This document discusses the importance of user experience (UX) and provides guidance on determining if a business needs help improving their UX. It outlines key aspects of a good user experience, including usefulness, usability and being compelling. It then provides a decision tree to help businesses assess if they have UX pain points and need assistance, with recommendations to conduct user research through methods like usability testing and contextual inquiry.

1. Do You Need User Experience Help?
Providing a good User Experience is core to your business success.
But it can also be a challenging world to navigate.
Customers (or users) have the best experience when:
a) it is useful, that is they thing they are using solves
a real problem for them
b) it is useable, that is it is easy to complete tasks,
find information or things, and they don't experience
the all too typical frustration so many of us have when
using technology
c) it is compelling, that is there is delight, joy, beauty,
or the ease that comes with true simplicity associated
with using the product, website, product or service
Do you have a clear sense of what your UX pain
points are?
Doing user research means that you can finally answer those
questions you can't get at in a typical marketing survey.
Of all the people who say they 'would' recommend you, do
you ever wonder what it is exactly they resonated with to want
to make that recommendation?
If so, why not give us a shout. We know deep-dive user
research. We can find things out about your customers that
can help take your business to the next level.
NO
Either you have a wicked
problem* (please call us, we love
wicked problems) or you should
have chosen NO in the fist step.
We can help. Contact us at GetUXHelp@analyticdesigngroup.com for all your UX needs.
YES
You have a good
UX foundation.
Experience design that works
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The CEO says it's time to "update the website" and
bring it into the 21st century
Low conversion/high bounce rate
Customers complain that they can't find stuff or do
stuff
Front-line staff field a lot of calls about the website and
have to guide people over the phone
There is a heavy reliance on training for people to
correctly use your product
There is a disconnect between the customer
experience in the physical world and the digital world
Are you experiencing one or more of the following pain
points with your SaaS, Website, Product or Service:
Conducting usability testing is allowing
you to fine-tune the user experience
as well as plan for future
improvements more efficiently and
cost effectively than using ad hoc
customer feedback. But be careful
that your usability testing isn't just QA
in disguise and that you're just not
collecting anecdotes instead of real
data.
How about other forms of user
research to get at the underlying why
of your customer's choices? Are you
doing any other kind of user research?
Do you
need UX
help?
YES
YES NO
NOYES
Not sure? Feels like maybe all three?
A good place to start is with a UX
Audit.
The UX Audit will pinpoint the
problem area and guide you to your
next steps.
None of the above,
but still looking for
UX help?
User research is a good way to diagnose
UX issues. It also will yield insight for how
to best fix them.
Usefulness an issue? Consider some form
of longitudinal study, like a diary study.
Usability an issue? Consider formal
usability testing.
Feeling like maybe the problem is in how
Compelling the product is? Consider
some form of contextual inquiry, perhaps
an ethnography.
When you say 'UX', do you
really mean make it look
'nice'?
Whoops, you probably have UX
issues but didn't even know it.
Retrace your steps and choose
YES on the first step.
NO
Good start. But without any user research how do you
know your experience is useful, usable, and
compelling?
Let's start with usability testing, got that in the mix?
YES
NO
Did you know that $1 spent fixing
a problem in the design stage will
save you $10 at the development
stage and $100 after release?
Still want to wait until after you
launch to get customer
feedback?
Consider an investment in
usability testing and speed up
your development process.
YESNO
You are leveraging the power of small data
(most user research relies on data from small
sample sizes). By doing that you are learning
the why behind the what your customers are
doing and gaining powerful insights that will
help you leap-frog your competition.
Now tell me about your UX Strategy.
You have your marketing, analytics, and customer feedback
form data so you don't need any user research?
By having a good UX Strategy means you're thinking the
problem through and have set yourself on the path to UX
success. Good user experiences mean happy customers,
happy customers means better business.
YES
NOWithout a strategy, how do you know what winning looks like?
A/B testing different choices within a strategy is fine. If you are
A/B testing without one, how do you know that either A or B
are the right solutions? What if the right solution is something
you've not considered yet?
Consider a one day UX strategy workshop with us. We'll
help you put the pieces together and build some momentum.
Your strategy rocks? Got the main kernel? The design
principles or pillars? You're a UX rockstar.
What you really mean is Information
Architecture, Interaction Design, as
well as Visual Design?
No? You don't need it? Usability
testing isn't really worth the
investment? If there's a
problem your customers will
tell you via ad hoc feedback
once it's in Beta or live?
Say what now? Strategy is a waste of time? You will
keep going until you win? You'll just A/B test it?
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