Why is user experience (UX) one of the most important challenges for IT departments?

Why is user experience (UX) one of the most important challenges for IT departments?

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Written by Frank Schroeder

What are the trends in the IT industry?

The last couple of months the international press with economic or technology background is discussing what the major trends for the IT industries are and what challenges can arise for companies out of these trends.

These are some topics which have been identified as trends for 2019 and above:

  • Digitization and Digital transformation
  • Cloud and Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Robotics and Mixed Reality
  • Blockchain Technology
  • Data Governance, Security and Privacy
  • Talent attraction and retention

Analysts with a strong technology background are more granular and specific on the major IT trends. Gartner points out the following trends with a significant impact for operations:

Gartner: Top 10 Trends Impacting Infrastructure & Operations for 2019

Forrester, another analyst in the technology field, identified the following trends for the period 2018-2020:

The Top Ten Technology Trends To Watch: 2018-2020

While all these trends are reasonable and worth to discuss deeper, I’d like to put an eye on the following topics, as they distinguish a bit from the majority of technology driven trends:

  • Talent attraction or retention – some also call it the “battle of talents”
  • Talent Management
  • Employee experience
  • Customer experience

Looking at this, there is no wonder that in a lot of companies, topics such as employees and customer Experience, the attraction and retention of talent are high on the agenda of CIOs, IT and R&D Leaders. Even at CEO level, it is important to address this topic. Organizations need to work out strategies and activities to address these topics, in order to be compelling and competitive in the marketplace with their product and service offering. 


What does User Experience exactly means?

There is a short and crisp ISO Definition for UX:

“A person ́s perceptions and responses that result from the use and/or anticipated use of a product, system or service.”

(DIN EN ISO 9241-210).

An expanded definition to the ISO can be found in Wikipedia:

“In commerce, user experience (UX) refers to a person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service. It includes the practical, experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human–computer interaction and product ownership. Additionally, it includes a person’s perceptions of system aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency. User experience may be subjective in nature to the degree that it is about individual perception and thought with respect to a system. User experience varies dynamically, constantly modifying over time due to changing usage circumstances and to changes to individual systems, as well as to the wider usage context in which they operate. In the end, user experience is about how a user interacts with, and experiences, a product.”

Wikipedia

In the past User Experience was often defined just from the Design aspect under User Design and specific for Software products and systems the was how the User interface was designed and built.

User Experience now takes a much wider approach than just the UI and the Design of an application.

Picture from Medium

Why is User Experience important?

Companies need to take care of the User experience from a customer’s point of view to drive their business. Also, from an employee’s point of view, as they need to use digital resources as part of their jobs – always having in mind that talent attraction and retention are major trends in the industry. 

However, to be compelling and competitive in the marketplace, companies need to look at the user experience from BOTH a customer and an employee point of view.

From a customer’s point of view, companies need to work out the UX of the products, services and systems they build and provide to the market

While from an employee’s point of view, all systems, products and applications they use to fulfill their work are getting more and more important, and so is the way employees relate to these resources.

For these aspects to be taken into consideration, companies need to put a high priority on the UX aspects.

The fast evolution of technology with AI, Robotics and a mega trend for Digitalization and Digital transformation requires that the User and their experience get moved into the center of the company’s efforts.

Global roll-outs and User satisfaction when  using websites and applications are ever more important. Also the collaboration with the users and different ways to gather user feedback helps companies improve their technology efforts and products and be competitive in the marketplace.

Providing employees with a state-of-art software and applications systems and an easy and smooth process for Onboarding, with continuous guidelines and learning, is a key pillar to get employee satisfaction and attract the right talents to enable and growth the business.


Conclusion

User experience, in a wider sense, can be a key differentiator in the battle of talents.

Users looking for an “orchestrated experience” means companies need to achieve something which seamlessly integrates different products, services and configuration to form a unique user experience – from both perspectives, a customer’s and an employee’s.


Empower users now!

At Newired we deliver 100% no-code 
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