Words like customer experience and user experience are no longer just buzz. They are methods that form the core of the modern business. Every business, from Etsy shops to major tech companies, use web and mobile channels to reach and keep their customers. Having sexy graphics in your advertising and marketing campaigns is no longer enough; you have to engage your customers. Luckily, you don’t have to do it alone. There are excellent design companies, like Ramotion, in every major metro area, and you can find one that’s right for your business.
The Value of UX
Your customers are now your users, and they have the most choices they’ve ever had. Companies are differentiating themselves on ease of use, delightful experiences, and customer service. The Design Management Institute recently reviewed a slew of publicly traded companies, identified which ones are performing the best in the stock market, and assessed how design-driven each one is (think Apple, Target, Ford). “Results show that over the last ten years design-led companies have maintained significant stock market advantage, outperforming the S&P by an extraordinary 228%.”
This starts with beauty and simplicity but doesn’t stop there. In his talk “The Business of UX” Daniel Rosenberg of San Jose State University states, “If there is no ROI for the product, then by association there is no ROI for design or the UX team itself. UX earns a “seat at the table” by simultaneously delivering value for both the business and the user.”
The best UX/UI agencies come to their seats armed with vast knowledge of what users find valuable. They talk to consumers daily and listen to what they have to say. User specialists help your business by ensuring that you build products, websites, and apps that people actually want to buy for their features, and the usefulness of those features.
According to experts like Forbes, spending resources on stellar UX improves every aspect of your business – attracting users, retaining customers, and cutting development costs. In an oft-quoted Forrester report, studies found that “…every dollar invested in UX brings 100 dollars in return.”
The Advantages of Hiring User Experience Companies
How you spend those UX dollars is up to you. Maybe you have an in-house UX team or several. Not all of us produce tech products that rely on in-house UX design, though. Even if you do build products with great UIs already, the in-house team might not be able to keep up with marketing needs in addition to product design and development. If you are a smaller company, don’t have UI focused products, or have an already overworked team, the staffing demands can be daunting at best. Design agencies can help you augment your existing staff, keep ramp up to a minimum, and better manage the ebb and flow of work.
Selecting and hiring creative talent can be daunting. You need UI and UX designers, graphic artists, researchers, IAs, content specialists, and possibly others, depending on your projects. A great UX design company match will already have all the staff in place and mature design and development processes to boot. Cutting out any ramp-up time. UI/UX design firms let you focus on managing projects instead of staff. They know what roles to hire, how to hire them, and can better assess candidate skills.
As creative projects begin and end, so will your need for a design team. The company web site might need an overhaul, and then just maintenance work. You have an idea for a new app, but then it essentially needs only care and feeding. Using in-house staff isn’t efficient for these ups and downs in project work. UX agencies can provide whatever staff is needed on an ad-hoc basis. Every project has unique needs as well. That web site overhaul might need lots of different roles, but the app just has one small usability issue. The flexibility of a UX design firm gives you access to the right resources at the right time, and only while you need them.
The best part is, an agency focuses only on design and nothing else. You can tap into reserves of experience and skill diversity, and in the nimblest fashion. UX Design firms constantly operate in changing conditions and can turn on a dime to best serve client needs. Their resources become your resources but with the advantage of being there when you need them, and working somewhere else when you don’t.
Conclusion
You need experts to design products, web presence, and mobile solutions in order to stay in business. Engaging the perfect user experience company provides you with lasting, flexible staffing and expert knowledge. It lets you access a team of pros, whenever needed, without a lot of extra overhead. Upping your digital game, in turn, pads your bottom line and keeps your customers coming back.