Technology has revolutionized all sectors of the economy, including how business is done. Businesses that want to keep up with (or outdo) the competition must adopt cutting-edge technologies or risk losing customers. For example, most financial transactions take place online today. If a bank didn’t offer online services, its customers would go elsewhere. It’s therefore crucial that platforms which users interact with on a day-to-day basis are fast-loading and easy to use.
UX designers are involved in achieving this goal by optimizing the User Experience (UX). Due to the high demand for creating increasingly interactive websites, the number of freelance UX designers in the market has exponentially grown in the last decade. The cost to hire UX designers also ranges from quite affordable to extremely pricey, depending on the designer’s qualifications and level of experience.
When a new user is searching for a platform, they will most likely favor the ones that are intuitive and attractive. This is achieved using tools that help create a quality User Interface (UI). Just like art, UX/UI designers have different ideas of how a platform should look and operate. But in the end, the decision on whether the design works well or not is made by the users. Therefore, it’s necessary to pay particular attention when choosing a UX/UI designer who knows how to keep the user in mind to ensure they create platforms that give your business a competitive advantage.
Impact of UX/UI on Businesses
UX/UI is a term that is broadly applied to many topics. When using it in the context of businesses, it refers to applications, payment gateways, and the like. It’s often said that you only have one chance to make a good first impression. The same case applies to UX/UI. When a user visits your website for the first time, you only have seconds to impress them or they will turn elsewhere.
If you capture their attention from the get-go, then they will most likely be willing to spend money on your website. So how does UX/UI help businesses?
It Helps Attract and Engage Users
When executed well, UX/UI helps attract new customers while keeping the existing ones coming back. Whether or not you achieve success in this aspect will depend on the first impressions users have when they visit your website or web application. If you manage to capture the attention of the user, then frictionless UX/UI will take care of the rest and ensure they linger longer. This, in turn, translates to more sales.
Boosts Branding
Business branding helps you stand out from the crowd and helps customers recognize your business. This phenomenon is referred to as brand recognition. Brand recognition goes a long way in helping attract more customers. Branding is achieved with the use of logos and colors. When customers identify your business as one they like and trust, they will most likely make a purchase.
By boosting your branding, you can increase customer loyalty, which is one of the most effective ways of ensuring you have repeat customers year-over-year.
Enhances Customer-Centric Approach
Referrals are one of the most effective, if not the number one, ways to ensure the growth of any business. When searching for new products and/or services, some customers will ask for referrals from family or friends. When your present or past customers have a good experience with your UX/UI, they will act as advocates selling your product wherever they go. This translates to free marketing.
Improves SEO
Nowadays, most customers will turn to the Internet to search for a product or service. A higher ranking on search engines increases the chances of a customer purchasing your product. Website ranking is achieved using SEO best practices, including the use of keywords.
However, you should not solely rely on keywords because Google regularly changes its algorithm, which means you could be outranked when this happens. The use of UX is one of the most effective ways to attract and retain customers. When used alongside SEO best practices, you’ll obtain organic traffic for the long term.
User Retention
One of the most effective ways to boost your revenue is to ensure you have repeat customers. By designing an intuitive app, you’ll keep users coming back for more. One of the best examples is Facebook with an average of 1.52 billion people visiting the website daily.
Some of the aspects of UX/UI design that can be attributed to user retention include feedback loop, regular improvements, and redesigning based on analytical data. However, it’s also important to maintain the user interface that users identify with most, or you may end up losing some of them.
Conclusion
UI/UX design has many benefits, and two of the most notable ones are that it attracts and retains customers. If you’re still on the fence about hiring a UX designer, you should weigh the pros and cons of having a good website or app for your business. It also helps to learn from other businesses that have made it big in the market. Lastly, you should research the cost to hire UX designers, to help you budget well in advance.
