User Experience with Veronica Dogbegah
Written by Madyson Kiepprien-Fraser
Reading time 2:32 minutes
Welcome to the Spark Compass Blog! A place where we summarize the key takeaways from every episode and share some memorable behind the scenes moments.
This week’s episode features Veronica Dogbegah, a User Experience Design Specialist working for SAP, who helped us explore the ever changing world of user experience. So, without further ado, what exactly is user experience?
DEFINING USER EXPERIENCE
Veronica described UX (user experience) as being the bridge between business goals and user needs. By requiring a deeper understanding of the consumer and their ever shifting lifestyles, businesses can anticipate their needs and act in a way that benefits both parties. While research and analysis serve as fundamental parts of UX, it’s also important to include empathy into your work.
She further defines UX as not being an “us or them” scenario, but an “us with them” ideology.
WHAT PRINCIPLES OF UX SHOULD YOU ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND?
There are four stages to user experience. Research, ideation, prototyping, and testing. While these are important aspects to UX, our conversation focused more on the human elements. When asked, these are the main principles of UX that Veronica always tries to keep in mind:
Keep the user at the center of your design process
Less is more, the user shouldn’t need your support for the end design
Maintain consistency of functionality and features across all platforms
Apply user testing as a means of validating your research
Just remember that user testing should be a continuous process and not a single use write-off
By designing for accessibility and inclusion, you are designing for everyone
HOW DOES USER EXPERIENCE APPLY TO MARKETING?
UX begins with research and deviates towards the implementation of consumer feedback. By having an established understanding of your business, industry, and consumer, the process of pitching your product becomes much easier. Not only that, but the foundation of marketing aligns with UX research, which makes the process of marketing much simpler, too.
An element of marketing your business falls into the experiential category. If consumers have a good experience, they’ll share positive word of mouth and be more likely to return in the future. If they have a bad experience, then they’ll tell twice as many people about it and be unlikely to return ever again. So UX not only makes marketing easier, it also creates a positive experience for your consumers that will keep them coming back in the long run.
WHAT ARE SOME WAYS OF INCLUDING UX INTO MARKETING?
Veronica talked about taking a design thinking approach to her work. In short, a systematic approach to creative problem solving. Some of the ways she uses design thinking include:
Identifying the overlap between user needs and business goals
Understanding the environment, interactions, goals, and needs of the consumer
Seeking internal feedback to provide additional perspectives to her design process
All of these points are a great resource for any business's marketing. We’ve already covered the importance of knowing your audience in a previous episode but once that information is known, it becomes much easier to market your business.
TO SUMMARIZE IN THREE POINTS OR LESS!
It’s our duty to make designs accessible to everyone.
UX is not a one-time activity. Treat it like a lifestyle by integrating it into everything you do.
It’s a human-centric approach to design thinking that focuses on the user every step of the way.
If you want to know more, check out this episode’s video!