30 Sep How Healthy UX Improves Your Business

Healthy UX

As new technology emerges so does opportunities for enhanced user experiences. We all have experienced a moment of initial shock when experimenting with a new product, platform, or service. We try to figure it out, test out the different options, and decide whether we like it or not. Consider the iPhone for a moment. When new IOS updates are released sometimes the changes are hardly noticeable, but sometimes they completely change the interface of the phone. Over a short period of time users share their feedback over the update and further updates are usually released within a few weeks that fix bugs, add new features, and optimize the usability. Updates are continuously published to ensure that the phone is running as efficiently as possible. Apple and many other companies frequently release these types of system updates to ensure efficiency, customer satisfaction, and usability.

Companies like Apple and Microsoft use user feedback to optimize their platforms and provide a great example of a healthy user experience cycle. The UX cycle has three parts: Strategy, Implementation, and Feedback. In the iPhone example, Apple strategizes new IOS capabilities, implements them, receives customer feedback, then optimizes the system. A healthy cycle is continuous and always looking to improve.

This cycle seems rudimentary, but it is often ignored in both big and small business. Talked about in a recent blog, broken user experiences are most frequently caused by inefficient communication between different fronts of a company. Perhaps the most important front of all companies is the customer, so customer feedback should be prioritized. To do this successfully, a business should operate with the user experience cycle leading all decisions. Whether a company is rolling out a new product or changing internal processes, they should first consider whom the change will affect and how they will measure how the change is received.

Banks have never been well known for pioneering memorable user experiences, but with innovative fintech companies launching, strong user experiences will become imperative. Venmo broke into the financial sector with flare as it transformed peer to peer lending in a fun, memorable way. What spurred Venmo’s success was its adoption among young people. Banks are infamous for being straight forward, disengaging, and boring, especially to younger people and Venmo took advantage of this weakness and used customer feedback to implement customer friendly experiences it into their platforms. They merged the fun and engagement of social media and gamified financial lending.

For any business to be successful, it must maintain some kind of system to ensure its constantly evolving. Once a business stagnates, it’s very difficult to rebound. The UX cycle described above can be utilized to optimize an online presence, internal process, and even all-around business growth. Healthy UX processes stress customer feedback to ensure that the business and customer are both achieving their goals. The main mission of every business is to please its customers, so it’s crucial that businesses know whether they are achieving that mission. Customers expect the best customer experience possible and likely will not be timid to share their likes and dislikes, especially because it is easy and simple to ask and gather customer feedback.  Using this information to improve your services will nurture a trustworthy relationship with customers and transform your business. In conclusion, a business should be run like a well maintenance machine. Like the iPhone, there should be constant updates, information gatherings, and bug fixes to ensure the business is constantly evolving to meet and exceed customer expectations.