Why Good UX Design Is Smart Business?
When designing the user experience of an application or website, the stakes are often high due in part to the fact that unusable applications and websites rarely convert users. As such, UX designers are used to the persistence with which they must critique every single feature.
UX design is smart business
Are any features going to need updates down the road?
- It’s easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of designing features for an app or website, and, in the process, forget about two key future-oriented concerns.
- Are any of these features going to be obsolete in the foreseeable future?
- How many of the features in this application / website will require consistent updates?
Should this feature be implemented in the future?
- As important as it is to launch an application or website with as many features readily built as possible, sometimes this is not the most usable choice.
- UX designers ought never to forget the importance of reducing the barrier to entry of the product. In other words, will an overabundance of innovation actually become a detriment to the “instant usability” of your design?
- Research seems to suggest that this is the case. Don’t over-saturate your designs with features that may serve users better in a future release.
Should I follow the trend, or set my own?
- Often times, UX innovation is stifled by the community’s tendency to follow trends. Interestingly enough, many of the trends followed by the UX community were not introduced by industry leaders, but rather by designers that never got any recognition.
- The point that I’m trying to make is that you don’t have to an industry-leading UX designer to actually lead the industry. Although there are instances where it is better to follow a trend, sometimes it can be more beneficial, and even more usable, to invent a new approach to a problem.
How does this feature impact the business model?
- UX designers often devote the majority of their efforts into ensuring that the user has the most blissful experience imaginable, while putting the needs of the business on the back-burner.
- The needs of the business ought never be ignored in favor of the needs of the user. Here is why: your clients’ needs are more important. Consider a scenario where you choose to include three rows of blog article snippets on the homepage of a website.
Conclusion
Calculate them, and determine if the research / findings actually support the need for the feature. Always consider the longevity of your designs before finalizing them.