UX is the short abbreviation for User Experience. While it was once a niche aspect, it has now gone completely mainstream with all types of businesses and companies in all markets adopting UX to give their users a seamless and pleasant experience. UX uses a combination of research, modern technology, psychology and business to give the user the best possible experience by building an approach that allows users to navigate through the site or application easily without any confusion, thus making the brand experience smooth.

History

The term ‘UX i.e user experience’ was officially coined by Don Norman, who was a designer and a cognitive psychologist in the 1990s- but even before being given the name officially, UX is something that had been in practice for a long period of time. Walt Disney, the founder of Disney is often referred to as one of the first UX designers. This was reflected in the workings of Disney right from when it was founded in 1923- they highly emphasized on providing their consumers with magical, engaging, and perfect experiences while watching their shows and while visiting Disneyland, by paying great attention to detail and user feedback and constantly improving their products and services.

In the 1970s, the era of personal computers arrived. In this period, engineers and psychologists worked together to focus on providing a good user experience. Some of the most impactful developments of this time came from the research center of Xerox- PARC- including the all-important mouse and graphical user interface. Thus PARC and Xerox set the path and standard for future computing.

Then came the era of Apple which changed UX and technology forever. In 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh- the company’s first mass Personal Computer that featured a graphical user interface, a mouse, and a built-in screen all in one. From then onwards, the company never looked back and went on to launch the iPod in 2001, and the iPhone in 2007, which has since then had many versions. Donald Norman, the engineer who coined the term UX was an employee of Apple in the early 1990s as a User Experience architect- the first person to have UX in their job title. He invented the term as he thought that the concepts of human interface and usability were too constricted and he wanted to cover all possible aspects of a person’s interaction and experience with a system including graphics, industrial design, the overall interface, the person’s physical interaction with the system, the user manual, and more. From then onwards, many tech giants entered the industry and UX became a major part of technology. Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, HP, etc. are some of the major players of this field.

Why is the concept of UX important for modern companies? UX, which is an end-user’s capability of navigating through your app, site, or device is not just technical but also keeps in mind the person’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions while using the system during their experience.

The focus of the design of UX is human experience- the design process asks questions like how do people interact with this app or site? Is the navigation process easy? Is it loading quickly? Is the language easy to understand? Is it easy to find out what they want on the site? UX is what connects people, businesses, and technology. It is important to understand the end user by connecting to them through user research, understand your own business goals by highlighting the value and use of all features and understand the technology to make use of the best resources and tools to create efficient and impactful experiences and designs for your users.

Simply put, UX helps to save the company’s time, effort, and finances at different stages of the design process and brings long-term benefits and value to the business. UX can be applied to not just websites but also mobile applications, devices or any product or service that involves user experience. UX is extremely important as it tries its best to fulfill consumer needs, provide positive experiences and build brand and product loyalty in the user. By virtue of providing a positive user experience, it is possible to convert a normal user into a loyal consumer and also change lives.

We hope this article helped you learn more about the concept of UX and how to implement it in your business. We at SundayTech would be glad to assist you with this!