competitors and how it can best stand out in the market. Some factors we use to compare with competitors include product, system, or service features, price points, business models, and customer reviews. Whether it’s how to create an easy way for customers to complete transactions or how to effectively onboard new customers to an app, the eventual design solution is for both internal and external stakeholders. 

Design

The insights pulled from research move the process into the design phase. The UX team will begin to organize and label content and information in a way that’s easy to find, use, understand, and is intuitive. This refers to the practice of information architecture.

As UX designers, we want users to feel confident when they interact with a website or product, that they know instinctively where to find things. We think of these in terms of user flows or interactions, to essentially map out steps that users will need to take to complete an action. 

Low and high fidelity wireframes are created as a way to see and understand the design layout and functionalities. Visual design, like branding, images, and colors, are incorporated as well to further flesh out the possible design solution while maintaining the business’ brand identity.

WRITING

Following the information architecture and wireframes, the UX writing phase comes into play. The goal is to write clear, concise, engaging, and informative content that also matches the brand identity. Some examples of UX writing include error messages, instructions, and button labels.

USABILITY TESTING

The wireframes are then turned into prototypes to begin the testing phase of the UX process. At this stage, real users test the prototypes and provide feedback on their experience. As the UX team, it’s important to inform the users that they are not tested on their technical ability, but rather on what their experience was like using the prototypes. We need to understand what worked and what could be improved and changed.

Using that feedback, the UX team goes back to the design phase to implement those changes. There can be a few or several iterations before the design is finalized.

LAUNCH

The final phase of the UX process is to hand the finalized design over to the development team for an official launch. The collaboration between the UX and development teams are what bring designs to life.

CONCLUSION

Each phase of the UX process is equally important. Without properly understanding the problem, the risk of designing a poor solution greatly increases. Valuing the experience of your users and identifying areas of improvement strengthen your customer relationships and help you stand out in the market. Creating something that is easy to use, efficient, and enjoyable is what keeps customers coming back. Improving something shows your empathy and advocacy for your users. Let UX take your business to new heights.

Potoula Anagnostakos
Potoula Anagnostakos

Born and raised in New York, I’m a journalist turned UX and Content Strategist with 7 years of experience in conversational AI and customer facing roles. As a journalist, I learned how to be adaptive and versatile, leading me to different roles and honing unique skills. Asking the 5 W’s (who, what, where, when, why, and sometimes how) have attributed to my in depth and perceptive research and strategy processes.

Services include:
Complete UX process (research, design, and writing)
Content Strategy
Chatbot and Help Desk Design

Proficient in Figma, Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, Wordpress, Canva, Lucidchart, Voiceflow, Intercom, Zendesk, Clickup, Usertesting, Optimal Workshop, Maze.

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