5 arguments to convince your management that UX is important
Health and wealth are related in many ways. Health usually is the foundation to achieve good wealth and closing the gap could not only extend people’s lives but increase the well-being and happiness level of people. The digitalization started way back in 2010 and user centricity has played center stage ever since, but the Covid pandemic has proven that the opportunities in digitalizing the healthcare industry are way bigger and could serve as a step forward towards solving this worldwide problem. Mobile health services, healthcare software, wearable devices, telehealth and telemedicine, EHR…all these are among the many areas that are subject to increased interest by investors in this field.
We had the chance to take part in a project with global importance in the field of digital health related to bringing health information closer to people across the globe. Our experience shows that to win in this space, well-thought UX/UI design is of crucial importance because it facilitates the workflows of different personas, maximizes customer lifecycle value and stays relevant over time.
However, justifying the expense for the UX effort can often be difficult because not all stakeholders understand its impact on product performance and the company bottom-line overall. Let’s look at our 5 arguments that can prove helpful when persuading management that UX matters:
1. Improves the reputation of your brand
There are many sayings about the first impressions. Almost all first impressions are design related. While the user interface (UI) establishes the first impression, it is the UX design that determines whether you can sustain the first impression. If visitors come back for more, this will mean that you have managed to capture and accommodate their needs and closely mimic their behavior. Thus, they will spend more time using your application, happy and focused on the job they need to do. There are a few quick wins that can help you wow the management: start with a great logo, create an intuitive navigation, ensure error free experience and social media integration, make the experience mobile friendly, analyze and learn from it. For us, these are the simple steps to make you stand out from the competitors and build a positive reputation for your brand.
2. Help end-users be more efficient by allowing them to complete tasks faster
Great application UX facilitates the user flow through your software product. End-users intuitively navigate from one section to another without wasting time figuring out how to complete a task or get back to the main dashboard. This is the result of a well thought process and a thorough research of your users’ needs, behavior and expectations. An experienced UX designer should recreate an experience that mimics your user’s natural behavior and eliminate any unnecessary steps in the process. A common indicator for satisfaction here is a stress-free experience that not only helps them do their job quickly but also saves them time to move on to the next task.
3. Increase customer’s loyalty thanks to better customer experience
UX design is first and foremost about users’ emotions and feelings, hence it can have a long-term impact on user behavior. If users find the product useful, pleasant and easy to use, they will continue coming back to it. This is related to the quality of their experience ( QoE). While not always quantifiable, it is the key factor in a real-world evaluation of UX. It is in an organization’s best interest to maximize its users’ QoE.
4. Fosters conversions and ROI
Design is often a battle between delivering rich functionality and ease of use at the same time with customer interactions happening in as few steps as possible. This will ultimately result in people loving to use your product. If you manage to make your users happy, they will stick with your product longer.
5. Investing in UX design upfront can significantly reduce costs later
UX design is based on research, analysis and testing, so you are immediately putting the user first when developing a product or service. Companies that use this approach will prevent possible usability issues or problems from the start; this is much cheaper than fixing them later with product redesigns or glitch fixes. Afterall, you get a product that functions much better than others!
BONUS Can be measured — the UX design effort can definitely be measured. Both behaviorally (what users do on your website, where they spend their time, what they say and how they interact) and business-wise (conversion and bounce rates fluctuations, product stickiness). This is excellent news for all those who are numbers addicted and want to see the results of their efforts.
Probably the best thing about UX design is that it’s constantly evolving. It can be measured, which means that it can always be improved. If you have any indications that your application is underperforming, or you target enhancing it even further, why not measure and analyze its performance now? In this customer-dominated world, great UX design as you have seen above can achieve a lot for your business.
To help organizations take advantage of UX design to increase customer conversions and loyalty, gain a competitive edge, and reduce costs, we at Resolute Software provide expert UX services. Building on the solid foundation of qualitative and quantitative research, our team will identify the problems of your existing UX architecture and propose solutions backed by hard data and scientific analysis. The UX assessment package we offer is an effective way to identify usability issues and map out the means to solving them. Get in touch today to schedule your UX assessment.
Author: Denitsa Kostova, Marketing Team Lead @ Resolute Software
