What is User Experience?
User experience is an individuals subjective opinion of a product. This opinion is based on how well the product supports the individuals needs and meets their expectations. Everything has a user experience.
No two people are alike and no two experiences of a product are the same. Every day brings with it new life experiences that shape who we are and what we expect from a product. This causes the user experience to be dynamic. Individuals form new expectations of the product based on their experience using other products. Even if the product stays the same its user experience changes.
Every aspect of every interaction the individual has with the product shapes their opinion of it. When we improve the UI we are only improving at most one aspect of the holistic experience. It is possible to have a product that looks great but provides a terrible user experience. The success or failure of the user experience is the responsibility of the entire organisation.
User experience is not about the product, its about people who use it. A good user experience is one that meets the individuals needs and expectations. A great user experience exceeds them.
User Experience is a commitment to developing products and services with purpose, compassion, and integrity.
It is the never-ending process of seeing the world from the customers’ perspective and working to improve the quality of their lives. It is the never-ending process of maintaining the health of the business and finding new ways to help it grow sustainably.
It is the perfect balance between making money and making meaning.
What does a User Experience Designer do?
The User Experience Designers job is not to create the user experience. Instead it is to facilitate the creation of a great experience through the process of User Experience Design.
The User Experience Designer brings to the organisation tools and activities to enable a more collaborative and transparent way of working.
We conduct research to identify problems. We help the business to understand itself and its users. We challenge assumptions and break down silos. We use design thinking to facilitate the creation of solutions, and we validate that those solutions work in the real world.
The goal of a UX designer is to make users effective.
Our job is one of understanding, facilitation, creation and education. We provide the organisation with a sustainable competitive advantage.