3 reasons to invest in UX design in 2018

If there's a single thing that almost every business has in common, it's a desire to improve the customer experience. In today's increasingly advanced technological landscape, one of the critical factors that can make or break this objective is the user experience (UX).

UX could refer to a website, an application or a piece of software, but if the product's users struggle to get what they want and need, then the business will suffer as a result. On the other hand, businesses with great user experiences enjoy the high ROI of UX investment. For these reasons, UX has become increasingly important to organisations over recent years, and talented UX designers have found themselves in short supply, leading to a recruitment arms race between companies looking to hire the best technology staff.

It's a race worth running however, especially when you consider some of the benefits of investing in UX design, particularly from a financial perspective. 

1. Reduce development costs

The first benefit that underlines the importance of UX in 2018 is that investing in this area of a business can significantly cut down development costs. This might sound slightly counterproductive - after all, UX design is a form of development in itself - but the reasoning is that the various stages of proper UX design can save time and money elsewhere.

A great example of this is prototyping, an integral element of great UX design. The use of prototypes can have a huge impact on overall development costs in all sorts of different ways. Two of the most significant are better estimations of the time and energy required for implementation, as well as a radically reduced potential for 'feature creep,' where the lack of a prototype as a framework leads to the addition of new features and spiralling costs.

2. Increase sales

This is a simpler one. The more money a business invests in UX design and a better customer experience, the higher that business' sales are likely to be. 

A recent study conducted by venture capital firm NEA on the link between user experience and sales found that in a group of over 400 companies, those which invested the most in UX design and considered it a core element of their business experienced sales increases of an enormous 75 per cent. The reasons behind this are many and varied, but it's not hard to see how products that are easy to use, aesthetically attractive and streamlined make it much easier for potential customers to convert to paying customers. 

3. Lower ongoing business costs

Finally, the benefits of investing in UX design can also be felt far beyond development and point of sale. A better user experience can also reduce a lot of the ongoing business costs that are associated with less UX-focused products, such as the need for support services in the event of customers being unable to get a product to work for them. This is in addition to a markedly reduced need to spend money on reworking or repairing a product post-launch. 

Because these benefits come so far after the initial spend on UX design, they are often referred to as 'hidden ROI,' but the best IT and technology companies recognise these benefits early and invest accordingly.  

Of course, reaping the benefits of great UX design requires access to the very best designers. That's where the team here at The Recruitment Company comes in, using our innovative Dashboards suite to connect employers and employees within the world of IT and technology. 

To find out more, get in touch with me today.

By Sam Garven