Why UX? – From three different perspectives

This article was originally shared on - https://www.yujdesigns.com/why-ux/

"People will never believe you that UX is going to add value to them unless you do it and show it."

In the 90s, Don Norman coined the term ‘User Experience.’ Today, the term ‘UX’ has become a buzz word in the digital world. Designers know its importance and now businesses also have started realizing its importance, but still many of them don’t know why do they need UX. So, if you are also one of them who don’t know the ‘Why’ of UX, we will make you understand that. We can look at it from three different perspectives - UX for a designer, UX for a business and UX for a dreamer.

UX for Designers

Basic thing for designers is problem solving and UX is core of it. Designers must empathize with the users and businesses in order to understand user and business goals. Many times, designers expect that people should understand their ideas, concepts and they should quickly start believing in them, which is not possible. People always need validations to believe you.

For example, when we want to buy a car, we go for a test drive to get a feel for it, right? We want to know if the car is really comfortable as they say in the car advertisement. Similarly, designers have to learn the fact that people will not believe that user experience will add any additional value to their business. You have to convince them and show this value by demonstrating because people start believing in anything that is tangible and they start listening to you more. 

It is the responsibility of UX designers to educate people about user experience and help them understand value addition that it brings to their business. The moment designers start doing this, they will be able to help businesses understand design, value it, appreciate it and as an ecosystem we all will grow together. 

UX for Businesses

Every business, small or large, needs UX because it is the center and everything i.e. marketing, technology, finance, sales and advertising revolves around it. Most of the people say that the UX journey starts from A and ends with Z. But with experience, you will realize that you have to start from Z and come backwards. This is what user experience does for businesses - you see a goal, then plan to achieve it, build a path for it, execute things and move forward. 

Imagine, a large-sized company wants to build a product, which is going to make them billions of dollars in the next 2 years. Here, designers should be able to tell them how to make billions and billions and billions of dollars in the next five years. That’s where great, scalable products and great businesses are designed.

Businesses always talk about ROI because it is their overall goal. But when you take a deeper look at UX, that’s when you realize that ROI is the eventual outcome, firstly you have to fulfill short-term and long-term goals.

UX for Dreamers

Everyone who has an idea is a dreamer. When you are thinking about an idea, ten other people in the universe are also thinking about the same idea. In such case, how do you make your idea relevant? Again here comes the basics of user-entered design. Your dream needs to be validated and that’s where user experience understands your dream from the perspective of business, technology and design. When we do all these three together and there is feasibility, then we know the gaps in the idea, the ways to make the ideas’ USP actually relevant, value add in the idea compared to others and difference between the execution of the same idea compared to others.

Let’s take an example of e-commerce. E-commerce was an idea, which was used in different domains in different way, which made other businesses successful. These businesses realized that people want to do specific shopping for specific things. Then they realized that specific shopping wasn’t what they wanted, they wanted one site for everything. Everybody in e-commerce believed that they all had great ideas for e-commerce. What made them unique is validation of their ideas through multiple different metrics and then the execution of it in a way that it created its own USP.

Closing Thoughts

The ‘Why’ of UX is the most critical thing that everybody should ask themselves while thinking about it. When a business thinks that they need UX, they should ask themselves, “Why do they want UX?” As a dreamer, when you are building something, you need to ask yourself, “Why do you need UX?” As a designer, if you are practicing user experience, you need to ask yourself, “Why are you practicing UX?”  If you go down the path and understand the depth of UX, the entire ecosystem will move forward in the industry.

"Make your common idea unique by executing it in a way that it creates its own USP."

About:YUJ Designs is one of the top ux design studio in India providing consultancy as well as end-to-end solutions to B2B & B2C Fortune 500 enterprises.

Critical Thinking for UX Designers

Critical thinking can be defined as deliberately analysing information to make better judgements, and well-informed decisions. This includes using logic, reasoning and creativity. It is a broad skill that can be applied to various scenarios. It has a wide range of applications. It can be used in UX design strategy, time management of projects, DesignOps, DevOps, business strategies and effective decision making in UX design studios. Critical thinking also helps you on an individual level to become a high performer, giving you a competitive advantage.

It is an intentional process, a goal oriented thinking. Without goals, it is just over-thinking.

Critical Thinking = 1. Observation   2. Analysis   3. Synthesis

It is essential for you to be curious in order to be good at this skill. Ask a lot of questions, before jumping to any conclusions when gathering data and observing events. Gathering data helps you gain access to a bigger picture. This helps you simplify or understand any complex issues.

These skilled individuals are essential to teamwork, as they are mission-driven, open-minded and empathetic. Being solution focused these people can naturally be categorized into being rational, thoughtful and insightful. These people serve better in roles that demand data-driven solutions, objective analysis and evaluation.

Here are some fundamental questions that can be asked for any situation: What is the hypothesis? Why does it exist? What are other aspects to this hypothesis? Who is this beneficial to? What is the context of this hypothesis? What else? What if?

This is an acquired skill. Here is how one can improve the skill:

• Question everything. Do not make any assumptions, evaluate the data gathered for relevance and truthfulness.
• Keep your actions aligned with your purpose. Always keep a track of your actions by identifying their relevance in terms of your goal. The purpose acts as a guideline for all your actions. This way you can also be able to predict possibilities. Keep checking these predictions with the outcomes, so that you are better equipped in the future.
• Be aware of your thoughts. Human mind is a complex system to understand. A lot of times, the mind works by using heuristics/ thumb rules. These rules are mostly influenced by biases. Hence, hindering the skill essential for objective, productive work. Be aware and switch to more comprehensive thinking.

Critical thinking essentially boosts your success graph in all aspects of life. This is another reason why it is an important requirement to become a successful UX designer -

1. An essential aspectof the design thinking process.
2. It serves as a balance within the experience design process without suppressing creative design process.
3. It will help at the analysis and synthesis stage after the research. where the designers can easily differentiate between signal and noise. And take out insights from the all the information they have gathered.

Reimagining businesses to create memorable experiences

This article was originally shared on - https://www.yujdesigns.com/reimagining-businesses-to-create-memorable-experiences/

Experiences matter. They are the front runners of the global economy and are capable of deciding the fate of a business. So many factors affect the experience of products and services that brands offer. The list is long. Designing points of digital interaction is just one such factor, but it’s one of the most critical components of business health of a product or a service. How users experience the brand through the digital interactions, whether they gain from the engagement in the moment, find it relatable and benefit from it in the long run, all of this figures into the overall financial wellbeing of a business. This understanding of the relation between UX design and the success of a business is what sets us, YUJ Designs apart.

We believe –

A marriage between business and user goals gives birth to a great UX design.

YUJ Designs works towards holistic design solutions that businesses require to forge a future that best serves their end-users. Our multi-disciplinary, talented team leverages a human-centered approach to deliver functional and ingenious solutions. We accelerate the growth of your business by reducing the disharmony within your existing customer experience.

Combining human-centered design approach with scientifically gathered data, we understand the customers and the business with equal dedication. Our solutions are derived from the insights into customer motivations, behaviors and values as well as the business goals.

These are the pillars we focus on to elevate your customer experience:

1. User-centered Approach to Your Business Challenges

Whether you are building a standalone digital product or a connected physical product, we can help you design a User Experience in a scientific manner. Our data-driven, user-centered approach ensures that users’ experience needs are accurately understood and fulfilled. Our UX design and development team of #DesignEconomists ensure ROI for businesses, memorable experiences for users, and ease of implementing the UX.

2. Building Empathy

YUJ Design’s approach to providing memorable user experiences is by building empathy towards product users and the business. We work collaboratively to understand your vision and ambitions and how your digital ecosystem contributes to achieving your business objectives. Through qualitative and quantitative user research, our team understands users’ goals and expectations, needs and behaviours, motivations and aspirations. Equal importance is given to understand and elicit business goals, success criteria and technological feasibility.

3. Data-driven Design

We believe, that which can be measured can be improved. Therefore, our data-driven approach tailors your products’ design to users’ preferences, goals and behaviors, which make the experience far more engaging. Our design solutions are informed through various data sources – user’s psychographics, business metrics, site analytics, trends in domain, industry, technology and design best practices. Concept designs, both interaction concepts and visual concepts are validated by testing them with users before detailed design commences. This approach de-risks your designs before hitting the markets.

4. Digital and Physical Connected Experiences

Customer experiences are no longer limited to the screen, they expand in the physical world. We see experience as a continuum in user’s life and strive to design a seamless experience across devices and spaces. We also make sure that these interactions come to life by using our technological expertise.

5. Design for Impact

We strive for one thing – creating Impact by design. Facilitating human experiences is our specialty. Our designs change the way businesses operate, creating visible value for end users and our clients. We believe that good UX must make business sense and boost your ROI on design.

Being a top-tier UX design studio with presence in India & San Jose, U.S.A., we have a substantial experience of working on design & development projects. YUJ Designs has successfully crafted B2B, B2C, B2B2C experiences.

Despite hordes of UX design studios routinely listing user-centered designs as one of their top services, many companies still struggle to reflect it through their work. Our experience designing across a wide range of domains has helped us acquire knowledge of user interactions, behavior and tasks providing us with a wide-lens view of users’ lives. This multi-domain knowledge helps our designers understand any domain faster, and helps them build richer experiences for your users. Fostering partnerships that are open and progressive with clients, is the starting point for our culture and the work we create.

You may also be interested to read about UI, UX and UI/UX?

About:
YUJ Designs is one of the top ux design studio in India providing consultancy as well as end-to-end solutions to B2B & B2C Fortune 500 enterprises

Dialing Up Motivation in a Workplace | YUJ Designs

This article was originally shared on - https://www.yujdesigns.com/dialling-up-motivation-in-a-workplace/

Most of today’s workforce is occupied by millennials. Unfortunately, only 29% of this working class, reports feeling aligned and motivated at work. This is an alarming number! Believe it or not, uninspiring workplaces have a bigger role to play in this situation. That makes it a number one priority for the employers to dial up motivation levels in their workplaces.

Positive employee engagement is the result of a high motivation. Engagement from employees is an emotional involvement. No one can make employees engage with the company. However, leaders can provide for an environment at work that increases the likelihood of higher motivation and employee engagement.

The thumb rule for increased employee engagement is happy employees. It’s no surprise that happier workers are more productive workers. These are some of the tried and tested ways, which world leaders swear by, to create nurturing workplaces.

1. Transformation

Cultural transformation through Individual Growth

Use of goal setting methods to motivate employees. Individual goals that are aligned with the company’s culture and aspirations. Measuring the performance and outcomes basis these individual goals helps in the managers with the bigger picture. When leadership adopts a new point of view backed up by an understanding of how their employees achieve goals, great things become possible.

2. Enable Autonomy

Harnessing Intrinsic Motivation

Even in today’s world, freedom to push the envelope is sought after by employees. When given the choice to select one’s growth path and opportunity to be liberal about the plan, productivity and ambition in employees definitely spikes up. One should actively engage team members to identify and learn skills that align with their personal interests and career goals. And of course – company goals. Tailor made strategies for individuals aiming for long-term impact, should be worked out for the benefit of employees and the company in the long run.

3. Learning is a Bigger Carrot

Harnessing Extrinsic motivation

Design talent is not necessarily motivated by a change in job titles and seniority. Salary raises and promotions are not the best policies for talent retention in a low motivation environment. A mix of these policies depending on the temperament of the employees is important. Role rotations to expose the best and brightest stars to a broader view of the business and the rich learning that comes with it, works. As employees get better and learn more, the business strengthens.

4. Inspire People

People Build Organizations

A crucial step in company’s development is understanding that employees – are the biggest assets of a company. Their well-being and happiness comes first. When companies connect and communicate with the emotions of their employees, the payoffs are huge. Takeaway: Put people, not roles, at the center of the organization. Which will become the foundation for all planning and design of the company’s ecosystem.

5. Recognition & Appreciation

Anything that is Measured can be Improved

Use of goal-setting methods to motivate employees. Individual goals that are aligned with the company’s culture and aspirations. Measuring the performance and outcomes basis these individual goals helps in the managers with the bigger picture. When leadership adopts a new point of view backed up by an understanding of how their employees achieve goals, great things become possible.

“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.” – Pearson’s Law

Enhancing motivation levels across the organization requires deep insights into emotional motivators of employees, analysis of their capabilities, and, above all, a managerial commitment to align with the organization. Emotional motivators that function on pleasure and pain, hope and fear, and social behaviors. It is very important to locate the underlying motivations to trigger desired actions from your employees. Companies that prioritize values, actions and culture have a tendency to outperform. Tapping into the motivation levels of employees helps them perform better even under pressure. YUJ Designs imbibes a similar strategy in the company culture. These strategies are not just useful for UX design studios but also for corporate sector companies.

About:YUJ Designs is one of the top ux design studio in India providing consultancy as well as end-to-end solutions to B2B & B2C Fortune 500 enterprises

How to be the Best Recruit at YUJ Designs

YUJ Designs is a top tier UX design studio working with clients from the world over. We believe we are as good as the talent solving the client’s problems. In order to do that, we handpick talent and work with them to hone their skills in order to facilitate their growth. We believe our success lies in the success of our own employees first. We have articulated some of the basics that a new employee should have in their artillery when joining YUJ.

Before we dive into the list, it is a given for candidates to ensure that the portfolio goes beyond UI mocks/screenshots. It should elaborate on how they have approached the solution by applying UCD methodology. We discuss activities that the candidates ran, artifacts they create, their design management philosophy, processes applied and last but not the least the business results they have achieved. Variety across industries and Interface types become a definite advantage.

To be a part of our design teams an educational background in designing is a must, with a strong foundation. We look for people who can pay close attention to details. They are business ready from day one and can contribute to the company’s growth from initial stages.

1. Culture & Behavioral Fitment

When a new employee joins YUJ, it is essential for the person to align to the values which YUJ Designs endorse. Setting up an example by means of work as well as by their extraordinary skill/s and unique personality feature. Excel at your craft and encourage others to become the same.

2. Impact by Design(ROI)

Our designers create a big impact on the customers’ businesses and for the end-users as well. They help them generate millions and billions of dollars as their revenue. Each designer is an asset to our organization. We take care of our employee’s growth just the same.

3. Alignment with Business Needs

From day one of every project, we expect that each of our employees are aligned with goals of that particular engagement. They are clear about the mission and vision of the customers. Every project you take up, you should work towards adding more value to the project.

4. Design thinking

We follow the design-thinking ideology -Empathize, Define the problem, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. Our design solutions are human-centric. Our designs are aesthetically good and also help users achieve the purpose. We root for designers who are cognitive thinkers.

5. Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the most desirable skill set for a designer. Sorting through the data, using it in a correct direction makes a lot of difference. Critical thinking is goal-oriented. Without a goal it is just overthinking.

Critical Thinking = 1. Observation   2. Analysis   3. Synthesis

6. Innovative thinking

Ideas which are a combination of inspiration and passion for design can solve client’s problems in a unique way. We expect to see at least one example of an innovative solution in the candidate’s portfolio. We always look for the next generation designers within an individual.

7. Fast-paced Work

Our designers work simultaneously on 4 to 5 projects. They are multi-taskers. Everyday our designers do new things on projects without any repetition of work. They learn every day from each experience they go through. Thus, they sail in the sea which is full of opportunities & great learning, insights.

8. Fire-in-the-belly

We work with Fortune 500 clients. Ability to lead hi-end complex large scale B2B/enterprise-level projects is a must. Having ability to resolve frustrations of user’s daily lives. The designer should have an undying passion for making a difference through their designs.

9. Hunger for Growth

Having the correct growth mind-set comes in handy. We believe in the never-give-up attitude. We provide a clear career growth path to all employees, who are equally passionate about self-growth and company’s growth.

10. Interpersonal and Collaborative Skills

We want our designers to be good in analytics, to be empathetic and excellent observers. They should be a good listener primarily. A believer in the power of many, as a larger impact is only achieved through collaboration. Collaboration with internal stakeholders and customers.

Apart from all of these skills and capabilities, understanding her/ his role and contribution towards the team is essential. If you are such an individual or are willing to become one, then always remember this journey of a thousand miles starts with a small step. Connect with us, we enjoy discussing all-things-design.

UX in age of Voice command driven devices

This article was originally shared on - https://www.yujdesigns.com/ux-in-age-of-voice-command-driven-devices/

The last 5 years have seen a huge flux in terms of AI based devices. Today, more and more people are becoming aware of AI technology and its applications. AI has already entered the homes, becoming a part of everyday life. It is the age of voice command driven assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana and Bixby. These are AI systems designed to interact with humans, make our lives smooth and hassle free.

“Alexa, riddle me this!”

The research phase and technology of the voice driven devices took almost two decades. In the past five years, however, giant opportunities have opened up. Everyday we are teaching machines get better in their function. Voice assistants learn and adapt based on the data they gather with numerous interactions with different sets of humans. Their responses can evolve and be built on what we say to them. For instance, navigation apps guide us based on the routes we take. Without tons of data gathered by interactions with humans, the machines would be much dumber.

Let’s cut right to the heart of why talking machines could be useful. This next-generation interaction technology offers us a way out from using devices with complex interfaces. These devices also overcome the barriers of users of using tech products. This way, the technology allows the user to interact with the machines in a natural way, just like how one would interact with another human. We teach our machines every day. Voice assistants learn how to talk to us based on what we say to them. Navigation apps guide us based on the routes we take. Without millions of teachers like you, our machines would be much dumber.

IBM estimates that 90% of the data created by humans has been generated in the past two years alone.

https://becominghuman.ai/the-voice-based-ai-trends-for-2019-b13a2bb44e54

A Rise in the Opportunities, in India –

Over 90% of the current digital voice assistants in India only work with English creating usage problems vernacular language users.

The Biggest Challenge:

On this day one of the biggest challenges voice technology is facing is – Human Language. One of the world’s biggest and complex data sets. The reason why understanding language is so difficult for machines is that, the meaning of words changes based on context and even the appearance of the letters and words. Sometimes, the spelling remains the same but, means and refers to different actions when changed its context. Languages rely on a lot of knowledge about how it works and on common-sense about the world. Those two factors blend in subtle ways.

Role of UX

You must be is familiar with Jakob Nielsen’s general principles for interaction design, called “heuristics”. Broad thumb rules for evaluating the efficiency of a product. Let’s apply these principles to voice driven technologies like – Alexa used in a B2C scenario to understand how much UX can add value to accelerate the success of the voice revolution.

1. Help Users Make Sense of the Technology

As the complexity of real world interaction is difficult to predict, the error messages should be easily understandable and should provide a constructive solution.

A grandmother attempting to interact with Google - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2R0NSKtVA0

2. Users should get Complete Control

Users often stumble upon different functions that they don’t intend to use. This is a scenario where they should be given a clear exit action/ message. It is important to avoid overwhelming the users with the information and too many choices.

3. Flexibility and Efficiency of Use

The device should use accelerators for the frequent users in the messages. At the same time, new users should not feel out of place. Use confirmation messages selectively. Use of reprompting to guide the users.

An illustrated example of how Alexa can understand commands in different manners - https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608571/alexa-understand-me/

“Alexa, show me the future!”

Voice AI is still in the nascent stage and a lot of research is still underway to make sense of this technology. Envisioning the market share this technology is about to capture, more and more companies should make it their aim to enter the segment and make use of the first-mover advantage. To stay ahead, business owners, strategists and marketers should experiment with the technology for their brand to transition seamlessly when the voice revolution takes over completely.

About:
YUJ Designs is one of the top ux design studio in India providing consultancy as well as end-to-end solutions to B2B & B2C Fortune 500 enterprises.

How Behavior influences Design?

This article was originally shared on - https://www.yujdesigns.com/how-behavior-influences-design/

Designers work towards understanding the human behavior and intentionally design experiences that would drive the desired outcome. You may not be aware of it as you roam around a Dorabjee’s store or a shopping mall, but every aspect of the experience has been designed such that you end up buying at least two objects you did not come to buy. These stores are designed to maximize the amount of money you will spend when you walk out of the store. This is intentional design at its best, weaving purpose and experience by assessing the user’s behavior and tendencies in detail. These experiences shape our perceptions of the environment, the brand. Designers capitalize on user’s biases, memories and craft a deep sensory experience for the user.

It is amazing how our brain operates on the information that is made available to us. We interpret this information and build our own perceptions. For instance, if someone mentions – Sneha brings her dog to the workplace. There are multiple possibilities of perceptions depending on the person that possesses this information. Some people might operate from a sense of fear and visualize the workplace to be a haphazard place, where employees won’t be able to concentrate on work. Not a productive workplace and would opt against it. Whereas, some people might say this is hardly a fearful situation. In fact, a pet-friendly environment is a welcome change!

Understanding Human Behaviour

The concept of understanding a person and her/ his behavior is similar to an iceberg. We only see the tip. Usually unaware of the large mass that lies below the surface of water. A person randomly chooses a red fire emoji to enhance the Instagram post. One might say the person belongs to a more fiery personality, hence the choice. Though, there’s a lot more to a person’s choices, as simple as these, than what meets the eye. The behavior and motivations underneath the surface are the ones that need to be considered to understand the user’s choices. When doing user research, we set out to understand human beings. It is very important to look what’s underneath the surface. One should utilize this knowledge and dig deep into what drives certain user behavior.

Understanding the mind of the consumer/ user

The Theory of Human Motivation

Abraham Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs was introduced in the groundbreaking 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. The theories of the American psychologist continue to be widely adopted as an explanation for human motivation and personality.

https://crm.org/articles/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs

Human beings by nature make assumptions very quickly. Designers need to understand users’ needs and desires, their motivation, what drives them. Only after studying these nuances, can a designer build successful products that are human-centered and effective. There are 3 chief aspects one should consider while studying user behavior.

1. Perceptions

They bring together a person’s past experiences with her/ his current context. They cloud the person’s judgement and world view. Let’s take an example of Uber. Everyone has experienced the surge prices when booking a ride.

The primary emotional response that the user has is a feeling of frustration, deception. The user had a certain expectation from the cab service, though when surge charges apply, a negative emotional reaction emerges. A person in this scenario would quickly assume the cab service company to be an unfair one. Whereas, all that the company is trying to do is drive revenue by making the most of the peak time. This is how perceptions are built. These perceptions lead the customer to follow or unfollow a brand.

2. Attention

Attention is shaped by context and intensity of the stimuli. There are three types.

• Selective Attention. Picking up information based on convenience.
• Divided Attention. Responding to multiple simultaneous tasks.
• Sustained Attention. Vigilance developed over time. Working Memory.

Design thinking starts with empathy. And designing products that are fit for the user’s attention spans are a necessity for the companies. For instance, in this world of short attention span, autoplay videos, disappearing stories are programmed to achieve the same goal – that the user should either stay longer or keep coming back to it as many times as possible.

The right term for these behavior sensitive designs is dopamine loops. Dopamine starts you to seek, get rewarded for the seeking which makes you seek more. This is called Instant Gratification where everything we want is a click away. It becomes harder to stop looking at or stop browsing through apps. Classic examples are email notifications, texting or even checking the phone to see if you have a message or a new text. The flipside to this emerging behavior, is illustrated below.

A humorous take on the emerging human behaviors

3. Decision Making

We know by now that the choices a consumer makes are a result of her/ his past experiences, pre-formed biases, motivation drivers among other reasons. Decision making of users is impressionable. A well-thought of design of a product can influence the user to make the purchase. Design has a critical impact on user decision.

Hence, it is crucial to work on evidence-based design for your products. Think about different scenarios in which the target audience might perform the desired behavior. Identify the positive deviants. Work towards persuading the user. Here are some psychological patterns that can help with the design strategy:

• Enabling. Enable the desired behavior by making it easier than the alternatives.
• Motivating. Motivate the behavior using incentives.

In conlusion, to design a successful product a designer should listen, empathize and engage.

About:
YUJ Designs is one of the top ux design studio in India providing consultancy as well as end-to-end solutions to B2B & B2C Fortune 500 enterprises