5 Ways UX Matters in Everyday Life

While user experience sometimes takes a backseat to other concerns when it comes to getting a product to market, it should be at the forefront if you want to give your customers a great brand experience. Researchers estimate that by 2020, user experience will overtake price and product as the determining factor in purchasing decisions.

To understand how user experience can mean the difference between customers loving your product for life or forgetting it in seconds, here are five ways that UX design really does matters in everyday life.

1. Great Designs Can Make the Best Products

In the early stages of designing a product, a designer needs to be a detective — researching what people need, how they behave, and how to solve their problem. Soap company Method is a great example of this design-focused mentality; while its products are cleaning supplies, the company has designed the packaging to fit the users’ needs and desires.

You won’t always hit perfection on the first try, but those early stages of design and conceptualization often guide you towards a better final product. You need to have tools that let you stay agile and creative whether you redesign once, twice or a hundred times before you get the concept right.

2. Users Don’t Notice Design — Unless It’s Flawed

From handles that bang against walls to bathroom stall doors that leave a disconcertingly wide space between you and your neighbor, you probably didn’t give much thought to how doors were designed until you had to interact with a poorly designed one.

Whether you’re working on a website and applications or running shoes and soccer balls, deliberately mapping out how each element of your product works and fits together is critical to providing an effortless user experience.

3. Nobody Reads the Manuals

When was the last time you sat down with a cup of coffee to dig into a riveting user manual? Users want designs that are intuitive and easy to use without a lengthy manual, something that’s evident in the rise of sleek, intuitive digital products such as Fitbits and iPhones. As a result, designers need to make sure that interfaces for both devices and the applications used with them are easy to understand and user-friendly.

From rapid prototyping to check that the look and feel of the physical product are spot-on to interface wireframes that ensure that users know what to do from the first time they open an application, taking steps to create a memorable user experience is a necessary part of creating a product that users will love.

4. The Human Element Affects Product Performance

People don’t always change the way they do things to accommodate design flaws, so it’s important to design for user quirks. Toothpaste caps are a classic example: The loose, screw-on caps are notorious for getting lost and leading to crusty, wasted toothpaste.

Designers need to think about the way users interact with their product in the field and think of ways to provide the best experience based on how people act. Many manufacturers now create hinged toothpaste caps and other designs that stay attached to their tubes even when users forget to put the cap on.

5. Good Design Facilitates Purchases

Good design simply makes people love using your product. And happy users are more likely to stick with your brand and make more purchases. For example, as more of users’ browsing time is done on mobile devices, it’s become increasingly important to have a responsive site that works well no matter what size screen it’s being viewed on.

A study conducted by the Aberdeen Group showed that websites that leveraged responsive design saw a 10.9% increase in visitor-to-buyer conversions. By using good design tactics, you can help create a better user experience and entice users to take action.

Concluding

Providing a good user experience can be a challenging but rewarding experience for product designers. Cutting-edge wireframing tools facilitate the design process rather than slowing it down. When you opt for wireframing platforms like HotGloo, you can take advantage of features such as real-time collaboration and predesigned templates that make wireframing and prototyping your product faster and easier.

With the right tools in your UX design toolbox, you’ll be able to make your biggest and best ideas into real-life products that will give customers the best experience possible.