UX Process: A groundwork for effective design teams

10th of February, 2017 / / No Comments

User Experience practice is about innovating and finding solutions to real-world problems. Which means we need to find problems, then validate them first before trying to fix them. So how do we go about doing all this? Read on…

I’ve been asked to explain a “Good UX Process” numerous times over the years in consulting. Customers want a formula per se that can solve all their design problems. But unfortunately, it doesn’t exist and there is no set UX process that applies to all.
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7 tips for making UX work in Agile teams

2nd of February, 2017 / / No Comments

Agile is here to stay. Corporates love it, start-ups embrace it and developers live by it. So there is no denying that Agile is going nowhere and we have to work with it. For a number of years, I’ve tried to align User Experience practices with Agile methods and haven’t met with great success every time.

But nevertheless, there are a lot of lessons that I’ve learnt during the process and I’m going to share 7 tips that always worked for me.

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Six Competencies For Strong CX Management

23rd of January, 2017 / / No Comments

Customer Experience Management is bloody challenging. Delivering a consistent (and pleasurable) experience across dozens of channels requires well-defined CX practices that are deeply ingrained within the organisational culture.

Forrester first published CXM maturity framework in 2011 which defines the CX practices that every firm needs to master. Naturally, a lot of companies jumped on board with this framework. For some, it had been hugely successful, and for others — not so much.

Now after 5 years, Forrester has published an updated CX Index which is based on interviews with many (19) companies, new research, and lessons that they’ve learned from helping clients over time.

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Why user experience matters

15th of September, 2016 / / No Comments

User Experience is a means to drive product innovation and differentiation. When implemented successfully, UX contributes to a number of critical business key performance indicators including customer engagement, retention, and loyalty.

Over the last two decades, most of the fortune 500 companies have come to the realisation that UX is an integral part of their business success. In his 2016 Design In Tech report, John Maeda suggests:

A good User Experience matters a lot, because we experience digital products a lot

Furthermore, the report (illustration below) uncovers that:

  • 89% of companies believe that customer experience will be their primary basis for competition —Gartner
  • 81% of executives surveyed place the personalised experience in their top three priorities for their organisation — Accenture
  • 90% of executives surveyed agreed that customer experience and engagement are objectives of their corporation’s digital strategy — MIT Sloan/Deloitte
  • Customers are 6 times more likely to buy with a positive emotional experience, 12 times more likely to recommend the company, and 5 times more likely to forgive a mistake — Temkin Group
 tech-report

UX improves the overall customer experience

UX is a critical part of CX.

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Customer Experience Vs. User Experience

13th of September, 2016 / / 3 Comments

I was in a design meet-up a couple of weeks ago where I heard someone saying this – CX is the same as UX. And to my surprise, there were about a dozen of people who nodded (in agreement) to this statement. Now, this is where I lose my fuse!

As design professionals, it’s imperative for us to learn the difference between Customer Experience and User Experience.

User Experience is everything that affects a user’s behaviour and interaction with a product or service.

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Driving innovation & user experience using Kano model

27th of June, 2016 / / No Comments

How often are you asked to jump straight into design without doing any research? Well, it happens to me quite often. Reason – lack of time or budget.

No matter how tight the budget or timeline is, I always recommend to do some research beforehand. And  if “how to do it in a cheap and efficient way?” your question, then here is how:

I stumbled upon Kano model in my MBA book – an incredible technique used by many businesses to discover, classify and integrate consumer needs into the products and services they offer.… [Keep reading] “Driving innovation & user experience using Kano model”

Designing for emotion

9th of April, 2016 / / No Comments

What is it that makes us advocates of the products we love? Why are we loyal to a few bunch of apps and websites? When I connected the dots, I realised that all the things I love in my life has one thing in common – emotional attachment.

What is emotional design?

Emotional design is a technique of infusing the elements of emotion into product design. It aims to evoke positive emotions and engagement with consumers.… [Keep reading] “Designing for emotion”

Introduction to User Experience Design

30th of March, 2016 / / No Comments

User Experience is everything that affects a user’s behaviour and interaction with a product or service. It’s about how a person feels, understands, and perceives a product.

Many people confuse User Experience with aesthetics of a product. User Experience Design – rather than focusing just on visual or technical aspects, largely deals with the psychology and behaviour of people.

Also, UX is an umbrella term which comprises of four major disciplines:ux

  1. Information architecture
  2. Interaction design
  3. Visual design
  4. User research

When someone refers to themselves as UX designers, it usually means they have a good understanding of all the four disciplines and are experts at probably a couple of them.

… [Keep reading] “Introduction to User Experience Design”