The user experience (UX) refers to the quality of experience and response a person has as a result of the interaction with your website, app, device, or service. All the aspects of such interaction with a product or company contribute to the UX. In other words, it’s the good-bad feeling one gets after using a product. 

Why is UX important for your business? The UX connects your users with your products, fulfilling your users’ needs and, in the process fulfilling your goals. The UX helps you create a product or service that is useful, comprehensive, and gratifying. Doing so will increase audience engagement, conversions, and revenue. Great UX design is essential; it’s what makes market leaders. Just think about your experience with Google, Amazon, and Apple products. Apple wasn’t the first to invent the smartphone, just as Amazon wasn’t the first e-commerce retailer. What they did was change the way we interact with these products, making them easy to use. Such first-rate companies invest millions of dollars in the UX of their products, contributing to sales and revenue growth.

What’s the difference between UX and UI?

The UX is very often confused with the UI or the user interface. Let’s go over the differences. The UI is a part of the UX. It encompasses visual design (like colours and typography), branding, and layout. It defines how your product looks. The UX, on the other hand, is about how your product works. In brief, the UI is the visually appealing part, while the UX is the interactive part.

“Focus on the user, and all else will follow”.
Rule #1, Google’s “Ten Things” Philosophy

Benefits of great UX design for your business

If you want your product to be successful, it’s essential to conduct UX research and invest in UX design. A good UX design is goal-based and user-oriented. Provided your product can help people meet their needs, they’ll see its value and be loyal to it, making it stand out among competitors. As stated in a study by Baymard on cart and checkout UX, 69,2% of customers abandon a cart after adding items. In 9 years of research, Baymard found that the design and checkout flow are the main reasons why users leave without purchasing. 

An effective UX moves your users to their destination in the most efficient way. If you don’t provide your users with good navigation, a clean layout, a clear description of products, and appealing calls to action, you’ll get a user-hostile design. 

There are 39 potential areas for checkout optimisation. As soon as you eliminate sources of frustration, anger, and confusion, you’ll bring your users closer to a great deal. As a result of good service, you’ll get increased sales, a conversion boost, and repeat customers. 

A positive user experience creates long-lasting relationships with users who not only want to buy your service but promote it, for instance, by recommending your product on social networks. Word of mouth referrals is free, saving you money on marketing. Happy users are ultimately satisfied and returning customers.

More comes with a good UX than just increased conversion rates. One of the most significant advantages you can enjoy is improved return on investment (ROI). Forrester wanted to evaluate and justify the value of the UX or a product. A 2016 report titled “The Six Steps For Justifying Better UX” claims that every dollar spent on UX design returns $100.

Let’s take a look at real-life examples of some famous companies whose ROI increased after a UX design overhaul. 

To find a way out of no ROI period, Walmart decided to redesign their website. After the makeover in 2018, Walmart’s e-commerce sales grew by 43%. They worked not only on the UI but also invested a lot in the UX, changing how shopping feels.

• The website got a new modern look with simplified navigation. 
• They implemented a mobile look for the desktop version with a hamburger menu in the header. 
• The most significant change was improved personalisation, both individual and regional. Now users can see recommended items based on their purchase history and search and goods that are gaining popularity in their area. 

Bank of America took a similar approach, improving its award-winning mobile banking app with a new personalised dashboard where users can quickly peek at all their finances. Users also got a unique offline experience. Bank of America enabled users to withdraw cash by logging into the app, choosing an amount to start, going to the nearest ATM, and completing the journey on the ATM screen by entering their PIN. Having invested in a UX redesign, Bank of America saw a 45 % increase in online banking registrations.

The quality of the user experience is tightly integrated with search engine optimisation (SEO). Google strives to deliver the best search satisfaction, and the ranking of your website depends on its policies. Google has started analysing dwell time (the number of time users spend reading a page), the success of the user journey, web navigation behaviour, and patterns. This means the more user-friendly and well-designed your site is, the more relevant it will be to Google. If earlier SEO managers could stuff sites with keywords and links, now they have no chance to misguide the algorithm. Even if you’ve fully optimised your site, it may be shown on the second or third page of search results if it has an unsatisfying UX. Retaining visitors with a great UX is a workable strategy.

Stand out from the crowd! Sometimes your startup doesn’t need to be innovative. You can simply take a usual idea and convey it differently. There are thousands of similar apps and services, but only a few are conspicuous enough to become famous. Just address some basic needs and provide a satisfying UX to appeal to users and be well-liked. 

Take a look at Airbnb and its inspiring success story. When Airbnb came to the market, there already were strong competitors, but Airbnb had a valuable advantage. They analysed competitors’ mistakes, people’s pain points, and similar services to make customers feel at home. 

Airbnb created an atmosphere of trust and loyalty by adding: 

• verified photos to ensure that places exist and are in the proper condition
• multi-level identity verification to avoid identity fraud and run background checks
• links to Facebook accounts to get acquainted with guests/hosts
• Superhost badges to help users find honest and top-rated hosts
• and secure payments so users can pay only after check-in
• reviews to read about the experiences of other guests

Such a delightful experience was critical to their roaring success. Even CEO Joe Gebbia admits that UX optimisation was pivotal in becoming a $35 billion giant.

In conclusion

The lesson all these examples teach us is that you should never underestimate the benefits of UX for your business. Investing in UX design is a financial win, as the long-term merits include better ROI, lower expenses, better customer retention, and higher Google rankings. 

As long as you optimise your UX, you’ll be able to outrun your competitors and enjoy customer loyalty.