Have you ever wondered why is user centric design so much important?
Thomas John Watson (CEO of IBM) once said at a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania that “Good design means good business.” More than 40 years later, it seems like this statement holds the same position in the digital business landscape. Today, selling products online has become a “trend” because customers continually lean towards online solutions.
Now you must be questioning, is there any connection between user-centric designs and eCommerce business? The short answer is, Yes. Imagine you want to buy a product, and either you have downloaded an app or visited a website to get more info about the particular product. What happens when your app or website delivers a poor experience while you are browsing different categories? You will quickly move on to another site, right?
To not let this situation happen, more and more businesses have realized the significance of user-centric designs. No, user-centric design is all about having a pretty web page or app, but it’s all about appealing to users and leaving a long-lasting impact on the user’s mind by delivering a better user experience. User-centric design and functionality are essential for your online business, as they can bring you advantages worth every investment.
Before we delve into the benefits of user centric experience, it is important to understand the meaning of user-centric designs.
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What is User-centric Design?
Source: Justinmind
User-centric design is also known as human-centered design. According to usability engineer and scientist named Don Norman explained the term of user centric website.
From the customer perspective rather than the other way around, it aims to create an enjoyable user experience.
For an online business, aesthetic design is much more important than ever as it is a powerful weapon to attract and retain customers. You also need to go beyond your visuals and focus on user-centered design.
By analyzing the behavior of users and performing usability tests, designers aim to know:
- The goal users want to meet through the usage of the product
- How people interact and the emotions they feel when accessing product
- The environment in which product will be used
- The ideal workflow of a product and how customers are likely to use it to accomplish a broad range of tasks
Check out: What is UI Design? Fundamentals of User Interface Design
Deepen your UX expertise with these recommended resources:
- User Experience Design – Definition, Importance And Things To Know
- What Are The Principles Of Interaction Design
- UX is Not Design
- Designing Sites And Apps To Match User Expectations
- Usability Vs. User Experience
- The Role Of User Experience In Agile Development
Ways User-centric Design Beneficial to Businesses
Now you know how important it is to opt for a user-centric design as this gives your project team a clear picture of how you will connect with customers and how it benefits the entire project. With this in mind, let’s explore what benefits user centric thinking offers to businesses and how it improves ROI.
Uncover the secrets of UX Design with these informative resources:
- Importance Of E-commerce User Experience And Usability
- How To Get Your Users To Sign Up
- Why Do You Need A Custom 404 Page
- How to use UX design to improve conversions over 82%
- How User Experience Plays A Significant Role In Premium Websites
- Design Better Products By Understanding Your Users
- How You Can Improve User Login Experience
- To Paginate Or Scroll?
- How To Design A UX-Driven Mockup
- Keep Your Digital Project On Track With Usability Review
Reduction in Development Cost
Software redevelopment consumes a substantial amount of resources and costs. A user-centered approach can reduce change in business management and rework when it comes to a design by maximizing the likelihood of getting it right in the beginning.
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineer, IEEE has found several reasons why most projects fail without enjoying the success,
- Unrealistic project goals
- Badly defined requirements
- Poor communication with users
- Usage of obsolete technology
All these factors can be avoided in the beginning if organizations pay equal attention to the user-centered design process.
Master the art of user experience with these essential UX resources.
Help You Choose the Right Price for Your Model
It is useless to choose the pricing model for your product without knowing your customer’s preferences and needs. If you are unaware of users’ demands and requirements, how can you decide what they will pay for your product? In addition to that, how will you determine whether or not your product will be paid for by the users?
Here user-centric design comes to the rescue because the real motive behind developing a user-centric design is to make money. Your in-depth customer research and understanding of their requirements will enable you to find the most competitive price for your product.
The user-centered design practice and intuitive web design interfaces allow you to develop something that the end-user will appreciate since you will test and fix bugs throughout the development process.
Improve Your Conversion Rates
One of the biggest dilemmas you will face as an online business owner is low conversion rates or cart abandonment. According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is more than 69%.
Well, this is awful for an online business owner. This figure is equal to losing seven customers out of ten interested customers. Moreover, the primary reason behind this problem is the long and difficult checkout process.
Here, you should understand how user-centric design reduces the cart abandonment rate and boosts your site’s visibility and profitability. It will also increase customer satisfaction as you can help them quickly whenever they face any issue in the checkout process or amid the entire shopping journey.
Foster Customer Loyalty
Winning customer’s trust and loyalty is not an easy task. The more loyal and trustworthy customers you have, the higher the customer retention rate you achieve. It’s all about maintaining and building relations with customers. Consider user feelings and problems at various stages of the purchase cycle when empathizing. After that, you should examine them one by one.
It is through empathy that your product becomes human, which is what has the greatest impact on your users. User experience plays a vital role for businesses and in fact, according to Elluminatiinc.com, more than 50% of customers show their loyalty to online platforms that give them a good user experience.
Check out: Keep Your Digital Project On Track With Usability Review
Excellent Product Quality
Taking into consideration the needs of users during the design process, involving them during development, and appreciating inputs from partners will always result in a better end product than not doing so. Assuming preferences about ‘real’ users is challenging when using inputs from ‘real’ users. The importance of usability testing cannot be overstated.
When a customer knows that they will get what they expect and more, he or she will be willing to pay a higher price without any hesitation. The products should anticipate and address the future concerns of a customer so that they remain loyal to companies and keep doing business with you even when you charge more.
Mobile UX Best Practices
Interested in learning about the best ways to make mobile apps easy to use? Take a look at our list of selected blogs. They’re full of ideas to inspire you when designing mobile app experiences.
- The Basics Of A Great Mobile User Experience
- Designing For Mobile UX – Best Practices
- The Key Elements Of Mobile UX
Focusing On User-centric Design Bring You Fruitful Results
Entrepreneurs can make data-driven decisions with design thinking user centered design when they follow the same process. Using the user-centered design process, you can offer your customers a site and app experience that is tailored to meet their personal needs. You can improve conversions and acquire more happy customers by investing more time and money in a design thinking and user centered design and functionality.
Dive deeper into the world of UX design with these helpful resources:
- How To Improve Website Usability
- How You Can Create A Better User Experience
- How To Improve Usability In Web Design
- What Is Guerilla User Testing And How It Can Help Improve Usability
UX Animations For Design
Check out how animations can help improve user experience:
- How To Use Animations To Improve User Experience
- How To Improve Your UX-Driven Designs With Functional Animations
Like this post? Check out more amazing web design content here.
