Its importance, and how it will help you to grow your business. # **User Experience (UX)** **For example:** - Have you ever looked at your remote? - Have you ever noticed that there are more than 20 buttons in it and wondered why you haven’t used most of them? - If you haven’t yet recognised what these buttons do on your television, then why do so many buttons exist? This is the exact question that you need to ask in your business. You must ask yourself these questions about your business, products, and services. If you ask these touchpoints with regards to your customers, you will be able to realise if you’ve put unnecessary things in your product and services that your customer will never use and creates no value to them. **For example:** - You must’ve seen Amazon’s Fire Stick Remote with the least number of buttons. - It is because Amazon has understood that their user experience should be easy for every customer to understand. - It is specially designed for the next generation so that they get used to of easy user experience. - Many big ventures are using this strategy in their business today. - When you search for something on Amazon, its UX takes you straight to your need. The example of such more businesses who provide easy customer experience is Urban Company and Uber. UX means giving your customer an experience that makes them used to of convenience and they will not be able to go anywhere else. Making an easy UX is the most difficult part but in this section, you’ll learn how to make UX if you have an online or offline business. Let’s look at some more examples before learning how to make UX. **For example:** #### **1. Zappos** Zappos is the most renowned company, all over the world, when it comes to user experience. If you visit their Twitter account and post that you don’t have to buy their product but just want to know an address, they will search that address for you. This shows their dedication towards the user experience. #### **2. Starbucks** Have you ever noticed that no matter how you spell your name, the barista always writes a wrong spelling? This is done only to give a different user experience because when you’ll try to correct them about the spelling, you’ll get into a conversation and the barista will start suggesting you more coffee types. #### **3. Newspapers** A few years back, newspapers used to be large but with time, the size of the newspaper has been reduced, just to give a good user experience to the customers. # **Offline Business** #### **1. In-shop User Experience** If you have an offline business, i.e. a shop, then how to create a user experience? **For example:** - During corona, we advised people to not touch things and surfaces to prevent the spread of coronavirus. - In this context, Amazon opened its first No-touch store in the US, where there is no salesperson. You just have to pick a product, scan its barcode and payment will be automated through your Amazon account. You can create a UX in a ration store as well. If you think wisely, you can design your shop properly, keeping the entry and exit of the store in mind, or how early a customer gets a product is also dependant on the design of the shop. **For example:** - In India, we go to buy ration with a checklist. We give the checklist to the shopkeeper and one of the helpers fill our bags with the products. - But if you want to change this experience, you can ask your customer to WhatsApp their checklist on your number and while they come to the store, you can pack them in a box and give it to them when the payment is complete. This is called an in-shop experience. The fundamentals of user experience are: - Seamless - Easy - Repeatable If the user experience is easy, then people get used to it and it becomes repeatable. #### **2. On-call User Experience** If you have a call centre, you can take care of the user experience you’re giving to your customers through representatives. **For example:** - Indane is a gas service of Indian oil. - They have an automated IVR system which lets customer book a new cylinder in 10 seconds by just pressing a key through their registered mobile number and the cylinder arrives a few days later. - They have even automated the payment service. Instead of paying cash, you can directly pay through a link that Indane sends you before your cylinder arrives at your doorstep. # **Online Business** It’s a little difficult to create a user experience online than offline because when it's online, customers expect everything to be fast – fast delivery, fast payment, and fast response. This is the main reason why people order food from Swiggy rather than Zomato because, on Swiggy, the process of ordering is so fast that it is seamless. To create a seamless user experience, you should focus on these two points: #### **1. It should be based on research rather than opinions.** **For example:** - Let’s think about a Swiss Knife. - If you consider opinions, then people are free to wonder about the features they’d want in a Swiss knife. - As a stakeholder, every stakeholder will have a different demand than yours but remember that these demands are opinions, not research. - You cannot make a user experience based on opinions, just the way a dentist can’t extract a tooth with a Swiss knife. - Swiss knife is designed for a specific function and hence, has five or six options only. Remember that you have to understand user needs and you can do that through research and not opinions. #### **2. For any online product, a trial is the most important part** - Trial mode is very important for online products, where the customer is allowed to try the free product for a while before paying for it. - It is also used in offline business when people in malls can try clothes before buying them. - This is known as Trial VS Triumph. A Trial is when you give the product for trying and triumph means victory. # **Levels of User Experience** User experience is based on two levels: - Software - Hardware **For example:** - In a mobile phone, the hardware is the device that you’re holding in your hand and software is what’s making your phone function. - If the hardware is good but the software is tiring, you get frustrated easily. Apple is called the best phone brand because they invest in the user experience. They design their products in a way that creates more value for their customers. In a presentation, Steve Jobs explained the purpose of the smallest pocket in your denim. Very few people know this but the small pocket wasn’t made to store coins or valuables, it was designed to store a nano music player that contains thousands of songs. Try giving an experience that the customer will get used to. This will force them to stay with you forever.