UX Strategy: Don't build a usable wrong thing, with Dr. Eric Schaffer

Описание: Dr. Eric Schaffer talks about the importance of developing a UX strategy. More information on HFI here; http://www.humanfactors.com/project/s...


Transcript

There was a time when a better mousetrap would sell. And companies that made cool products, like the Walkman, did really well. But today, a cool product is usually NOT the right answer. Compare Sony and Apple. Sony makes spiffy individual products. They have a Sony logo, and a common graphic style. But Apple does something more. Apple provides an ecosystem solution, where all the parts fit together. The Kindle FIRE is a basic tablet. But it is a portal to Amazon. So millions of people love it.

There was a time when a bank could create an online banking system, and you could go on the internet and do transactions, and that was considered good. But today there are lots of different digital banking channels. There are ATMs, and mobile devices, and sites, and digital systems to connect you to your banker. We have one client who used to offer customers cell phone banking, and telephone banking, and speech banking on one menu; and they were all different. SO banks need ecosystem solutions where all their channels hang together and make sense. And no. If you really think that the best solution is having customers able to do anything anywhere, you don't understand the limits and capabilities of each device.

In ecommerce you need to go way beyond a website that is a brochure, or a store. If customers just want to buy something they can go to Amazon and one-click. Why would someone get a product from you? Obviously you have to add more value. You need to connect with clients. Provide them with more then just the mechanical purchase. You need to provide a motivational ecosystem solution. Or it is easier to one-click.

So who is going to create an ecosystem solution that both motivates customers and is easy to understand? User Experience Strategists do exactly that. Sure, for a long time user experience staff worked on details of screen designs like getting the radio buttons right. They worked on the structure of systems, so you could find things in the website. But in the end they were often having to make a usable wrong thing. Because, you first have to have the ecosystem solution right. There is no magic compatibility fairy that will appear and make all the different channels align when the siloed projects are done.

So UX Strategies start with executive intent. The executives might want to go into a new market, or increase conversion, or migrate customers to the digital channels. The UX Strategy then determines how customers will be motivated to change their behavior, and it designs the cross channel solution to create a coherent and aligned ecosystem. Without motivation of customers, and a big picture design... we end of just hoping 'if we build it, they will come'. And hope is not a strategy.

To download a poster of this drawing and a white paper on UX strategy go to Human Factors dot com forward slash UX strategy video dot asp