Interactive Design for Web Technology

What is User Experience and why is it so important?

What is the User Experience?

The User Experience is everything that happens to the users when they interact with our business or organisation via website, application or online communications. It includes everything they see, hear and do as well as their emotional reactions.

Why is the User Experience so important?

For many years, hugely successful companies like Google, Twitter, eBay and Amazon have recognised that the User Experience has a direct impact on their bottom line. These companies didn't succeed by chance. They continuously test every aspect of their business with real users to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction. That's because on the internet, the customer is king. At any point our visitors can opt to leave the website and go elsewhere - usually to a competitor. We have all experienced this when we've visited a website that was slow or buggy or simply made it difficult for us to achieve our objectives.

Common sense tells us that if users can't find information easily or have trouble buying our products they will quickly leave the website and shop elsewhere and they won't come back. E-consultancy identified that a good User Experience: increases Sales and online conversions improves brand perception improves Google search rankings reduces customer dis-satisfaction and churn reduces the costs of development and support.

What is User Experience Testing?

User Experience Testing has several names; UX Testing, usability testing, user testing; they all refer to the process of understanding what users do and why they do it.

Traditional user testing involves individual test participants who are recruited to sit at a computer and be observed carrying out tasks that they are given. The process of watching and listening to real people carry out these tasks provides a great insight into what works and what doesn't, and critically - WHY.

Traditional usability testing is very effective but it is time consuming and expensive and, as a result, few organisations invest in it. We believe that everybody should be able to reap the benefits of UX testing so we created What Users Do to make the whole process faster, easier, and much, much cheaper. For everyone. It sounds simple. And it is. But it is an extremely effective way of helping to understand what we can do to improve the user experience and increase sales, build brand loyalty and grow the number of customers coming to our website.

How does User Experience?

User Experience testing is an opportunity to see our website (or any digital content) from the perspective of a real user. It’s about observing what people actually do and hearing what they think as they interact with the website, application or marketing. It’s the best way to discover what works (so you can do it more) and what doesn't and WHY. Then fix it.

If we use analytics software (like Google Analytics or Omniture) then our conversion goals, funnels and statistics will tell a great deal about what happens on our website. User experience testing tells WHY.

-Why our users stay and why they leave

-Why they buy and why they don't

-Why they pay and why they abandon their shopping carts

-Why they buy from our competitors and not from you

In fact, we can test pretty much anything and find out what our users do and why they do it.

Reflection:

From this note, I have understand on the importance of knowing the user experience on using a specific site. Few important questioning should be done to understand the users need and what is left or what could be an advantage of our website.

Reference:

(2013). What users do, and why they do it: what is user experience and why it is so important? [Online] Available on: http://whatusersdo.com/clients/resources/what-is-user-experience. [Accessed on: 19 September 2015]

(2009). How to design a website: user interaction; connecting you’re your website visitors. [Online] Available on: http://www.rocketface.com/implement_website/user_interaction.html [Accessed on: 19 September 2015]

Skillcrush. (2012). Skillcrush: user experience, user interaction and interface design. [Online] Available on: skillcrush.com/2012/09/17/user-experience-user-interaction-and-user-interface-design/ [Accessed on: 19 September 2015]