The Value of User Experience

Users have encounters with companies when they come across products, services, or perhaps advertisements for the companies.

How users experience the companies is how the companies make the users feel through design and communication.

Designing user experiences is essential for business, as remarkable experiences leave an impression, whether the experience is remarkably good—or remarkably bad. Impressions, things remembered, are mind-share, the capital of brands, and thus highly valuable. The alignment of business strategy, product and service design, and both internal and external communications is required to maintain a unified user experience at all of the touchpoints, where different users encounter the company.

A good user experience is a great differentiator. It draws in users who are increasingly more dissatisfied with products due to abundance of choice, changing consumption habits, improved peer communications, and the perceived scarcity and increasing value of time. Sharing experiences is easier than ever (way easier than sharing products!), and for people, a shared experience is twice as valuable.

So how do you know you’re providing a good experience? An experimental tool is presented that allows for the exploration of the value of an experience on two axes: attractiveness and convenience. An experience that draws you in is better, and so is an easy and convenient one. These axes are presented using lots of word pairs ranging from the simple (ugly vs. beautiful) to the more complex (noise vs. clarity).

Finally, the sustainability of user experiences is discussed, and an argument is made against the often seen emphasis on first impressions only.