Three Signs You’re Not Putting the User First

User experience (UX) is the way that you communicate with your users through your product. The biggest benefit of having good UX is that it gives you the ability to build on top of your existing platform,  instead of just trying to fix problems over and over again. In this Tech in 2, Senior Principal Consultant Joe Dallacqua shares more about why putting the user first is so important, along with three signs that you’re not doing it.

Three Signs You’re Not Putting The User First

User experience is incredibly important. It is the way that you communicate with your users through your product. The biggest benefit of UX is you have a satisfied user base and that gives you the ability to build on top of your existing platform, as opposed to just trying to fix problems over and over again.

 It’s incredibly important to put the user first, so let’s take a look at the three signs that you are not putting the user first.

1. Asking Questions Too Late. The first is that you’re only asking the user’s opinions after the work is finished. If you’re not serving the user throughout the development and design process, then you’re wasting time and money potentially working on something that’s not going to solve the user’s problem. Additionally, if you’re not asking the user about what’s coming next, then the next phase of your product is being determined by ideas generated in an office somewhere. You’re going by feelings as opposed to working on actionable data given to you by the people that use your product every day.
2. Not Thinking About Accessibility. The second is that you’re not taking into account accessibility needs. Accessibility is a huge topic. The digital domain is a huge space and we want it to be as inclusive as possible. So, on your application, if you’re not looking at using a screen reader, or you haven’t even tried navigating your application just using a keyboard and foregoing a mouse, and you’re not using wave or other types of accessibility assessment technologies; It’s possible that you’re frustrating and alienating part of your user base by just not thinking about them. 
3. Chasing Design Trends. The third is that you’re chasing design trends. Design is always growing and changing. You can’t look at a website from six or seven years ago and not see the influence of bootstrap. And nowadays you’re always seeing the influence of material UI. But when a client comes to me and says here’s the next great design thing, we really have to pause and consider the effect of that design on my product. If my product has been built in such a way that it can just jump from one design to another, that means we haven’t really considered what the product is saying to the customer, which means it’s probably not saying anything at all. It’s good to have a foundational element of user experience, but by bringing into account these three things, you can take your user experience to the next level to take you and your product into the future.