What’s the Difference Between CX and UX?
Both user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX) play a huge part in how your business is perceived and in turn, how well it performs.
UX refers to the experience the end-user has with the product. CX refers to the experience the buyer has with the brand.
Just by looking at the terms, CX and UX sound pretty similar, right? Well, customer experience encompasses some aspects of brand perception that user experience might not touch on. To put it simply, you can think of UX as a subset of CX.
In designing your product and your company, understanding the two fields can help you optimize for success. Read on to get an understanding of the two, their differences, and how you can use both to your company's advantage.
How?Do CX and UX Differ?
Don Norman, the former Vice President at Apple, coined the term UX in the 90s. By contrast, CX is a more recent development. Norman's consultancy company, the?Nielsen Norman Group, says that user experience used to encompass?the field now known as customer experience.?
Why the need for a distinction? Well, there's a lot that customer experience encompasses that user experience doesn't. Not every customer ends up being an end-user, for example (think: a purchase might be a gift).?
It's possible?to have bad CX and good UX or good CX and terrible UX. The best-case scenario is striking harmony between the two.
For example, a gym might have a terrible app that's difficult to navigate (bad UX), but their personal trainers and other workers are extremely helpful (good CX). On the other hand,?a different gym might have a beautifully designed, easy-to-use app (good UX) but horrible customer service (bad CX). A third, likely the most successful one, has a beautiful user interface with an easy check-in process?and?great customer service.
5 General?Ways to Discriminate Between CX and UX
Caroline White of UsabilityGeek identifies?five core differences?between?the two disciplines.?
The first is?background. CX specialists tend to?draw from marketing concepts and strategies, while UX designers tend to come from a design or technology background.
The second is?the end goal. The objective of CX is to increase revenue by creating a stronger brand and improving customer service. UX designers focus more on usability and customer satisfaction with the product itself.
Third,?specificity. CX is an extremely broad term, covering any touchpoint at which consumers interact with the brand. UX is more specific and focuses only on the end user's interaction with a specific product or service.
Fourth,?product type.?Industries like service or hospitality tend to refer to CX more often since they focus on building customer loyalty and understanding the decision journey. UX design is a term more prevalently used in the tech industry since it?often focuses on digital products.
Finally,?research. CX research is done on a larger scale than UX research. CX research aims to understand the general impression a brand makes on consumers, while UX researchers strive to uncover end users' motivations, desires, and capabilities.
From this, you can see that?the two types of design?are pretty inextricably tied. By understanding these differences, you're?more equipped to focus on the field that serves your enterprise best.?
Deep Dive: What is User Experience?
As we've established, UX is the interaction that the end-user has with a specific product. But what are the guiding principles behind it, and how can you harness them to make your products easier to use?
The first important distinction to make is between?UX and UI?(user interface). The UI of a product?is the aesthetics and visual elements of the design. The UX is the user-friendliness of the interaction the user has with the product.
Having a great UI design is?important when creating a stunning UX, but there's a lot more to consider than just aesthetics when?creating your UX design. Here are some of the core tenets of UX and how they can inform your product?or web design.?These go hand-in-hand and will often overlap with one another.
User Research and Usability
The?most important?individual?to focus on in UX design is the end-user.
That's it. All good UX design should focus on what users?actually?do, not what you?think?they'll do. Everything we'll focus on in the rest of this section will always tie back to usability.
So, how do you find out how?users interact with your product??User research, of course. User research?draws conclusions?based on surveys, feedback, and other data collection mechanisms.
UX designers then use this data and these conclusions to map out exactly what users are looking for and what?elements will make the process easiest for them. This is what we refer to as?usability. How easy is the product to use, and how intuitive is the interface?
Even though a design might seem spectacular to you, remember that you are not the user. This is why we do user testing: to figure out what the target customer is looking for in a product and what elements will make it easiest for them to use. User testing is iterative, meaning that designers will often go through many versions of a design before producing the final one.
Accessibility
Hand-in-hand with usability is accessibility. What good is a gorgeous interface if your customers can't access it? The goal of UX design is to make the product as accessible as possible for as many people as possible.
This means that when designing, it's important to keep the needs of people with disabilities in mind as well. People with sight, sound, touch, or speech impairments are important to consider in your design.
Accessibility doesn't just refer to permanently impaired people, either.?Barriers can also be situational, meaning that?the user's current circumstances?hinder them from using the product.?
For example, if your product is a navigation system, it's probably not smart to exclude a voice?command option since many of your users are likely drivers. By taking context into consideration, you'll make your product easier to use.
Here are a couple of ways (certainly not an exhaustive list) to design with accessibility in mind:
Another way to make your design accessible is by creating a clear hierarchy. Having a clear navigation flow makes it less frustrating for users to find the information they're looking for.?Hierarchy is primarily considered in the navigation bar, which should be clearly labeled and organized intuitively.
Hierarchy is also visual. Font sizes, image placement, and color all play a role in creating a visual hierarchy. Use these elements to emphasize the most important information first and create an information hierarchy that makes sense and remains consistent.?
Consistency
Speaking of consistency, it will do wonders for your product's usability. Users don't want to spend time learning how to navigate a new interface, so keep many of the elements consistent with industry standards.
If customers are already familiar with your design elements, for example, a standard sign-up form, it'll be easier for them to learn the interface. There's no need to reinvent the wheel. In fact, letting your design share some features with another product your customers are already familiar with will actually enhance their experience.
Simplicity is also important for consistency. Keeping your design and your copywriting simple will let users navigate and use your product more easily. Reducing clutter makes it easier for the user to find what they need and thus makes their experience better.
Keeping your hierarchy (including visual hierarchy like typography and layout) consistent will make the design more user-friendly.?Also, the?more readable?your typography is, the more accessible it becomes.?
Consistency with?visual grammar, or the structural readability?of your design,?is also important. This is an incredibly vast field that takes inspiration from graphic design, so don't worry too much if you don't grasp its intricacies quite yet. Your UX, UI, or graphic designer will.?
A Few Other Things to Keep in Mind
We've emphasized the importance of user testing and survey information. However, those aren't the only ways to get feedback from your customers, and by no means should you limit yourself to only those avenues. The more feedback you can get, the better you can inform your design.?
With this in mind, it's important to include features within your design to make feedback easier for users. This can look like a "contact us" form, which is more obvious or even just collecting data based on how much time users spend on certain pages or areas of your design.?
Just as feedback is important for informing designers, it's also important for the user. As users interact with your product, they expect mutual communication to confirm their command has been processed. This can look like a color change or other shift in the design once the command has been accepted by the machine.
It's also quite easy for users to accidentally click a button or make a command. With this in mind, it's good practice to always include a confirmation option to correct for accidental interactions. An example of this could be a simple "Are you sure?" pop-up.?
Keeping these characteristics in mind will create a more user-friendly design that's easier to interact with, thus making the user experience more pleasant.?
What is Customer Experience?
Let's not forget about CX. An enjoyable experience?and positive impression of the brand doesn't derive just from the user's interaction with the product but with the brand as a whole. This means that CX includes every interaction the consumer has with a brand, from advertisements to customer service interactions to product interaction (where UX comes in).
Just as we've discussed designing products for maximum usability, brand interactions should be similarly structured. Keep in mind the smoothest path for consumers to interact with your brand, and implement that. For example, rather than having one catch-all phone number, consider creating direct lines for different types of inquiries to streamline the customer's path to receiving service.
Having a great CX design can go a long way in creating a lifelong relationship with a consumer. Once a customer becomes an?active loyalist, it's unusual for them to lose that relationship with your brand, so the importance of encouraging this loyalty is clear. You can do so by paying attention to customers' pain points and taking steps to rectify them.
A CX designer takes a similar approach as does a UX designer. This means they focus primarily on?data-driven decisions. CX research, however, often focuses on a broader range of consumers rather than a specific sub-set of end-users.
An impressive CX design will ensure that your customers leave a good impression of your brand and a desire to return for other purchases. Paying attention to consumer needs will help you create that great experience.?
How to Optimize Your?CX and UX Design
Both?types of design are heavily influenced by data generated by consumer and user research. One way to tap into this power is to?make feedback easy?for users. Make contact channels obvious and accessible, and you're bound to receive more?customer feedback to inform your design.
Customer experience and user experience can and should work harmoniously. Having a great CX gives consumers the chance to experience your product, and having a great UX gives them a better overall impression of your brand. Both are pretty vital to customer retention and brand perception.
Just by reading this article, you're already on the path to understanding and improving these areas of your business, but now what? Many companies choose to outsource specialists. For more help in optimizing your CX and UX design, check out our?services page here.