Creating the Best UX Possible
User Experience a.k.a U/X is all the rage right now. Rightfully so.
Not familiar with it? The concept is simple - place yourself in the shoes of your client (the user) and map out their experience they encounter from every interaction with your business. All of their interactions define their User Experience.
Defining UX is a cornerstone of product development. Assuming you’ve already determined what product/service you’re selling and the persona(s) of the user(s), then you need the blueprint of what your customer’s experience will be like with your brand. Typically this will start with high level information architecture.
If you think about every consumer facing product you have and the number of interactions possible, then you will realize just how complicated the User Experience can be!
Here at Wexford Entrepreneurial Partners, our goal is to create the Best User Experience Possible. The BUEP is almost a theoretical idea because something can always be made better. It may drive our significant others that we’re overly constructively critical, but that’s the attitude you need to push for better UX, or the BUEP.
Avoid Groupthink
Too often we see products begin a slow death when the UX is not updated or developed properly in the first place. Many times this happens from Groupthink. For existing products, CEOs are typically surrounded by people who say ‘yes.’ For new products, people don’t do enough research to test out their experience. So for new and existing products, the decision makers are not given enough critiques to make the BUEP. Instead, they rely on their gut and the group saying ‘yes’ to inform their decisions (cue in the sound of the electrocardiograph monitor flatlining).
Moral of that story: AVOID GROUPTHINK.
Starting a new business or pivoting an existing enterprise? Then be prepared to roll up your sleeves to find the BUEP. Here are the steps to get started:
Determine your product / service
Identify & define the Personas
Conduct primary & secondary research
Define user requirements
Outline the hierarchy of the user journey
Define and develop each part of the user journey
Test the journey on your different Personas
Refine the User Experience
Launch product / service
Continuously strive for the BUEP by refining, testing, and researching your UX
Building and creating the BUEP is like the episode of Parks and Rec where Tom Haverford and Jean-Ralphio throw an “end of the world” party. Their goal is to throw the best party imaginable, even calling themselves party scientists with the party being their laboratory. It’s quite a fun episode if you haven’t seen it, but regardless when watching it there are tons of things you can think of that could make the party even more awesome! Watch it and see if you can name 5 things that you think would make the party better - I bet you can.
As you launch the BUEP, just like the best party imaginable, there’s always something you could do better and improve upon. So unfortunately there is a sad but true sentiment that the BUEP is never really good enough. But that’s okay!
Top entrepreneurs and athletes push themselves on a regular basis to make themselves better. Always searching for that perfect technique and that competitive edge to separate them from the rest. As with business, we must do the same because that’s what the competition is doing.
Next Steps
In your journey of pursuing the Best User Experience Possible for your customers, don’t go it alone. Avoid groupthink. Conduct targeted research and data analysis to formulate the BUEP. And now for the shameless plug, hire Wexford Entrepreneurial Partners to help you on your quest of pursuing the Best User Experience Possible.
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