As a design and development agency, a question we are commonly asked is “Why do we need user experience or user research for this project?" 

The first half of our company motto ‘build the right product, and build the product right,’ provides the answer.

Let’s explain!

So what do we mean by UX and UR?

User experience (UX) design is creating the experience that a user will have when they interact with a company’s products and services. When done correctly, this ensures these interactions are enjoyable, easy and accessible to all. User research (UR) is the process of studying target users to understand their behaviours, needs, motivations and pain points. 

But how can implementing UX and UR into your project help you save money?

The Value of UX

Using UX to create wireframes allows us to test potential solutions with end users early on, and gain their feedback. This ensures there have been no misunderstandings of the user’s needs, and that the proposed designs are usable and meet the requirements of both the business and users.

Testing throughout the design phase with real life users will help confirm an idea is a good one, or highlight ways in which it could be modified to be more successful.

Testing your design with users might produce an even better solution than you imagined possible. The feedback you receive from users allows you to find improvements and make enhancements to the design of your solution before you start any development work.

The Value of UR

Conducting UR at the beginning of a project allows us to gain an understanding of what real users really want and need from our solution.

Adopting a user-centred design approach means we get to the heart of what the users really need, and ensuring what users actually need is prioritized over what we think they need. 

UR will also help define the problem we’re trying to solve and verify with users that it is actually a problem in the first place. We do this by testing the riskiest assumptions we have about the solution we’re designing. Sometimes the solution you think is best is not always what users need most. 

The Value of Wireframes

Using wireframes to gain feedback and learn from mistakes is significantly faster and cheaper than changing software that has already been built. By prototyping first you’ll save time and money by discovering and fixing mistakes early.

The overall success of your project depends on how people use it, or whether they use it at all. The best way to make sure your product succeeds is to implement UX and UR from the very beginning. 

UX and UR will ultimately save you money by allowing you to make changes early on in the process, and ensuring your solution is exactly what end users really want.