5 MYTHS ABOUTEXPERIENCEDESIGN

DISPELLING

In a world where digital interactions pervade almost every experience that customers have with a brand, business leaders can’t afford to get user experience (UX) wrong. In order to achieve effective user experiences, a critical success factor is to avoid falling prey to the following five experience design myths.

1 MYTH

YOU CAN’T REALLY MEASURE EXPERIENCEA typical assumption that we run across is that experience design is about touchy-feely impressions and, therefore, is hard to measure.

MYTH

DESIGN STANDARDS YIELD SUCCESSBelieving that a product experience is "usable" when its process is intuitive, many brands standardize their design patterns based on conventions and user expectations in order to ensure a good, consistent user experience.

BUSTING THE MYTH

SOLUTION

All it takes is a clear understanding of solution goals, and a selection of metrics and targets that are good indicators of those goals. The outcomes of the measurement that follows represent your ROI in user experience – what we call “return on experience,” or RoX.

There are many sound ways to measure experience

UX professionals can employ a host of direct metrics ranging from behavioral metrics – quantifying consumer activity through instrumentation and observation – to subjective metrics that quantify end-user reactions to the experience.

BUSTING THE MYTH SOLUTION

We analyzed and reviewed digital solutions built on well-regarded standards and found that they often offer poor user experiences. These digital solutions might superficially look familiar, but they don’t do the job when it comes to actual usage.

Standards are necessary, but not sufficient

Through a combination of direct research and know-how, smart brands can choose where to improve the experience by building well-crafted experience frameworks and content taxonomies reflective of the user's world, needs, and motivations.

3 MYTH

ANALYTICS ALONE REVEAL USER NEEDSAs analytics specialists become de rigueur in most large organizations today, brands might assume that forming insights about user needs and motivations follows naturally from activity and site-log analysis.

BUSTING THE MYTH

SOLUTION

Activity and site logs illustrate what end users are doing, but not why: For example, if users tend to use a mobile phone inside a store to learn about a specific product on the shelf, then it may be due to the lack of effective in-venue digital support, rather than an explicit desire to do product research on a mobile device.

Analytics need to be supplemented with qualitative research

To improve the overall experience, rather than just users' interactions with a touchpoint, analytics should be supplemented with consumer research and insights methods, such as contextual inquiry, digital ethnography, and participatory design.

MYTH

CONSISTENCY = THE SAMEIn the spirit of consistency and under the assumption that this approach will lead to good UX, brands often use responsive design to provide the same experience across devices.

BUSTING THE MYTH SOLUTION

Without thinking about context, many brands inappropriately apply sameness to various design elements on their websites, thereby creating clumsy user experiences.

“Consistent” does not mean “the same”

Propagating look and feel, as well as tone and voice, across devices makes sense. But a consistent experience across devices also entails explicitly tuning the interactions to the device and context of usage.

MYTH

CX LEADERS CREATE GREAT USER EXPERIENCES With today's tremendous emphasis on digital and cross- channel experiences, it is expected that providing great digital user experiences would be a prerequisite for a high customer experience (CX) ranking, especially among technology companies.

BUSTING THE MYTH

SOLUTION

Even CX leaders have many opportunities to improve their digital user experiences. The basic principles of usability and interaction are key in delivering great UX, yet CX leaders aren’t always delivering against these best practices.

UX is still wanting in CX leaders

Leading in user experience demands a focus on learnability, ease of use, and productivity — along with ensuring that users are aware of what actions are possible and how to select those actions.

MYTH BUSTING THE MYTH

“The fold” is a term adopted from newsprint media, referring to the

physical crease of a folded newspaper. In its face-up position, only the content above the fold is visible and can initially

catch the attention of the viewer.

In our studies over the years, we’ve noticed a dramatic behavioral shift from clicking to scrolling. Consumers electing to view lists of content in a single page outnumbered those preferring pagination.

Place important content above the fold

The fold is nonexistent or irrelevant

MYTH BUSTING THE MYTH

Many brands are jumping at the idea of presenting all of their primary content on a single, long home

page, rather than having users click on links to various pages.

Long scrolling pages are great for storytelling. To support people’s need to be a part of – and in control of – the story, however, today's sites should allow users to decide how and when they encounter content (e.g., classic web hierarchies).

Long scrolling home pages are effective

Long scrolling pages tell a linear story

THE WAY FORWARD

CONTROL

Allow users toaccomplish what theyintend without beingrestricted by policies,

procedures, etc.

ACCESS

Give users full,unfettered access to allof the information andresources they need to

make decisions.

FIT

Fit into users’lives, whenever users

need them, at anytime, on any device.

SENSE

Make users feel connected and look

forward to your digital experiences.

CONTINUITY

Enable users to stop what they’re

doing and then pickup where they left

o� later without anydi�culty.

Achieving breakthrough experience design relies on a strong, flexible, and user-centered research and strategy process, along with the right mix of talent. SapientNitro’s Return on Experience (RoX) DimensionsTM define the five key characteristics of user experience that

brands must consider when shaping their stories.

For more details on SapientNitro’s long journey through the field of experience design, download our report on the same topic at 

sapientnitro.com/insights

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