{"id":18067,"date":"2013-08-01T14:30:06","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T12:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=18067"},"modified":"2013-08-01T14:30:06","modified_gmt":"2013-08-01T12:30:06","slug":"ux-the-new-frontier-in-software-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2013\/08\/ux-the-new-frontier-in-software-development\/","title":{"rendered":"UX, the new frontier in software development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18091\" alt=\"UX_Final_high_950px2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/assets\/UX_Final_high_950px2-e1375308391175.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"511\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>The following is a guest post by Gregory Menivelle, a French-American entrepreneur and founder of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smartnotify.us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">smartnotify.us<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/pyrasolutions.com\/smartforms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pyrasolutions<\/a>,\u00a0He also has a background in international expansion, helping\u00a0companies achieve success on a global scale.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Chef David Chang (a famous US chef) was recently interviewed by Adam Savage and had an intriguing insight into one of his biggest business challenges: Whenever he goes to a restaurant, Chef Chang cannot help but deconstruct the dishes and find ways he would improve them. As a result, he hardly ever enjoys a meal anymore.<\/p>\n<p>However, he is acutely aware that what makes restaurants successful is not the chef\u2019s talent but the patrons\u2019 experience.\u00a0 So he works hard at making sure that his bias does not trump the \u201cUser Experience\u201d.\u00a0 You can view the interview <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tested.com\/food\/456578-talking-room-adam-savage-interviews-david-chang\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> and yes, I admit to being a MythBusters fan. There.<\/p>\n<p>This focus on User Experience (UX) should permeate outside of the restaurant world into our software; UX will become the next frontier in software development and the true differentiator between companies that succeed and companies that fail.\u00a0 The problem is that many companies have a trumped view of UX and waste resources on things that do not matter.\u00a0 Too often UX is associated with design and user-interface and, as long as the software \u201clooks good\u201d, people think that the UX work is done. This approach is likely to fail in the long run. There is a huge difference between making something look good, making something useful, and making something successful. Doubting me?\u00a0 Then honestly ask yourself if you\u2019d rather have (as an owner, investor\u2026.) the volume of craigslist or some of the supposedly paradigm-shifting mobile applications that act as marketplaces?<\/p>\n<p>UX should refer to all the emotions we have before, during, and after interacting with a specific piece of technology or software.\u00a0 It\u2019s the delicate combination of your end-users\u2019 preconceptions, prior experience, moods, beliefs, personal state of mind, and location.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at some of the elements involved in each stage of engagement:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Before using the software:<\/b>\u00a0 Which emotions do you trigger in your audience before they even use your software?\u00a0 These emotions go far beyond how your site looks.\u00a0 For example:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211; Do they get the feeling that you cater to them or is your website simply a showcase of how good\/smart\/witty your company is?<br \/>\n&#8211; Do they feel they can trust you or will they believe you see them as guinea pigs because of AB tests or even pricing testing?<br \/>\n&#8211; When they email or call you (or text, tweet, message\u2026), how quickly do you respond?<br \/>\n&#8211; Do you ask for their credit cards before letting them trial the software (horrible practice if you ask me)?<\/p>\n<p>All these elements, and I am sure you can think of a few others, are part of UX and will setup your audience\u2019s emotions and expectations for your software.\u00a0 It\u2019s with this \u201cbaggage\u201d that they enter the next stage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>While they use the software<\/b>:\u00a0 Like it or not, customers only use your stuff because of the promise that it is the best tool for the job (even games work that way).\u00a0 The goal of the UX is to reinforce this belief and here are a few tricks:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211; A good onboarding process to make it simple for people to get started.\u00a0 This can be done via in-software help, webminars, drip emails.<br \/>\n&#8211; Gamification.\u00a0 Gamification is a fantastic way to enhance the UX.\u00a0 We will talk about Gamification in future posts.<br \/>\n&#8211; Support. How well do you support your customers when they have a problem?\u00a0 Do you simply refer them to a FAQ (bad) or do you proactively help them regardless of their membership level (great)?<\/p>\n<p>If you want to look at these topics further, I encourage you to see the steps put in place by companies such as Twilio or SendGrid.\u00a0 They really focus on UX and have fanatic customers as a result.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>After they use the software:<\/b> UX does not stop when the user shuts down your software.\u00a0 Quite to the contrary.\u00a0 The UX steps you take when users are not actively engaged with your software are as important as the ones implemented when they do.\u00a0 For example:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211; Do you use drip emails to give hints about how users can further benefit from the software?<br \/>\n&#8211; Do you listen to requests and improve your product based on their ideas?<br \/>\n&#8211; Do you make it simple for customers to share with others how successful they are using your software?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The challenge in implementing these steps is that UX is a very fluid and dynamic process.\u00a0 Here is an example:\u00a0 On smartnotify.us we used to have a decent UX for the \u201cnewly acquired users\u201d.\u00a0 Notice the use of the past tense!\u00a0 As our users are becoming savvier, they are seeking a different experience with the software.\u00a0 The end usage of the software stays the same but the expectations around the usage are shifting. \u00a0Of course we help our users be successful in their jobs and adapt the UX but in doing so, it has now become harder for new users to get started!\u00a0 Our new challenge in the coming months is to setup multiple UX paths based on the user\u2019s sophistication levels.\u00a0 This may seem like overkill, even for a startup, however, it is a guarantee to build a better, more engaged customers that will then help your company grow.\u00a0 UX is fluid, do not try to make it a once-a-year initiative.<\/p>\n<p>Which then leaves us with the last UX challenge:\u00a0 Who should be the UX leader in the company?\u00a0 My recommendation is to look at who should not be your UX leader!\u00a0 It should not be your tech group because as tech people we have the tendency of simply throwing more tech at any question. It should not be your design team either because what looks good has little to do with UX. Rather I\u2019d recommend having a UX team.\u00a0 The main stakeholder needs to whomever does Business Development.\u00a0 This person is at the frontline of interacting with the customers and can act as their advocate in the company.\u00a0 This person can then bring in the tech and design competencies to implement the UX strategy.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, hire your customers to be your UX experts.\u00a0 Get them involved in your company, meet with them, be proactive.\u00a0 Of course to do this properly there is one other role you need to grow and promote in your company. \u00a0Next week we\u2019ll look at this other key role that most startups neglect (not that I\u2019m talking from experience!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following is a guest post by Gregory Menivelle, a French-American entrepreneur and founder of\u00a0smartnotify.us\u00a0and\u00a0Pyrasolutions,\u00a0He also has a background in international expansion, helping\u00a0companies achieve success on a global scale. Chef David Chang (a famous US chef) was recently interviewed by Adam Savage and had an intriguing insight into one of his biggest business challenges: Whenever<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":18091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10563],"tags":[4552],"class_list":["post-18067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech","tag-twilio"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}