If you have been hearing the word UX a lot lately and think is it going to be the future of design? You are at the right place, read through my article to know why UX is the buzzword these days!
First, you need to know what is UX in general: UX is an abbreviation of User Experience design.
Before we dive in, it is important to know that there is no single and commonly accepted definition for UX design.
But let’s try to get a clearer picture of what that means.
The goal of UX design is to improve customer satisfaction and make the experience of using a product delightful for the customer so that they love using it again and again, which is a sign of success for the product and business.
Let’s explore a few reasons why UX is facilitating the tech revolution that is underway to shape a smarter future.
Sound In UX
Everything around us produces sound (nature, life, etc.) The sounds rarely irritate us unless we are near a highway. Different kinds of sounds are as such not an issue, however, how they are implemented may become an issue in some cases. I remember that I loved the button lock sound in the iPhone 12. it was the sound that the button produced that felt so satisfying. Did you know that Apple has a special lab where they study the sounds of the buttons of their devices? Fascinating, right?
Sound is produced even by nature, people are used to getting a good experience by their senses through seeing, touching, and hearing. So, UX covers sound as a technology that communicates the system status, and feedback, draws attention to the information, and sends warnings to the users effectively.
But the sound is not only esthetics. Recently, I came across a story of a blind woman who shared how her life changed and got easier with the new technologies. It is something greater than the improvement of the user’s experience, using voice commands and voice assistants she can find the right bus stop, listen to newspapers, and can do many other things which she otherwise could have not. This story made me think about the importance of sound in enhancing the user experience of a product and how specific sounds can be useful in different situations.
The technology of VUI (Voice User Interface) is making a great impact on UX design and the IT market.
Haptics — The touch Experience
The field of haptics is one of the rapidly growing technologies in the UX industry but is also quite underestimated and underacknowledged feature. Not only in the tech space, but in the real world also it is important the way we get feedback from the physical objects.
Haptics is a form of kin-aesthetic communication which is about tactile contact with humans.
To say it in simple words, imagine you are holding a luxury car’s steering for the first time, hugging your mom after a long, or holding a just born puppy for the first time. It is the kind of feeling which makes your heart complete and feel light. This is the beauty of touch and what it can make you feel.
This feature we are impounding to the IT field. Let’s see some successfully used haptics in real technologies,
- Haptics made a huge impact in using joystick experience, which gives a vibration feel when you score a goal in FIFA, which makes the user excited and joyful.
- Phone vibrating to notify us of an error state when a password is incorrect.
- Vibration in smartwatches when you finish your workouts.
This Improves the UX of the application and there is a huge impact on growth.
Mixed reality “The new world”
No matter which restaurant in the world it is, everyone has this feeling that the five-star food can never match the taste and feel of the homecooked food by their moms. The same is how we feel when we see or experience the new mixed reality tech which gives us a good User Experience.
Mixed reality is already been studied and adopted by the tech giants such as Facebook and Microsoft. Google is in the testing phase with its beta versions. When this gets successful, the market will start having designers incorporate MR tech in every product. So, in the future, it is most likely for users to expect MR in almost every application they use.
👁️ Imagine bringing the physical world into the digital and you stand in the center and experience
UX in Automobile
As we all know the automotive industry is evolving and becoming increasingly digitized, and so does UX. But why is UX so important? Nowadays, EVs are increasing in sales and people have started moving to use electric vehicles. The user who uses the application in the car helps the user in many ways like letting them know about the traffic, giving directions, and assisting thorough voice to easily reach the location.
UX research allows us to understand users’ needs, desires, and behaviors and deliver cutting-edge solutions that make roads safer and less congested for everyone. It increases driving safety and also gives the user a good experience while driving. Sound UX also plays an important role in automobile digital applications. UX continuously evolves with the constantly evolving technologies.
Conclusion
In the end, as I said we cannot predict the future, I have simply presented to you the facts and studies which say that the future will be every technology that has UX. Humans cannot live happily alone, we are meant to be with someone and make someone happy to be happy by ourselves. Same as in UX when a customer wants to use a product, they have to love that and get a happy feeling while using it. They need products that give them a good experience and also help them in solving their problems. So, we can’t remove happiness from our daily life, same as UX. Customer engagement and customer love towards a brand, service, or product are important. With increasing awareness of improving the UX of their products, companies know that this is one of the best ways of gaining happy and loyal customers.
So, UX always matters.
References
– A quick guide to designing UX sounds:
https://www.toptal.com/designers/ux/ux-sounds-guide
– Microsoft’s take on Mixed Reality: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/discover/mixed-reality
– How engineers approach UX/UI designing: https://youtu.be/uRv5jmr7QCU
