Why is user experience research important?

- User experience, or UX, is all about catering the design of a product or service to fit the needs of its users. UX research is all about thoroughly understanding those users. It helps you get to know who they are, what they need, what their goals are, the context in which they'll interact with your product, how will you're serving their needs, and uncover opportunities to create something even better. Research helps inform design decisions, and ensures that a business is meeting and exceeding the expectations of users. There are three major ways that UX research helps a business. It saves development or process costs. Increases customer happiness and loyalty. And uncovers opportunities to earn more. Let's start with that first point, saving money. To do that, you need to build the right thing, and build it the right way. The best way to figure out the right things to build is by understanding the true needs and context of your users. This can help you make decisions faster that maximize value for users while taking your team's efforts into consideration. Having a deeper knowledge of their context also means that you're less likely to learn about a surprise requirement after much planning and development is already done. Many studies show that code changes become increasingly expensive the later they are in the development process. Some estimate that changes made after deployment are up to 100 times more expensive than edits made during the design stage. Ongoing research can help you uncover any changing needs of your users so that you can pivot if necessary, again, reducing the chance for wasted development time or rework. You also need to be sure that you're building it right, meaning that what you implement is easy for your users. Iterative research gives you the opportunity to catch potentially confusing designs early on and get user input when deciding between alternative solutions. Running research might also help you identify and address internal solutions that are costing the company money. Let's say that you work for a company with a big call center, and every representative uses a system to track their customers and interactions. If you're able to pinpoint issues and recommend changes that would save call center representatives even a few moments per transaction, that can add up to significant savings over time. Beyond saving money, UX research can help ensure that users have at least their expected positive experience with a product or service. Study after study shows that users are willing to leave a website or application if they have trouble finding what they're looking for or run into a usability problem. Ongoing research can help you make sure it's easy for customers to perform key actions, such as purchasing or signing up. This will make it less likely for customers to go to a competitor and more likely for them to spend even more with you. Finally, UX research can help you uncover opportunities for improvements or new functions that users will value and potentially pay for. For instance, you might notice workarounds your users have for difficult tasks, or notice that they use another tool to fill a specific need your product doesn't serve. This sort of information can help you plan future fixes or features to prioritize and new solutions to offer that you may not have previously considered. You can also evaluate your competitors to give you another perspective on what functions users find valuable or understand weaknesses in your space. Some of the most successful products are not completely new ideas, but ones that have improved existing solutions. So remember, UX research saves you money, creates user satisfaction, and opens up new opportunities for you to improve. Now, think about a product that you use daily, what makes it valuable to you? Is there anything that you would change? That is exactly the sort of information that a successful UX research effort would uncover.