Don't make User Experience an after thought

Around 6 to 7 years ago, User Experience (UX) was a term a lot of marketers weren’t aware of or familiar with and those that did often viewed UX as an afterthought.

We might be guilty of stating the obvious, but Apple have been the leader in changing the way we consider a users experience. UX is now at the forefront in terms of the way we plan and manage application projects, and this is a growing trend across the industry, especially within in the last 2-3 years.

Software vendors have taken their time to invest in this area when creating solutions. However, market leaders such as Salesforce.com have proven that the return on investment is there to justify additional user experience design and testing. Microsoft invested heavily in UX when creating Zune, their MP3 platform, and is considered by many reviewers to have a superior interface to its obvious competitor. Unfortunately, this is not nearly enough to draw attention away from the market leader, Apple. Who would have thought Microsoft would become a follower? They were so used to being in front that they forgot to look at what was behind them…..a topic for another time perhaps.

I believe the recent surge of attention to UX has been driven by the availability of good user research and UX specialists available in the UK. We are, after all, a world leader in design. Neither discipline was readily available a few years ago, but with significant growth within the telecoms and digital markets, designers have focused their attention on expanding their user experience knowledge which in turn means agencies can now recruit the right resource. This means that you, the customer, has an application that meets user expectation, creating both brand and customer loyalty.

Posted by Adrian Munn on 17 Dec 2010