Can User Experience Be Designed?
ikale
In today’s world, it is observed that one of the first positions that almost all companies, agencies, or new ventures think about during their formations is “User Experience Design.” User experience is a lengthy process and is actually a field that many of us misunderstand. Because user experience is a very individual concept that results from a long process of work and produces different results in all users. Today, user experience is often reduced to just interface design (UI) and a bit of interaction design (IxD). However, user experience (UX) is more than that, and Customer Experience (CX) is even more.
What is User Experience?
User experience (UX) is a term that refers to the emotional and practical experience a user has when using a product, service, or system. This experience includes factors such as satisfaction, usability, accessibility, ease of use, and interaction quality that the user experiences while using the product or service. User experience design (UX design) is a discipline that aims to optimize this experience in accordance with the needs and expectations of users.
The term “user experience” was popularized by Donald Norman in 1990. Norman used this term in his book “The Psychology of Everyday Things” to better understand users’ interactions with products. However, concepts related to user experience design were already in existence before. This term became more widespread with Norman’s work.
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
Steve Jobs
User Experience Cannot Be Designed!
Improvements can be made in various areas such as interface, graphic design, mapping, interaction, and more to make the user experience positive. When all these come together, the user experience can become better or worse than before. It is important to remember here that user experience is more than just interface design and visual design.
First and foremost, a content strategy should be created according to the target audience. In other words, a decision should be made about what to show before deciding how to show it. Once the list of content suitable for the target audience is prepared, an information architecture is created, showing how this content will be presented in what hierarchy.
If interface design has started before this stage, it means there is an error in the workflow. Because content strategy and information architecture, which will affect interface design, must be created beforehand.
Ideal Workflow
- Creating Content Strategy
- Establishing Information Architecture
- Conducting Interaction Design Studies
- Completing Visual and Motion Graphic Studies
Even if all of these are done correctly and the studies successfully increase the numbers, calling what has been done “user experience design” is not a correct usage. Because the impact of user experience varies among different people, and these effects cannot be designed. Various design studies can only be done to enhance this impact. In short, “User Experience Design” covers the entire process of all these studies.
Are These Details Important? What is the Benefit of This Information?
Some objections from those who use the title “User Experience Designer” in their profession suggest that these theoretical meanings may have no practical benefit and are insignificant in real business life. In fact, it is crucial to know these details. Both employers and those who do this job should know and implement them.
The daily challenges, high revisions, and internal dissatisfaction experienced by designers working for UX are mainly due to the lack of knowledge of these details or, even if known, not organizing the workflow accordingly. When both employers and designers know that user experience is more than just interface design and visual design and when they organize their working systems accordingly, significant increases in quality are observed.
A Bigger Problem: Searching for Failure First in UX
Just as UX does not mean only UI, Customer Experience (CX) is not just UX. Although UX is, of course, a part of customer experience, customer experience is much more than that. With UX studies, companies should also be meticulous and constructive in other areas. Business models, marketing strategies, sales strategies, branding, customer services, stores and offices, and non-digital products are crucial for the success of a business, just like UX. It is a common mistake to search for the reason for the failure of a digital product first in UX. When the application fails, everyone thinks that UX is bad, but the real reason may be in the products themselves, in the business model, in customer services, in distrust in the brand, or in the sales team.
For a good customer experience, a company must have already established its workings outside of UX. Processes in other units must be completed, and developments in UX must be done simultaneously with them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the concepts of user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX) are disciplines of great importance in today’s business world. While UX includes factors that shape the interaction and experience of users with a product or service, CX has a broader perspective and covers all interactions with the customer. Both concepts include more than just interface design, including content strategy, business model, marketing strategies, branding, and more. As emphasized in this text, user experience design is not just about UI and UX design but is effectively carried out by coming
