How do you justify the value of UX design?

I think the value of UX in business is not to understand the business objectives, it is to help the business discover its problems and consequently contribute to think of possible solutions. UX is not only the interaction between people and product, it is to know and understand people and with that knowledge UX will be aligned with business to find the success.

Too often do we hear about “aligning UX to business goals”. Positioning UX as a subset of business goals immediately places UX in a defensive role that struggles to thrive. If a business goal doesn’t include UX in its roadmap, then it’s just an upward fight. Rather, the practice of maturing an organization’s UX is more about giving business strategy a new language and medium to connect with customers on an experiential level. UX is the strategy—it is the business goal. Just look at a companies where the experience IS the offering. Customers loving Apple products was never a subset of a “business goal”. It is the business. The entire company needs to care about customers, not just a small user oriented department. Design is leadership.

Think of UX as a cookbook. Let's say, you want to make a sandwich. And instead of you hunting for the recipe, the cookbook instantly shows you the best way with the ingredients you have. When your app/website does the same for users, making things clear and easy, more people stick around and do what you (business) hope they'll do. When UX and business goals are aligned, it's like making the perfect sandwich every time :)

A well-crafted user experience (UX) holds multifaceted value: it drives growth by attracting and converting users, boosts retention through seamless interactions, encourages advocacy as satisfied users share positive experiences, influences decisions as potential customers are swayed by recommendations, builds trust and credibility through user-centric design, enhances cost-efficiency by reducing support needs, improves productivity among professionals with efficient interfaces, minimizes abandonment by mitigating frustration, and reinforces brand identity through consistent, delightful interactions.

The value of UX design can be justified by its impact on user satisfaction, customer loyalty, competitive advantage, reduced support costs, increased conversion rates, improved accessibility, faster time-to-market, data-driven decision making, positive brand perception, and financial returns, including higher revenue and lower costs.

Iterations in development can be largely reduced. Because once when design gets freezes, development starts. clickable prototype produced by a ux designer includes user journey described via the flow of ui screens, identified with clear touch points, clarity on what inputs to give at each touch point and able to infer the anticipated ui behaviour in each touch point and show it via visual design till the specific use case / scenario goal completion . When this clickable prototype got verified and agreed by all product / project stakeholders, then it’s pretty evident that at one shot development can be done . No iteration required. Iterations in development always costs very high in s/w development and it can be largely reduced by ux .

This a discussion from the 1990s. In 2023 we should be doing rather than contemplating. If by now a person or company is oblivious to the nature and value of UX for their product or business, there is small hope they will anytime soon. More likely they will fall prey to phony UX charlatans selling glitz and kits. Darwin will deal with them. Move on to someone who gets it. Unfortunately, we are entering a dark ages of UX. There will likely need to be some collosal failures and great pain to bring awareness to the differences between True UX and all the pseudo UX out there, including what has been the result of Design Thinking.

Everyone appreciates data, particularly when it's thoroughly researched and thoughtfully organized. Through your research, you can demonstrate to stakeholders the profound influence of this data on your users. Ultimately, you can illustrate how this impact will cascade to shape both the business and the product. Remember to delve a bit deeper, extracting even the most intricate data points. Additionally, take the time to study the missteps made by others in the competitive landscape. Incorporating these insights can further fortify your arguments. Learning from the mistakes of others is always a wise approach.

Measure user satisfaction through surveys like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), or System Usability Scale (SUS). High satisfaction scores indicate a positive user experience.

Data is just as important as the goal. See the goal as the destination and data as a measure of how far you have gone. Just as accounting does future projections of the cost of inflation, UX experts needs to also measure and use data properly to design and make decisions. Data is what checks the success or failure of your efforts. Using data also eases testing of ideas; think A/B testing of the effect of changing the cart icon to text on an e-commerce site. Data and metrics makes that possible.

Think of a time that you didn't spend much money but gave a gift that the recipient LOVED because you understood them. That's the value of UX design in action.

I personally think storytelling is the crust of UX design since it transforms mundane tasks into memorable adventures, keeping users coming back for more. By weaving a narrative, we can create a clear path for users, making the journey intuitive, enjoyable, evoking emotions, and helping users connect and remember the product effectively.

It is also about coming up with powerful visual storytelling for both quant (easy to use and understandable charts and graphs, infographics & dashboards) and qual data (anecdotes, user quotes, video highlight reels...) that will resonate across your organization and various audiences. Value is in the eye of the beholder. Make sure you tailor your communication approach/storytelling depending on the target audience (products teams, vs. top management and other cross-functional teams)

I don't personally think that sharing stories of *other* successful UX designs is that compelling, mostly since Apple is the obvious standout example of good UX taking a market and everyone knows that story. More interesting is the negative - demonstrations of how bad UX can destroy products, turn users off your business and brand, and drive them to competitors.

Stories are powerful. Think of kids that believe that the tooth fairy or Santa exists. Sharing these stories are important but more important is knowing that just as these stories can be powerful they can also have a negative effect; Dark patterns. The whole premise of a competitor analysis is based on stories and examples of how good/bad a business is doing. So it lies on on the usage of it.

Stakeholders the term justifies the role itself- While working on the team with product managers and developers discussing about the implementation of a feature, it is also important to understand that the stakeholder has the vision for the product in their head. They have this whole idea about how the product should be, its hoice, its audience, its reach, budgeting, marketing and every bit that involves planning the product. Hence to have the stakeholders involved in the assumptions you make is important to let them know of the risks it would have and the consequences a certain decision could have. It is also important to inform to validate if the assumptions taken are correct keeping the right audience in mind.

To demonstrate UX design's value: it is essential to bring stakeholders along the journey. This includes: ? Facilitating meetings for design progress and feedback ? Managing stakeholders' opinions ? Setting clear expectations ? Monitoring feedback, satisfaction, and updates ? Business/engineer changes Always document changes and communicate regularly.

Engaging stakeholders early in the design process helps ensure that the UX aligns with business objectives. When stakeholders see how UX decisions support their goals (e.g., increasing conversions, improving customer retention), they are more likely to recognize its value. When users provide direct feedback, it adds credibility to UX decisions. Stakeholders are more likely to support design changes backed by real user data rather than assumptions or opinions.

To effectively address a problem that benefits users, it is essential to involve the stakeholders at every stage of the UX design process. This requires understanding both the business requirements and the user's pain points. I personally engaged stakeholders when conducting user interviews during the research phase, and I requested prompt evaluation and input to ensure that design solutions are properly aligned with the project goals.

To demonstrate UX design's value: Stakeholders: Engage them in user research and ideation. Users: Involve them in co-design and testing. Benefits: Build trust, empathy, and user-centered collaboration.

Connecting with people is the antidote to imposter syndrome. Find some way to connect with people outside your immediate circle on a regular basis with the mindset that they have a puzzle piece you need, and you have one they need as well.

UX research evangelization goes hand in hand with research democratization, which enables UX researchers to be focusing on high value added research of more strategic nature (discovery, new initiatives, personas and their needs) taking up up to 80% of research time, as apposed to tactical/evaluative research (user testings, etc.) which can be delegated to product teams/co-workers. This may require consulting, coaching & mentoring depending on the experience of individual teams/members.

Specific networks and events are unnecessary for UX education, as everyone's UX efforts are (by definition) presented to other people for use and consumption. Trends come and go (see skeumorphism), but the fundamentals of what makes a UX good and functional don't change, and people recognize what works and what doesn't as they consume products and go through user experiences. UX education for everyone is natural and organic - they may not be able to put it into words, but people know what they like in a UX and UI.

Educating and advocating for UX Design goes in line with the need to share stories and example. As its easier to show that something can work if an example of it exists

Justifying the value of UX design is really important and to do the same below things are needed: Educate: Share UX knowledge via workshops, webinars, and newsletters. Advocate: Promote UX within your organization or community. Connect: Join UX networks to learn from peers and boost awareness and support for UX design.

User Experience encompasses the entire lifecycle of a product, starting from recognizing its purpose. This journey is a captivating blend of excitement and challenges, requiring a diverse skill set to translate ideas into reality. Beyond aesthetics, UX empowers a product with functionality and user-friendliness, encapsulating its essence.

Justifying UX Design with ROI can look different depending on the project and business objectives. One way to communicate the value of UX ROI is to present KPIs to your stakeholders. For example, positive metric changes could be: ? Performance ? User Satisfaction ? Loyalty ? User Retention For each category, display the comparison of before and post-design metrics. Also, consider visuals and storytelling.

Customer loyalty is one long-term indicator of UX ROI. For instance, even when a product does not live up to expectations, Apple customers remain loyal to the brand. Here, we can see the long-term benefits of UX design in action.

Justifying the ROI of UX Design can only be done with accurate data and metrics. It might be difficult to do this since our work has many touchpoints within an organization and their success can be a direct or indirect influence of our work. Interviewing users across several versions of the product/experience might be a direct way of doing this.

Investing in a high-fidelity prototype and rapid testing is a guaranteed and quick return on investment. An organization that neglects UX may end up spending a significant amount of money testing their digital product during UAT and production phases. This includes engaging a team of developers, QA testers, and engineers. However, having a prototype that has been rigorously tested before the development phase can reduce the cost and time spent in the subsequent phases.

Probably an unfashionable opinion but quite honestly, you don't. Unless you're a Chief Design Officer at an organisation experimenting with design leadership for the very first time, this is not your problem, this is your organisation's problem. Stakeholders hiring for professional competencies they don't fully understand should be a red flag. Nobody asks the CFO why ensuring profit is recorded correctly is valuable, because it is self-evidently so. Spend your valuable time adding self-evident design value. Everything is designed, so best to ensure things are done so with a design professional rather than without.

How would you justify the cost of running teams to produce products, having not qualified the approach being taken. UX and generally Customer Insights are crucial in keeping costs effective, and producing a product that is viable, both financially and as a tool the user will adopt. It is data that will help resolve issues and bat away indecision and impediments. Without research, there are just opinions and so with that, who's opinion gets the casting vote (and have we just disempowered the product owner?)

To justify UX design you need to acknowledge the needs of your stakeholders. If you do not take the time to understand their needs and painpoints there is little chance you will be able to help them understand how UX design is relevant to what they are trying to achieve.

Get them to moderate a usability test and not prompt the user. That was my favourite thing in teaching UX. Everyone thinks they can design and ask a question, until they try it and go, damn it. Then hire you. It’s not different than any other profession, people over estimate their skill. It’s easy to teach, but only with people that are excited by observational design.

UX design is a key factor for any product, as it's important to identify blind spots that may hinder your ability to create a product that resonates with your target audience. Biases can creep in and prevent you from seeing where your product falls short. Every blind spot is a potential loss of user engagement and conversions, akin to a hole in a bucket. By proactively seeking out and addressing these blind spots, you can improve the overall success, performance, and ROI of your product.