The utmost thing is the user experience, to have the most useful experience. – Marissa Mayer

Mayer, the very recently resigned Board member of Yahoo and once Vice President of Search Products and User Experience at Google understood it is the user who makes the brand, not the business.

Why is user experience becoming so important? The answer lies in the one overwhelming certainty that all businesses face in the marketplace, namely competition. Roman Nurik, Designer at Google goes a step further than Mayer by stating, “Investment in UX is often the difference between businesses that grow and those that sputter.”

But what exactly can investment in user experience bring to a business?

A great website

If your business is e-commerce and even if it’s not, a website that goes beyond just look and feel is paramount to the success of the business. Web Developers can save themselves an abundance of time if the website is fully fit for purpose. Without wishing to insult the inhabitants of the world wide web, users are notoriously lazy so for a business to be successful, their website must be a series of well-constructed windows with a view to potential revenue. But it must also provide the user with an experience that ensures they stay, spend and most importantly, return.

Business growth

For UX designers, the challenge is to build a business case for the ROI of user experience. Decision makers will need convincing and although company executives might not understand web development and may even balk at the term user experience, they would surely purr at the statistic that is every £1 spent on UX sees a return of £100. Ease of navigation is a must for the website and a site that offers the user a smooth path to transaction will inevitably mean an increase in sales and for the executive this means a healthy bottom line.

Brand awareness

Apple did not invent the smartphone, Facebook was not the first social network and there were search engines before Google. We all know who Larry Page and Sergey Brin are and the visions and passions of Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs were very recently depicted onto the big screen. However, these are not celebrities. At the very core of these leaders was a desire to build a brand and most importantly, provide an unforgettable experience. Both Zuckerberg and Jobs held onto the notion that the result of a positive user experience is a business that can become a brand as opposed to just another commodity within the marketplace.

Happy consumers

As well as sharing a bad experience on social media, a satisfied customer will also share their good experience. The real-time communication and immediacy of social media can have a powerful and positive impact on a business. A happy consumer will recommend a product to family and friends and as referrals are gold, if coupled with customer loyalty, the vision of a brand begins to be realised.