5 User Experience Challenges & How to Improve End User Experience

The importance of UX (User Experience) to any website can’t be understated. How an app or website works is even more important than how it looks. Customers who find a website or app confusing and difficult to use will more than likely go somewhere else. That’s why companies have dedicated staff who are trained in UX design. Naturally, there are challenges that need to be addressed and overcome to improve the end user experience.

At a glance...skills of a UX Designer

• Research
• Product knowledge
• Consumer behaviour
• Problem-solving
• Collaboration
• Testing

At a glance...the process of UX design

• Learn about the users
• Identify the needs and pain points
• Create ways to answer needs
• Create a prototype
• Test the design

What challenges does a UX Designer face?

UX designers by nature are problem solvers. Like any role, UX designers have unique challenges to overcome. The earlier these challenges are addressed, the better the chance of a good outcome. Here are some problems that UX designers might encounter.

1. Role description

Understanding the specific role of a UX designer can be confusing. A UX designer is not a graphic designer. Nor are they a web developer. When briefed, the UX designer needs to understand the user’s journey so they can make it as smooth as possible.

Solution

The UX designer and the web designer should collaborate to ensure they are both working towards the same end goal.

2. Limited time and budget

The next challenge is having adequate time or budget to do what they need to do. This often comes as a direct result of Challenge 1. It might sound easy to make a small change, but for the UX designer, that might take some time to get right.

Solution

Understanding the process of the UX designer’s work will help towards allocating them adequate time and budget to solve the problem.

3. Clear customer journey

Clarity is essential on any website and app. Make it difficult to read and navigate and you’ll lose that visitor you’ve worked so hard to attract.

Solution

The UX designer uses research to understand the customer journey, which could be in industries with which they are unfamiliar.

4. Keeping up to date with technology

The UX designer uses tools, such as plugins, to do their work. Those tools are continually changing, advancing, evolving. The UX designer needs to keep up with the speed of technology to ensure they are using the best tools. They also need to make the right choices about which tools to use among the countless tools available.

Solution

Ongoing training will help the UX designer stay familiar with the best and latest tools and techniques.

5. Problem Solving

Problem-solving is the essence of the UX designer’s role. A good UX designer thinks creatively to solve problems.

Solution

A clear outline of the problem and desired outcome will help the UX designer solve an issue.

How can Icon help you overcome your user experience challenges?

The web development and UX team at Icon have a wealth of training and experience. We’ve helped many great companies make their websites run smoothly with advanced UX. As your user experience agency, we can help your marketing team or web team iron out the bugs in your system.

You can learn more about what our web team can do for you here. 

Our team can also help developing a web strategy that will grow your business. Importantly, we take an interest in your business first, understanding the way you work and your objectives.  

You can learn more about our digital strategy work here.

If you need a UX designer, you should consider outsourcing locally rather than hiring internally. Using Icon’s experienced UX team can be far more effective and cost-efficient than hiring your own UX designer.

How to improve the end user experience

For the non-UX designer, it can be difficult to understand exactly what the UX designer does and how important they are to the website or app. For the UX designer, their objective is to make the website or app as easy to navigate as possible.

1. Understanding the product

The UX designer will not necessarily be an expert in the product or brand of which the website or app is about. Like anyone working on the website or app, they should immerse themselves in the product or brand to understand it so they can present it in the best way. For example, at a clothing eCommerce site, creating a logical sequence of category filtering of clothing and the hierarchy of choice, in terms of gender, brand, colour, size, etc.

2. Understanding the customer

Just as important as understanding the brand is understanding the customer persona. What path will they expect to take or want to take? Research with customers will help this, as will prior experience with the type of industry for which the website or app is being created.

How many times does a customer need to click before they get to the final purchase? With every step, you’re giving them a chance to change their mind. Good UX design makes navigation smooth, fast and efficient for the customer.

A UX designer will ensure the site is tested before it goes live to ensure that the user experience is smooth and logical.

3. Clear communication

It is essential for the marketing manager to brief the UX designer correctly. Good briefs produce good work. The UX designer needs a thorough brief to understand the path the customer should be taking. 

4. Making the site intuitive

Users expect a seamless journey from one page to another, from one device to another. The customer needs to be engaged throughout the journey, no matter where they are. The omnichannel experience needs to be perfect.

How can Icon help improve the end user experience?

The role of the UX designer can’t be understated. It’s worth communicating with your UX designer to hear the challenges they are facing and ways that they can be overcome.

If you need assistance improving your UX, talk to the team at Icon. We have highly trained and experienced UX designers on staff. Whether it’s setting up your website or app from scratch or you just need some adjustments to make it sing, we can step in and do what you need.

Our UX designers have experience across many industries, including eCommerce sites. We can also host your website to ensure it’s running at peak performance and ensure that your customers are travelling smoothly from one page to the next, and help convert them through the sales process.

Interested? Contact us today or call us on 1300 138 984 for an obligation free, confidential discussion about how we can improve your website design.