Because there is one crucial factor that is often forgotten and left by the wayside, even though it is actually the key ingredient we must put in our mix. This key ingredient is someone who is the reason all this exists, who will run the application we design. Someone who intends to build, launch, run, and pay for all this: our client.
This fundamental component of the whole ecosystem is unfortunately often forgotten. In books and articles on UX design we keep reading about users, their interests and needs; the user is the pivotal point of the whole discipline – it even has her in the name. But, and this is a central theme of this blog, it is very important that we, the designer, incorporate this further element into our framework – because this client, our customer, is the third side of the imaginary triangle that defines the discipline we aim to master. All too often do we see UX design for UX design’s sake, applications created for unparalleled user experience and enjoyment, where, however, the interests and goals of those who run these applications disappear. In reality, UX design should primarily be a tool that uses the most interesting and captivating ways possible to bring the user towards the goals set by the client. To interest, entice, entertain, delight, but, most importantly, to use all this to bring the user to exactly where the client needs them.
It is the client who has had the right idea and plans to run this awesome and amazing interactive application we are to design for them. It is thanks to the client that an application is even being developed. It is the client’s interests and goals that are bringing it into existence. It is the client’s decisions that are ultimately final and unappealable.
And it is the client’s wallet that will foot the bill for the whole shebang, and in doing so, pay for some of the humble bread on our table.
The end product must primarily respect the client and their interest. A positive user experience is but a tried and trusted means of achieving that end, not an end in itself.
Client versus user
Can you spot the contradiction? Respect the client and their interest? All of a sudden, we have “client’s interests”, even though usually only the end users’ needs and interests are talked about in connection with UX design. That is indeed the point. This contradiction – and a contradiction it is, for the interests of the client and those of the users of their application are frequently very much in conflict – will often be crucial for us.
Of course, many people will simplify thus: every client’s interest is ultimately simply a happy user; therefore, it will suffice to design an application that is ideal for the user, and everybody will be happy. But this really is an oversimplification to the point of uselessness – only from the outside does it seem this way. The very moment when we, the designers, penetrate the surface and start working to reveal the details of specific interests and needs of both parties, these contradictions and conflicting interests will start coming up. Yes, the client wants a happy user, and a happy user is our goal, too. But at the same time, our user does not like to be distracted by ads, which our client needs to make a living. A user wants to go to an e-shop, buy a specific product, and leave as fast as possible, while the seller’s interest is to keep them on the site for as long as possible, and offer them as many additional products as possible. If you run a website, you want to give users as many options as possible; the user does not really care much for options, preferring to click one button and job done. A client wants his application to don company colours, but for the user, completely different colour combinations would make the interface more useful and intuitive… The finer the differentiation we use, the deeper we delve into the entrails of the future application, the more contradictions and competing pressures will we find. And it is our task to resolve them, not to turn a blind eye or sweep them under the rug.
Many years of experience show that to search for and discover functional links between the client’s interests and the users’ needs is one of the best methods of creating thriving and viable interactive applications.
However, all rules and requirements for high-quality interaction design stay in place – only stricter and more precise. In the balancing exercise, put UX design on one side, and apply it for maximum user satisfaction, so that the user has the best possible experience and benefit from using the application. On the opposite side, enter the client, with our job being to meet their interests and goals to the highest extent possible, too.
