Finding Solutions - UX Complexities

Woman working on UX mobile designs in a monitor

Barbara

Buckley

13 Dec 2022

UX and Design

In part I and II of our blog series, Finding Solutions, we looked at Project and Relationship Management, and Tech Troubles. This time, in our final instalment of the series, we delve deeper into the range of complexities that clients face in relation to the user experience of their websites.

Sometimes, clients have a clear vision of what they want to achieve with the future look and feel of their website, while at other times, they are eager to seek guidance and consultation on the best path forward.

Being able to provide a world-class user experience for all of your audience is becoming increasingly important, but how to achieve that can often seem complex… Not to mention expensive! In reality, neither of these concerns need to prevent you from reaching your UX dreams!

Improvement

“Is my website intuitive enough or is there room for improvement?”

Whether or not a consumer finds your website intuitive can be subjective and a matter of personal preference. Everyone’s taste differs which can make it difficult to robustly assess if a website really needs to be improved.

However, there are guidelines and principles which provide a clear process to assess the user experience of your website in a methodical and structured way.

A great starting point, before jumping into any major design refresh and potentially spending a lot of time and money, is to undertake a UX audit.

During a UX audit, the designers will conduct a ‘cognitive walkthrough’ which means they go through your website, page by page and heuristically assess where improvements may need to be made.

Discover more about the process of a UX audit and the heuristic report in our recent blog.

Refresh

“It’s time to rebuild our website. It needs to be fresh and catch our audience’s attention.”

Often one of the most troublesome pain points for clients is that they are working with a website that they know no longer speaks to their audience. Yet, taking the plunge on rebuilding a website can seem daunting.

‘Design thinking’ is a method that designers use to guide their designs and ensure that they understand the expectations of users; meet those requirements and deliver solutions to real problems. To learn more and to dive deeper into the details of this process, check out a recent blog by Amazee Labs Senior UI Designer, Tish Pickover.

Over the years, we have worked with a wide range of clients from across varying industries who have sought our consultation on how to refresh their websites. The reasons for undertaking a design refresh can be varied, but what is always crucial is ensuring that the approach remains human-centric.

Discover real-life examples of the UX challenges we have encountered, and our approach to refreshing and optimising our clients’ websites, in our case study portfolio.

Assessment

“Our existing digital platform is outdated and doesn't serve our clients’ needs anymore.”

Businesses inevitably evolve and over time the needs of clients will also change. Your digital presence can become outdated and no longer talk to your target audience in the way it once did. At this point, it becomes necessary to reassess your UX Strategy.

Before jumping into action, commissioning a design refresh or adding new exciting features, it is important to stop, take stock and understand how you can best go from where you are today, to where you want to be in the future.

A great UX Strategy allows you to remain consistent with your branding and messaging, whilst simultaneously evolving and improving your digital platform to meet the needs of your business and users.

“UX strategy is the process that should be started first before the design or development of a digital product begins. It’s the vision of a solution that needs to be validated with real potential customers to prove that it’s desired in the marketplace. Although UX design encompasses numerous details such as visual design, content messaging, and how easy it is for a user to accomplish a task, UX strategy is the ‘Big Picture.’ It is a high-level plan to achieve one or more business goals under conditions of uncertainty.”

Jaime Levy, UX Strategy: How to Devise Innovative Digital Products that People Want

If you would like to read more about our five-step approach to UX strategy, check out our blog.