User Experience And Good User Experience

User experience

Most of the times users are not even consciously aware of their experience with the products, unless it is either really good or bad. Mediocracy doesn’t get noticed.

Let me show this with an example, taking my mom as the user and digital apps as the medium.

Here, the user isn’t from the generation of phones and hasn’t had the learning curve like a user like me. For her finding the button where she can recharge her mobile on the Paytm app is still a struggle. Maybe the app didn’t consider her persona as a possible stakeholder. But she is actually the one going to market to buy groceries and it could really be empowering for her to be able to pay for it herself, instead of calling her kids to make the payment. A strong emotional connect is waiting to happen !

So what is good UX then ?

From the above example, a good UX for my mom (or for any user in general) will have following qualities

• It gets her job done, it fixes some problem for her

• She shouldn’t get overwhelmed with the product. It should be easy to use

• She might even enjoy the product (those are the best kinds!)

• It makes her come back to it rather than competitor products if any.
  She is
  attached to it

• It latches to some emotion. We are intrinsically emotional beings

Good UX examples IRL

Example 1 : A product that make a difficult problem fun to solve

Onion Chopper

Problem :
The process literally makes you cry

• Fixes the problem, quickly, without tears

• Usage is easy, self descriptive

• Makes solving the problem not just easy, but kind of fun too

• It is cheap and accessible

Example 2 : A feature that makes a problem easier to solve

Finding love on Bumble

Problem :
Initiating conversations is a hard problem

Finding love is a problem these days. I have met a lot of people cribbing about how they are not able to find someone. Dating apps have helped a lot to act as a matchmaker. But things are still difficult because a lot of conversations either don’t start or die too soon

Solution : Bumble Ice Breakers

• They reduces the cognitive load and anxiety on the user’s end

• The questions are designed to generate context between two users which can then further generate more context

• They connect on an emotional level

Example 3 : A product that has gone beyond solving problem and now renders delight

Swiggy , its not just an app anymore, its a verb

Problem Solved : Convenience

Now catering to emotions

• A friend of mine was coming back home from Switzerland and when I asked her what is she most excited about she said and I quote, “ Yaar bhar bhar ke Swiggy karungi khana hi nahi milta yaha”

• She has an emotion attached to the app

• Swiggy is an app I myself go to for ‘me times’ , I go to it for a good time

• The problem has been solved way back, its now an emotion

• Has even integrated store deliveries and cashed on our laziness