What is user experience (UX)? Easy. It's the top-to-bottom interaction that someone has with your product. It's the taste of a sandwich, the firmness of a driver's seat, and the insightfulness of a webpage, just to name a few variables.

UX goes beyond the tangible. It's about creating a distinctive, easy-to-use product that builds positive brand awareness for your company by aligning it with quality and convenience.

With those objectives in mind, it's easy to see why top-shelf digital UX requires investments of time and expertise. Which begs the question: How much should you be devoting to UX? Start in these four areas:

1.    Team-Building: Create a dedicated team that can liaison with cross-functional colleagues. A researcher oversees user feedback and identifies pain points, while an information architect builds a content blueprint. Then, your designers and developers bring the vision across the finish line. These key roles are the foundation upon which your UX team should rest.

2.    User Research: One study found that only 50% of its respondents do research before designs or specs are drawn up. Your customers and their needs are your product's why, so make it a point to learn as much about them as possible via testing, focus groups, and other avenues before development starts. Then? Take a design-thinking approach and incorporate those findings into every element of the product lifecycle process.

3.    Continuous Improvement: More than 40% of companies don't survey end users during product development. Research and testing are critical to any creative process; without them, production cycles can drag on, ROI can be delayed, and the bottom line suffers. When the lack of due diligence leads to bad product reviews out of the gate, that's a difficult hole to escape. Spend, test, and modify now to avoid future frustrations.

4.    Cross-Functional Talent: UX is not just a job for creatives and designers. User-centric design should be a companywide concern, not just that of the UX team. Different parts of the organization have unique knowledge and a genuine interest in serving customers. They can bring their respective insights to the table to bring about the best UX outcome possible.

Experience isn't just about first impressions. It's about second, third, and how dedicated your company is to making UX continually enjoyable. Invest in these elements sufficiently, and you'll be on your way to doing just that.

Contact Allata and let us partner with you to make your development process a comprehensive, user-centric success!