User Experience (UX) is Quite the Buzzword, but What is it?

Have you ever gone to a website to complete a task, and found every click inconvenient? Or clicked a button expecting to arrive on a certain page, only to be redirected somewhere completely different? It’s frustrating!

That’s where I, a User Experience (UX) Designer, attempt to save the day.

User Experience (UX) is a growing industry, and quite the buzzword in the tech world, but what is it? It might be helpful to first explain what UX is NOT:

  • I’m not here to only make pretty pictures. That’s a graphic designer or User Interface (UI) designer. Although making gorgeous products is important, this is not my main goal.
  • I don’t code. That’s a software developer. Although I have basic knowledge of design code, I do not build the final product that you see and use (I leave that to much smarter people!)
  • I’m not tech support. I’m part of the tech field, but I’m much more design-centric. Here at Avionté, we have a stellar team that focuses solely on helping our clients through their daily challenges and questions.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, describing what a UX Designer does can be quickly explained with the graphic below:

At the core of this process, the user (that’s you!) is in mind. Let’s see what happens in each “bucket” shown above:

  • Research

This bucket ideally happens in the ideation phase of a product or website, but can happen at any time of the process. This can take many different forms, including surveys, interviews, and more in-depth conversations (we like to call them contextual inquiries).

  • Design

The most important part of this bucket is basing your design on feedback you received from your users. This design phase usually includes hand drawn sketches and rough ideas, and is an incredibly collaborative phase.

  • Build

As stated above, the building phase is (usually) not coding a final product. Using tools such as Axure RP 8.0 or Invision, we can create a product that LOOKS and ACTS like the real thing (with a little magic). Once a design is built, we can put this in front of users again, and the process starts over.

Of course, knowing what UX Designers do in everyday work, and why it’s important are two very things. So why should staffing firms care about UX? Easy; it sets you apart from your competition. Nowadays, people expect a business to have a working website, and for software to work. Developers spend their time and effort working on a product that functions; they may not have time to talk to users to gain their feedback and perspective. But even if a product functions properly, if it isn’t intuitive or convenient to use, many people will simply give up. This is incredibly important in the staffing and recruiting industry. If staffing software is not efficient or accurate, this prevents you from doing your job effectively. Having a dedicated person to get feedback from people in the staffing industry, and design products based on user feedback instead of guesses and assumptions, will create a product that provides the best experience.

Here at Avionté, we have the user in mind at all times, and strive to provide everyone with the most seamless and efficient experience. User experience research has been a major initiative for 2018; we have had 250 users join our research participation base across 125 companies in only a few months! These users participate in research activities every two weeks; activities that involve expressing their likes and dislikes of the current software, choosing their preference of visual design, and ranking important information displayed at key moments. The results of these activities have shaped and impacted the roadmap, and challenged our assumptions about the use of our product.

Our ultimate goal is to create a product for workflow efficiency with an enjoyable user experience.

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About Avionté:

Avionté Staffing Software provides innovative front and back office staffing software solutions to over 550 customers and nearly 15,000 users throughout the U.S. and Canada. With one end-to-end staffing software solution, staffing agencies have access to the information and tools they need anytime, anywhere via any device to maximize productivity and profits. Request a demo!

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