The role of UX in product life

In the past couple of years, hardware and software developers have begun to pay great attention to UX. But often this aspect is overly bulging, becoming widely known in many development teams. Such a “fashion for UX” even leads to the fact that someone deliberately downplays the role of researching the user’s perception of the product. However, the UX should be treated as a certain stage of product life, no less important than all the others.



Perhaps the most well-established Russian-language translation of the term UX can be considered “interaction experience”. This comprehensive concept includes many aspects of the user's perception of a product, from packaging to the work of a support service. The desires and expectations of the user, the appearance of the product, the interface, functionality, usability, reliability of work, qualitative and quantitative characteristics, the degree of demand, methods of use and much more - all this must be taken into account when developing UX.



When a person is responsible for performing a task, he often considers it more important than many other tasks. The same is observed in teams of developers, when different employees are responsible for different stages of product life. And it does not matter at all whether it is a question of software, a web service or some kind of gadget. People always believe that it is their area of ​​responsibility that is one of the most critical and important. Especially this contributes to the division of the departments existing in the company.

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Product life cycle

Most products go through the following life cycle stages:

• Concept idea
• Study
• Development
• Filling content
• Prototyping
• Testing
• Patching test results
• Improve usability
• Final design
• Introduction to production
• Marketing promotion
• Sales
• User installation
• Support
• Training
• Upgrade / repair or end of life cycle.

Of course, depending on the product, the order of the stages may vary, something is excluded, something is added. For some stages different departments / employees can simultaneously be responsible, depending on the size of the company and the specifics of the product. This scheme of product life does not necessarily reflect the process of its creation. Some stages can be completed at the same time, some can be repeated several times due to conditions in the market, corrections of deficiencies, characteristics of supplies, etc. Life cycle vision may change as the product development process progresses. In some companies, it is considered that some stages of the cycle are absolutely necessary, as are the corresponding costs for them. But this position is quite risky.



As noted above, in many companies, different departments and employees perceive as more important the stages for which they themselves are responsible. They do not perceive this life cycle as a chain of interdependent stages. And as you know, the strength of any chain is equal to the strength of the weakest link. But personal ambitions and corporate practices make it difficult for many to realize this. Such personal qualities as a sense of superiority over colleagues, a desire to get more power in their hands, and other features that manifest themselves in teams play a big role.



As a result, such an attitude towards different stages of product life often leads to a disproportionate distribution of efforts, resources, personnel, and does not in the best way affect the success of a product. If, for example, the product turns out to be bad, then no marketing tricks and budgets will allow you to take a significant market share. The same can be said about any other stage of product life. Surely for most of you, all this is obvious, but nevertheless, it is found in companies very often.



More often than not, unequal perception of the stages of the life cycle arises from the dependence of the work of some employees on the data provided by others. For example, engineers need specific analysis of statistical research performed by marketers to develop specific TK. Of course, creativity has not been canceled, but it would also be rash to act in complete isolation from the market. This is how the idea of ​​yourself arises: “What would you do without us?”.



On the other hand, the same graphic designers create images based on their own experience and sense of taste. Among other things, experience and taste are formed under the influence of the societal response to certain design decisions. Such things are difficult to measure and formally assess, and the designer has to make decisions quickly during the creation of the interface or appearance of the gadget. A designer and an engineer are two antipodes when compared to their approach to work: one creates thanks to inspiration and intuition, the other is guided by formulas and algorithms. Therefore, techies tend to condescendingly treat the work of creative people, because it is "unscientific" and "dependent on a whim." However, the designer does not at all by the whim of the caprice; he relies on people's behavior, their habits and desires, cultural characteristics and many other things.

Mistakes in understanding UX tasks

Ideally, a UX specialist should have a vision of the entire product life cycle. Unfortunately, many companies still do not have a precise understanding of what a UX specialist should do. Often they are either used wherever possible, or they are treated condescendingly. It happens that the list of duties of a UX-specialist corresponds more to the graphic designer, as if UX is needed only for working with the interface or the form of buttons. Or it seems that UX means web development: they require a high level of HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, etc. It is unlikely that a person who is fluent in these skills has enough time to think through the UX, because creating a good code takes a lot of time, and you need to take care of many other things. It turns out that the development of UX in many companies refers to some secondary, additional tasks.



Someone mistakenly believes that the development of UX is akin to creating a design, that this is a kind of intuitive process based on a “sense of naturalness”. Of course, intuitive approaches are used here, but the concept of “naturalness” can vary greatly depending on how and why certain products are used. When developing UX, it is necessary to take into account the user's expectations, his cultural characteristics, level of education, age, environment, and many other things. Each decision must be carefully analyzed and tested, especially if the idea of ​​the product is sufficiently innovative or affects the perception of something in society. Yes, the task of the UX specialist is to guide the user, to help him, but first you need to start from something familiar, accessible. And “intuitive” is a too subjective term.



It is important to understand that the development of UX is not a separate stage in the product life cycle. UX should permeate all stages, helping the product to find a way to the heart of the consumer, to become desirable and useful for him. How to overcome first fears and mistrust, how to achieve a good first impression, how to facilitate the acquisition process, how to help start using the product faster and more comfortably, how to increase the frequency of product use, how less troublesome it is for the user to solve problems arising from the product - answers to these and many others issues affecting the different stages of product life are sought by a UX specialist. The underestimation of the role of UX leads to the fact that they begin to think about it only when it is necessary to correct some of the most noticeable problems, when development is nearing completion. And it happens that it is already impossible or too expensive to change.

UX in product life

A UX specialist must work closely with engineers, marketers, vendors, support, and other departments from the start. One day you can’t just get a job on the product on the relay, turn up the UX and transfer it further. From the very beginning of the development it is necessary to exchange information with with everyone who is involved in the creation of the product.



The UX specialist should think about all the stages of the product's life, offering suitable solutions for emerging problems, evaluating the impact of the results on all other stages. But this doesn’t mean that the UX specialist is responsible for the entire product, the ultimate scapegoat. For example, he should not catch bugs or find out from customers in what situations failures occur. Instead, the UX specialist should consider how possible failures will affect the attitude of users to the product. Obviously, there is no single answer and everything depends on the specific situations.



No stage in the life cycle can be regarded as more important than all the others. However, a product can fail at any stage if it is not given enough attention and resources. Ideally, the UX designer should predict possible problems before the product hits the market. And if his warnings and suggestions are not heard, then it is not his fault.