Three good reasons to invest in UX

A couple of years ago, I was traveling in Georgia. On my very first evening, I wanted to have some groceries delivered. Not knowing any Georgian, I picked one international delivery app, hoping to breeze through the order in English. To my surprise, the app did not support English translation; neither of the products in the catalog were supported with imagery. I ended up using Google Translate, trying to guess what I was ordering. Imagine how long it took me to make an order. Since then, I have never used this app again, despite knowing it works well in other countries.

Introduction

At BB Agency, we strive to build the best experience for users and customers of our clients because we want to make sure that they will never have such an experience as I did in Georgia. We know that successful products are UX-driven, and we have strong reasons why investing in UX means investing in your business. Keep reading to learn them!

Needs That Drive

People turn to digital products they believe will solve their problems or help them complete tasks. If their expectations are met with disappointment because of the poor user experience, users will leave quickly.

There is no coincidence that, according to the UX design pyramid methodology, functionality, reliability, and usability are prioritized over any of the other subjective experience aspects, including pleasant look and feel and convenience.

Don’t get it wrong; a modern look and feel is important, but, by itself, it won’t retain customers if the app doesn’t function as expected. One of the Salesforce studies indicates that 84% of B2B buyers are more likely to buy from companies that demonstrate a deep understanding of their specific needs and business goals. So the bottom line is clear: like any other product, a digital one first must cover the needs and function without friction. It is a minimal requirement to succeed.

UX employs various methods and techniques to help businesses establish a close connection with users’ needs, including interviews, user journeys, task flow mapping, and information architecture. In a nutshell, the UX serves to build bridges between business goals and user pains and requests.

Irish Goodbye

Statistically, only 1 out of 26 customers who have a bad experience complain about it; the other 25 leave without saying goodbye. This highlights the importance of not falling for common startup myths like, “We know what should be improved; we’ve learned it from our customers.” Investing in a comprehensive UX process and a broad interview process can enhance an app or website’s usability more effectively than relying solely on customer support feedback.

Design-wise, ongoing communication with users or potential customers can be established through integrating UX testing when delivering both new features and improving the existing ones.

This is doubly true when speaking about products that are brand new to the market. While it is totally fine to build the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) based on assumptions, supporting the design with a solid UX process can become a big advantage and can help to avoid common pitfalls. Such a strategy can significantly increase the odds of success in a digital market where nearly 25% of users abandon the apps after their first use.

Return on Investment

For many startups, the idea of investing in UX is not explicit, often due to limited funding and pressing deadlines, while proper UX entails proper research that can extend timelines and require a larger budget.

But once again, the figures speak volumes. Each dollar invested in UX can return by $100 revenue. UX improvements can boost website conversions by up to 400%, Forrester says.

Another aspect to consider is that UX can significantly reduce development inefficiencies. If you ask engineers how much time they spend fixing the issues that could have been prevented with well-executed UX, it might surprise you. The Forrester report indicates that well-done UX can reduce development time by over 30%. This means development cycles can be 30% shorter, accelerating the delivery of new features.

BB Agency’s Approach

At BB, we strive to measure the impact of UX whenever it’s possible. Our UX process starts with an analytics review, aiming to identify the most crucial metrics to target during the design process.

When it comes to marketing websites, we typically look at the Google Analytics metrics before and after the website redesign, several months post-launch. Common metrics we examine include bounce rate, exit rate, average page spent on page, and conversion goals. We may also focus on more specific metrics tied to certain projects, like optimizing a particular traffic channel or balancing traffic across multiple channels. In addition, we utilize demographics and behavior reports to inform Personas.

As for the results, within 6–9 months after the website launch, we typically observe:

  • 10–15% of the average bounce rate drops
  • 5–15% of the average Exit rate drops
  • increased average time on the website pages by 0.5–1 min
  • conversion rates raise by 0.8–1%.

In some cases, our clients have seen even more impressive outcomes, such as

  • 3.5x boost in scheduled demo calls with qualified leads, 6 months after the new Sendlane website launch.
  • 39% increase in demo requests, 9 months after the Descartes Macropoint website launch.
  • 106% conversion rate growth on the new Wibbitz website, comparing 3 months before and after launch.

It is worth mentioning that achieving these results requires well-set-up analytics tools, which can sometimes be a challenge.

Beyond specific metrics, proper UX can propel a business toward broader objectives. For instance, some of our clients have achieved remarkable milestones:

  • IMMO secured a record-setting $75 million Series B funding, the largest for a proptech in Europe.
  • ShipBob raised a total of $268 million in funds following their new brand and website launch.
  • Crisp now enjoys 200 million daily users engaging with their clients through the new product suite.

Wrapping Up

When it comes to business, the numbers speak louder than words. While design lies somewhere between the analytical and creative fields, we can measure its business impact from functional and usability standpoints.

As an agency, we want to make sure our input contributes to our clients’ success. Therefore, we advocate for investing in UX and employing analytical tools to measure the impact of these investments.


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