Many persons that want to start a business, fit in one of these two premises:
1. They dream to make a good amount of money with their business profit.
2. They are passionate about something they created or can create to help thousands of people.
On both premises, there is a common goal: they want their business to succeed. Business success is not easy. Most startups fail within their first year of operations.
Here is where UX design comes into play and why UX Design is important for any startup or company.
Let’s dive into it.
First, let’s define what is user experience or UX.
What is UX?
User experience (UX) refers to any interaction a user has with a product or service. UX design considers each and every element that shapes this experience, how it makes the user feel, and how easy it is for the user to accomplish their desired tasks.
This could be anything from how a physical product feels in your hand, to how straightforward the checkout process is when buying something online.
The first person that mentioned this terminology is the recognized cognitive scientist and UX architect Don Norman, who defines user experience as follows:
“User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”
What is UX design?
We could summarize UX design as the process to create easy, efficient, relevant, and all-around pleasant experiences for the user.
It sounds simple, however, there is so much more going on behind these words to accomplish the desired results for the user’s experience.
There are different methods and procedures for the UX design process, I will explain the procedure that we use in Unitytop.
Define the Problem Statement
The first step in our UX design process is to define what user’s problem solves the project that we are about to start.
During this process we look for all the pain points users are experiencing with current products or services like the one we are about to design.
When we exhaust all the possible pain points, we summarize them and define the problem statement.
This is the most important step for us as UX designers, because knowing what’s the problem we are trying to solve, we can use all our creativity to come up with a handful of solutions and ideas, setting us for the next step of the UX Design process.
Define the Solutions
In this step, we write down any idea that pops into our minds, no matter how crazy it is, to solve the defined problem.
We draw hand sketches using the crazy eights strategy and then discuss the presented solutions to define the most accurate.
Low Fidelity Prototyping
Having an accurate solution in hand, we start developing a functional low fidelity prototype, using apps like Figma, or Adobe XD.
After we complete the prototype, we start our first usability study.
Usability Study
This is the moment when we expose our possible solution to the public to be tested in an early stage.
Depending on the project, we start a moderated or unmoderated usability study and do our best to reduce any bias during the interview process or with the proposed questions.
During the usability study, the users test the prototype and share their full experience. We record the session to analyze it carefully and identify the user’s pain points.
Depending on the complexity of the pain points, we organized them by priorities, and start solving the issues by relevance in relation to the functionality of the prototype and the actual stage.
Usability studies are the returning point every time we release a considerable update to our prototype, or a new version of the project if it was already launched to the public.
High Fidelity Prototypes and Mockups
Here comes the time to give colors and life to our prototype. We upgrade our low fidelity prototypes with high fidelity visual designs and creative assets.
Also, in this step we create graphic design systems and mockups, that will help and speed up the process of the developers’ team.
After having the functional hi-fi prototype, we start a new usability study and repeat the process mentioned in the step before.
When we have the results and data of the usability study, once again we define the pain points, organize them by priorities and relevance, fix the most important issues, and move to the next step.
Prepare the data for the developers
The final step in our UX Design process is to prepare all the data gathered in the previous steps, to give a clear and complete package to the developers of the final product.
This includes, as I mentioned a complete visual aid with a graphic design system that will guide and ease the developer’s product creation process.
Summary
As you can see, the UX Design process could look like a harsh path if you’re eager to launch right away a startup, product, or service.
However, the UX Design process is fast and reliable. It narrowed down issues that you could encounter in the future, defined your user’s behavior and needs, explored the user’s pain points, and improve the user experience by offering a better solution.
This can be used as a measurement for the success or failure of your project.
You learn a lot more in the UX Design process and in certain cases, you can reuse the gathered data to speed up the process of new products you may create.
Now you know why UX Design is important to any startup or an established company, before launching any product. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
