In the year of 2023, there is no doubt that humanity will continue to face critical challenges to our very own existence, from climate change to an increase in income inequality, further political division or the still present COVID-19 pandemic. Despite all these struggles, there are also very positive signs that it is within our reach to fix many of these preeminent issues, continue to grow as a species and improve our quality of life in a more sustainable way for the environment. Technology and scientific advancements, from artificial intelligence and machine learning, to gene editing technologies, renewable energies, vaccine research, robotics or precision medicine are just a few of the many areas in which humans are making significant progress and that eventually will help us to tackle those critical problems for our society.
We believe that technology has the ability to shape the future of critical areas for the future of mankind, such as:
- Healthcare: from better monitoring of patients and treatments, to increasing engagement in clinical trials, launching better tools to assist mental health and counseling or telemedicine.
- Education: making learning experiences more accessible, engaging and personalized according to each student’s needs.
- Environment: from improving renewable energy processes, improving waste management across the whole value chain, reducing waste and pollution, and optimizing resource utilization.
- Inclusion: increasing accessibility for individuals with disabilities (e.g. speech-to-text and text-to-speech software)
- Poverty: helping to reduce poverty by creating new economic opportunities and increasing access to basic needs such as providing financial services to individuals in developing countries who previously lacked access to traditional banking systems.
In parallel to technology advancements, the focus on User Experience or UX has increased dramatically among digital companies as it has a direct impact on the overall satisfaction and enjoyment of users with a certain product or service. In the ultra competitive digital world, the customer journey is more than just a marketing term and companies more than ever need to continuously revisit their user’s interactions with their products to be as seamless, intuitive, and enjoyable as possible.
As such, while technology advancements make many of the recent innovations possible, UX and design improvements are often at the heart of some of the biggest tech commercial successes. From the launch of a much more intuitive operating system like Windows 95, which featured for the first time a graphical user interface (GUI) instead of command-line interfaces, the ease of use of the first iPhone with touch-based controls, Netflix’s user-centric and personalized interface or the recent simplification of complex professional tools such as Figma. By being more human-centered, better UX ensures that the product does what it’s intended to do and drives tangible outcomes to benefit both users and businesses.
The emphasis on UX and design is even more relevant across mobile games where differentiation is often non-existent and the player cost of churning from a game is practically zero. As a result, onboarding tutorials are tested over and over, player experience is personalized to each individual, localization goes beyond a mere translation and ensures cultural relevance, and monetization is adjusted depending on the player. In summary, when it comes to mobile games, UX or customer journey becomes essential to increase engagement, improve retention and unlock monetisation, determining in many ways, whether the game will be financially successful or not.
UX today is helping companies to:
- Improve ease of use: A good UX makes amazing technology accessible not only to a narrow group of advanced users but to a much larger segment of the population.
- Increase in productivity: UX can improve productivity by helping to streamline processes, reduce errors, and minimize the time and effort required to complete tasks.
- Improve decision-making: A good UX provides users with clear, actionable information, helping them to make informed decisions and achieve their goals more effectively.
- Grow satisfaction: A positive UX can contribute to customer satisfaction, which is crucial for building and maintaining long-term relationships with customers.
For all these reasons we strongly believe that by making UX and the overall customer journey a key pillar of their strategy, companies can create products and services that not only push the boundaries of technology but at the same time are able to meet the needs and expectations of their users, resulting in increased adoption, customer satisfaction and loyalty.
