For companies operating in today's environment of pervasive digital transformation, software is king. Whether it's delivering the leading-edge products customers demand, or managing their own day-to-day operations, modern business organizations simply cannot function without a wide range of powerful and effective software solutions.
But what is it that makes the software applications companies depend on truly effective? More than anything else, an app's success is defined by the quality of the user experience (UX) it provides. Good UX is based on the understanding of the users of the app and everything that happens when they interact with it. As Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple said:
"You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology."
The marketplace importance of providing a great UX
According to the Nielsen Norman Group, UX can be defined as:
"User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products."
According to McKinsey, the foundation of an effective UX is user-centric design. Apps that provide a great UX help users reach their goals in a manner that's not only intuitive, user-friendly, and efficient, but enjoyable as well.
When it comes to the products and services a company offers in the marketplace, getting the UX right is of paramount importance. In fact, according to one survey, 86% of customers would be willing to pay more for a better user experience.
That's why customer perceptions about the quality of their interactions with a company's products and services have a direct bottom-line impact. A McKinsey study reports that companies scoring in the top quartile in terms of user experience design earned 32% higher revenue over a five-year period than their industry average.
Why UX is a critical issue for company management
Not only is providing a great UX a requirement for products to be successful in today's marketplace, it's also crucial for effective management of a company's internal operations. As accelerating advancements in digital technology continue to transform the business environment, companies' internal workflows are coming to depend more and more on well-integrated software solutions. And the effectiveness with which employees enact those workflows is directly impacted by the user experience the associated apps provide.
As one UX design firm puts it:
"By building products to be as effortless as possible for users, you can encourage adoption, retention, and loyalty."
That's why ensuring that the apps that define a company's internal workflows provide the best possible UX for the workers that use them must be a top concern for management teams in every area of the organization.
For example, if you're an HR manager attempting to simplify and automate complex HR processes, the quality of the UX provided by the software resources with which your employees interact will have a huge impact on the success or failure of that effort. Similarly, you may be a CFO working to improve data management by automating your purchasing and financial processes; or a line manager who wants to streamline workflows to increase productivity and minimize errors; or even a CIO who is focused on driving digital transformation throughout the organization. Whatever the functional area, it's critical that management does all it can to ensure that the apps employees work with every day provide a UX that encourages them to enthusiastically lean into the technology rather than resisting, avoiding, or even sabotaging it.
How low-code development improves the user experience
A great user experience doesn't just happen—it is achieved through a deliberate process.
There's always a gap between how a designer anticipates the software will be used, and what end-users do with it in actual practice. That's true even if the person developing the app is a worker in that field. As UX researcher Dr. Jakob Nielsen notes in a recent video presentation, users are not designers, and even if they personally do the job, they don't necessarily know the best future way of accomplishing the task, or what's needed for their colleagues and other users.
That's why use of an Agile application development methodology, which involves a continuous cycle of design, deployment, gathering user feedback, and updating the app based on that feedback, is key to achieving a great UX. The goal is to release what's been called the minimum viable product (MVP) as quickly as possible in order to get usability feedback that's then used to iteratively refine the app to improve its features and UX. An MVP can also be called the Earliest Testable Product, the Earliest Usable Product or the Earliest Lovable Product, depending on which phase of iteration is the team working on.
Implementing such a methodology requires the ability to design, deploy, and update software very quickly. And that's where the low-code approach to software development shines.
What is low-code development?
Low-code platforms enable users, who may be process experts rather than software professionals, to design workflow or business applications using minimal amounts of hand coding. The app's functionality is implemented by dragging and dropping pre-written code modules and templates onto the visual canvass of a user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI).
As much as 90% of the app's logic is defined by the pre-written modules—only about 10% must be hand coded to cover special cases or interfaces. This methodology allows apps to be produced much more rapidly than would otherwise be possible.
The fact that automations can be designed by the workers who know the process best, and that the resulting apps can be deployed and updated very quickly, makes the low-code approach perfect for the iterative process that ultimately produces a great UX.
And that applies not only to apps that implement entirely new functions, but also to those used to update legacy applications. A good example is the Fortune 500 energy company that was able to save millions of dollars by upgrading rather than replacing a business-critical legacy app. They did so by creating a low-code mobile app that not only accessed the legacy app to deliver required information to field workers, but which also provided a superior UX through implementation of a modern, user-friendly interface.
How eSystems and its partners can help you deliver a great UX
In today's business environment, not paying sufficient attention to your company's UX is no longer an option. As Gonçalo Borrêga, Head of Product at OutSystems has said,
"There's no tolerance for a poor user experience."
If you're ready to begin providing superb user experiences to both internal users and customers, eSystems is well-positioned to supply all the help you need. In collaboration with our industry-leading partners, Workato and OutSystems, we offer top-notch low-code automation and integration solutions that provide:
- Faster time to market
- UX consistency across products, platforms, regions, and teams
- Organization-wide enforcement of code and design norms, no matter the number of developers or where they're located
- Higher productivity and lower costs
eSystems' low-code solutions can help you automate your business processes quickly and cost-effectively, while also allowing you to make UX a superpower for your brand!
If you're ready to create a fantastic user experience for your business, get started by contacting us today.
WRITTEN BY: Rodolfo Morales | Head of Business Design
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