UI matters but who wants bad UX?

We all like things to look amazing aesthetically, but the lingo that everyone is talking about at the moment is “customer journey”, “customer experience” or as we cool kids call it “CX”.

You can have a handsome looking website, application or platform but if the experience you have is like riding a bike with square wheels then don’t even bother is what the people are crying! What goes on between those pages to make your customer journey smooth and seamless is just as important, if not more important, than making things look all “pretty” and “fancy”.

We’ve all experienced this in some way shape or form. Now I’m not picking on people or brands here because some of them having taken note of this trend and are actually doing something about it BUT for example, look at government websites . In their previous life you could click and click and click until you pull a muscle in your finger and it falls off and still not get to what you were looking for. You give up, scream at the screen and look for the telephone number for their contact centre only to be met by a robotic voice that gives you 1000 options to choose from. Sound familiar? Atleast for me.

It’s not just the government and public services websites that are guilty of this, there’s plenty within the private sector too but I’m not here to badmouth them all. You know who they are and they certainly know who they are too.

People who have done it well is a better point of focus I think.

When you see how much work goes in to creating the perfect customer journey there it’s very impressive. Time and time again when I was working there you’d speak to customers and candidates of Amazon and you would hear them constantly say “I love amazon and will keep coming back to amazon because it’s so easy to use. A few simple clicks and you’re done.” the experience of the website from when you arrive on the landing page to the moment the website tells you your order has been processed and will be with you within 24 hours is a customers dream. It’s probably one of the biggest contributions (if not the biggest) to their success.

Myntra is another website that have just won a whole heap of awards for their UX. Who would of thought that ordering home appliances could be such a enjoyable experience? Well they have and they must have a team of rock star UXers behind the scenes creating some impressive journeys. Because of their CX (amongst having fun colorful branding and advertising) they’ve come out of nowhere in the ecommerce world and are making their competitors look like rusty old washing boards!

www.airbnb.com — who doesn’t know who they are now? They’re winning at life and growing their customer base quicker than you can say “holiday” because of how simple it is to now book a room or a whole place and enhance your holiday experience by staying in a locals home. With a few simple clicks you can book yourself a luxurious condo in LA for you and your family at a very reasonable price too. Even just typing that makes me want to go and book a condo right now!

I guess working for a “brand experience” agency I’m seeing all the time the epic transformations that are being made to BIG BRAND websites keeping things simple, memorable and remarkable leaving their customers wanting to explore their site further and finding other product lines they never knew existed. I’m one of those blokes that goes shopping and darts in and out of shops because I don’t like it and want to get out of there before I break out in a cold sweat. This is the same for online. Make it an ugly experience and people won’t spend the time on your site to see what else you can offer. It’s that simple.

Don’t get me wrong it’s not just down to the UX people, you’ve got to give some love to content, tech, marketing, analytics and the product guys and girls that connect fit in to the fold but right now the lime light is on UX and how companies can innovate their customer experience.

The evolution of technology, then digital, and now UI/UX is one of the biggest drivers for company success at the moment GLOBALLY. It’s another one of those “do or die” situations.