Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Create a better user experience

So often the user experience is ignored or its importance is marginalized. A bad user experience is no different than a bad customer experience; a bad experience means that person is not likely to return or recommend your product or service. Imagine shopping in a store and the shelving is maze like, aisles are too narrow, and goods are displayed haphazardly making it hard to find the items you wish to purchase. It’s unlikely you would want to shop in that store again. It’s no different when it comes to a user’s experience in adapting to new processes and systems. A bad user experience leads to resistance in accepting the changes despite any change management processes you may have in place. This is true for all types of change whether you are implementing a new off-the-shelf product, custom building a new application or enhancing an existing application.

User experience isn’t just about delivering a list of functional features or providing pretty graphics and colours. It’s also about providing a user interface that makes it easy for the user to navigate, find what they need, and do what they want quickly and without fuss. Accessibility is also an important component of the user experience. Accessibility includes universal access for users with special needs such as screen readers as well as for users who require mobile access or have slow bandwidth connections.

User experience is all about how a user feels and perceives when interacting with the system. Perception of the value of a system, ease of use and efficiency in performing tasks are key components to a positive user experience. The goal is to ensure the system achieves these fundamental objectives of a good user experience: usable, credible, inspires loyalty, and attractive in appearance.
The user experience doesn’t end with the implementation. Follow up and obtain feedback on the user’s satisfaction formally with a survey or informally with conversations. Feedback can provide valuable insight into what could be improved in future phases.

We hope you have found this week’s edition of "To The Point" by Jan Crowe to be helpful and informative. Look out for our next week instalment as we continue to explore unique topics from business to the latest technology.

We want to hear your point! If you have any ideas, suggestions or any questions about our weekly blog, please contact us at: info@pointalliance.com.

Warm regards,

Point Alliance Team

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