How Digital UX Can Help When a Recession Hits

Alfonso de la Nuez is user zoomis an Experience Insight Management (XIM) company.

At most board meetings, clear signs of a recession come to mind. For example, high inflation, rising interest rates, deteriorating consumer sentiment, and disruptions in the supply chain. Across the industry, commerce is closing at a slower pace as procurement teams stall and determine the direction of the economy. At the consumer level, overall spending on products is declining, but demand for services continues to grow. This further proves that even during financial downturns, there will always be an “intermittent demand” for products and services that continue to perform well.

Over the past decade, every company has become a digital company, and digital experiences on desktops and smartphones are the only way to interact with many brands. This reality is also forcing changes in the way we build software. Usability and convenience have become essential, and good user experience (UX) has become a must-have rather than a nice-to-have.

A great digital user experience is essential for nearly every business today

Great digital experiences were once a luxury, invested only by the most successful software companies, but no longer. UX has become a key worker on behalf of the customer experience. In a tight economy and nearly every company competing on digital experiences, thoughtful design is an essential tool for business survival. why? No brand can afford to risk a bad customer experience. Small, thoughtful changes can have a big impact on user behavior, satisfaction, and revenue.

With the global economy wary of a possible recession, I think there are some compelling reasons why businesses need to invest in better digital UX than ever before.

An Informed Digital UX Saves Valuable Time, Money and Human Resources

During the financial crisis, organizations that continue to develop new product and service models will naturally look for opportunities to do more with less time, money and human resources.

Cloud-based software solutions help scale and automate much of what is needed to gather digital user insights without relying on manual labor during the research, design, and development stages. Collecting valuable customer and prospect feedback can often be started, adjusted, and completed early in the product design and development cycle, so you can not only focus on the end user, but get everyone up and running on your product faster. helps you complete the Finally, given the high fuel prices, this is no small benefit. Digital UX insights can be collected remotely, saving organizations time and travel costs for onsite testing.

Investing in digital UX de-risks product development

Whiteboards and sticky notes are always cheaper than having an expensive team of developers fix the problem after the fact. In fact, many UX evangelists often cite Tom Gilb’s research in his late ’80s, where he found that for every $1 he invested in his UX, a company could get a return of up to $100. Take out. More specifically, new research shows that investing in UX also plays a role in creating value. In a special report from Strategic Data Consulting, Impact on UX Business and His ROI, the researcher found that his UX investments made early in the concept stage shortened the development cycle by 33-50%. One way he does this is by investing in discovery research to understand the needs and behaviors of his target users and doing rapid, iterative usability testing every agile sprint.

Digital UX design protects customer loyalty and retention

I think we can all agree that acquiring new customers is more expensive than keeping loyal customers. As consumers spend less on non-essentials, a great user experience can reinforce their perception of value.According to this forbes According to the article, 86% of buyers say they are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. A recent Zendesk study found that up to 61% of customers would move on after just one negative experience.

In the corporate “subscription economy,” retention is tied to product use and adoption. The more your product is used across your organization, the more likely your subscription will be renewed. Conversely, if the service or product provider is bad, we are happy to switch. A beautiful and, more importantly, useful UX, especially during a stressful economic downturn, increases the chances that a product will remain a must-have and not a nice-to-have. Therefore, it is imperative to provide and measure the quality of the user’s experience so that the customer continues to receive the best version of the product.

Implementing a UX culture for digital products

First, make it a top business priority and part of your corporate culture. It should start with top management. We are committed to being a truly customer-centric organization. Being truly customer-centric means going beyond C-sat surveys and NPS measurements. You should be familiar with your end users throughout the product design and development cycle.

Then start by recognizing that delivering a killer digital experience is very difficult. It requires close collaboration with villages across multiple functional teams. A business leader must enable and encourage her members of the go-to-market, customer facing (customer success and support), and product design and development teams to work together toward the same common goal. Make informed decisions.

Finally, build a culture of experiments and measurements. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. UX quality should also go beyond NPS and be measured through quantitative and qualitative metrics.

While it may seem counterintuitive to invest in digital UX design when customers are spending less, good UX design has been consistently shown to deliver solid financial results. Consider your own experience: don’t we all disproportionately reward brands that stand out from the crowd? We know the market does. UX design is probably one of the easiest ways to quickly identify exactly how your brand stands out.

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