What is a UX review, why it's important and how often to get it done – this is why a UX review is a game-changer for anyone building a Tech business
How up-to-date is your UX really? Because let's face it, business trends are changing all the time – and it just seems to be evolving faster every day.
Case in point: AI. Bet you wouldn’t have believed it could take over the way it did just a few months ago, right?
So in the midst of all this change, how is your UX keeping up?
Because it’s vital for the continued value of your product. Take Netflix, for example. They’re constantly updating and A-B testing new UI – if you haven’t noticed before, log in over the next few days and note how dynamically their UI changes just from one session to the next.
Now, how do you ensure your UX is top-tier? Well, that’s why you need a UX review – and way more frequently than you might think.
Here’s what you need to know:
Simply put, a UX review is a digital audit of your product’s design and user experience – that’s why it’s also called a UX audit. What it entails is doing a deep analysis of your product’s user experience and usability, specifically to discover potential problems, like when experience causes high bounce rates, drop-offs, decreased conversions – all the stuff you don’t want.
See our post on 6 critical signs you need a UX audit, a breakdown of the UX audit process. and a full-scope UX audit and redesign.
A UX review helps you spot those potential product-killers early on, keeping you ahead of the game. Here’s how:
The entire UX audit process is designed to create the best possible balance between aesthetics, usability and effectiveness. And the proof is in the tasting when it comes to products – if it looks great and achieves user and business goals, it’s literally worth more money.
As much as you love your team, an expert external eye brings a fresh perspective. Most companies choose to use external agencies for UX audits because they know agencies work with clients across multiple industries, meaning their teams have wider cross-segment experience.
And it’s valuable bringing those perspectives to your internal team.
Small UX problems today compound into massive issues tomorrow. That’s why testing early and often is vital for ensuring customers enjoy your product and achieve their goals, enough to want to keep using it and convert. See how we helped bolster user experinece and conversion for SA's No 1 digital job management system, ServCraft.
Having a totally unique product is great. But knowing (and showing) how it fits into the larger marketplace is what shows its true value. Now, a lot of people just want to ignore the competition, but the truth is there’s a lot to gain from benchmarking your product against others. And that’s just what an expert external UX audit team does.
Further to benchmarking, you actually build a better product over time with competitor- and like-product analyses. Combine that with the user testing in a UX review and you’ll see how much easier it is to develop a clear and effective roadmap for growth, including knowing what new features to build and how to measure and track your progress. For example: discover the latest banking UI trends.
Comparatively speaking, conducting a UX audit is very fast (have your first set of answers around fundamental issues within just a few days) and a lot cheaper than allowing UX problems to build up and fester – doing nothing can cost you a lot of users, your product’s future or, in the end, even your company.
Also see the 8 instant business benefits of a UX audit.
Most people agree you need some form of UX review at least every 6 months (twice per financial year), if only because our business environment is evolving so rapidly these days. This could be a mix of internal reviews and bringing in external experts.
Is it time for a fresh perspective on your product?
