Tag: ux

  • Navigating the UX Maze: Real Challenges Faced by Design Managers

    Navigating the UX Maze: Real Challenges Faced by Design Managers

    As a UX design manager, navigating the intricate landscape of user experience can be both rewarding and challenging. Let’s delve into some realistic hurdles that you might encounter on your journey:

    1. Undervaluation of UX within Organizations:

    • UX work is often misunderstood or overlooked by upper management. Advocacy from the UX leader or manager is crucial to emphasize the importance of data-driven, customer-centric decision-making.
    • Solution: Champion UX design as essential for business success and resource allocation.

    2. Balancing Aesthetics, Functionality, and Accessibility:

      • Design isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about creating effective solutions. Striking the right balance between visual appeal, functionality, and accessibility is a constant challenge.
      • Solution: Prioritize inclusive design, considering diverse user needs and sensory impairments.

      3. Bridging the Gap Between Development and Design:

      • Collaborating with developers can be tricky. Some designs may face resistance or rejection due to technical limitations.
      • Solution: Foster open communication, involve developers early, and find common ground.

      4. User Research Challenges:

      • Gathering meaningful insights requires overcoming obstacles like tight budgets, deadlines, and limited resources.
      • Solution: Prioritize research activities, leverage remote testing, and focus on high-impact studies.

      5. Aligning with Business Goals:

      • Balancing user needs with business objectives can be tough. UX managers must ensure their team’s efforts contribute to overall success.
      • Solution: Set clear UX OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) that align with broader business goals.

      Remember, each challenge is an opportunity for growth. By sharing personal stories and strategies, you can inspire fellow designers and create a supportive community. 🚀✨.

    1. What if Vadivelu were a UX Designer. 

      What if Vadivelu were a UX Designer. 

      Disclaimer: This blog has no intention to hurt the UX designers or any designers for that matter. I’m adding a comical shade just to engage with the readers.

      For the audience who don’t know who Vadivelu is; he is an Indian film actor, comedian and playback singer. Since the 1990s, he performed supporting roles as a comedian in Tamil films and is renowned for his slapstick comedies.

      Now, let’s jump into the subject. Who are UX designers?

      UX Designer focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation techniques, task analysis, and taking feedbacks seriously.

      What Great UX Designer do

      1. Understanding users needs and connects to data points.

      2. Advocates useful, usable, and delightful interactions.

      3. Connecting brand principles, business goals and directions.

      4. Constant observer of customer and business feedback.

      5. Thinking new ideas and experiments that doesn’t affect the core value.

      What do UX designer influence

      1. Usefulness

      Your content should be original and fulfill a need. Designers will, generally, aspire to deliver useful products. which means they give high value for ease-of-use.

      2. Usability

      Evaluating a product by testing it on potential users. By doing this, designers are able to figure out if a website/ product is been well received by the users. If not, tweak the idea, test, repeat.

      3. Desirability

      It boils down to ‘wow factor’ that creates an emotional bond with the user, which make the website/product look again and fascinate the user with the experience; which is a great reward of itself.

      4. Findability

      One of the success factor of UX is helping users’ fulfil their search. Which means content needs to be navigable and locatable.

      5. Accessibility

      Content needs to be accessible to people with disabilities, that’s where the persona helps us understand the target users’.

      As per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) a person with disability may have difficulty with the following factors: Vision, Movement, Thinking, Remembering, Learning, Communicating, Hearing, Mental health & Social relationships.

      6. Credibility

      Users must trust and believe what you tell them, credibility of your brand offer a way for people to find you on the web, which leads to brand connections to gain traction with your users’

      How do they define UX Metrics

      1. Set goals

      Clear business goals mean a precise and efficient execution.
      Any given goal should be Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-Based.

      2. Identify metrics

      Identifying clear goals will help choose the right metrics. The goals favours metrics and process facilitates the identification of meaningful metrics you’ll actually use.

      3. Find the baseline

      A baseline study is a usability test of the product as it currently is, before you modify it in an attempt to improve the user experience.

      4. Quantify targets

      If you don’t understand your users, the ideas you generate will be less worthy. They may not be on target, and, even worse, you won’t have the correct evaluation criteria to validate the idea/product.

      “Ignoring design means ignoring people, and a design is not complete until people use it” ~ Aditya Dhotre