Gone are the days when companies used to sell products based on the factor of USP (Unique Selling Point). These days companies are focusing more on UEP (Unique Experience Point). Take examples of any leading tech giants of the world, Apple, Google, Amazon or Flipkart and imagine their products without the experience they are providing. People fire their queries on Google Search page and get the instant results. The page provides only necessary search related options. Sometimes people don’t even notice the whole page, they just do the needful (sometimes, the experience they have is not even noticeable – First definition of a good User Experience). Similarly, there are other companies which sell products online and provide the same service what Amazon and Flipkart are providing but Amazon and Flipkart are famous/better because of the experience they provide to their users. People prefer Flipkart because they get the product the next day, have facility to pay cash on delivery and can return the product within 30 days, if not satisfied with the product. These are the kind of experience backing up companies like Flipkart. Suppose you are driving a car. You set locations and while driving you ask your phone whether to take left/right or go straight to reach the destination (it’s similar to asking your friend sitting with you in the car, who knows the route) and it guides you during your journey. Now phones are becoming your Virtual Assistants and you can talk to your phone in similar way as you do with your assistants/friends. Imagine, will life be as comfortable as it is today, without their services/products?
All these tech giants believed in selling products/services based on the UEP, to make life more comfortable (Google Search, Driving, Flipkart Examples!) and that's where UX (User Experience) comes into picture.
Apple started providing UE to
users for their life. First they created the need and then they sold
their products. When apple products hit the market, people started
knowing about the features and services and then they started to make
use of their products which used cutting edge technologies to make
life better and more comfortable.
Prior to apple, there were many companies which used to sell Mp3 players and mobile phones but apple was still able to sell their products because they had ability to think different and provide Unique Experience to users. Nokia, which was a giant in mobile phones with the vision to connect every ordinary man, was struggling to sell their smart-phones until Microsoft came up with better and more interactive UI (Metro UI). Since the launch of first version of iPhone in market, Nokia shares were going down. Later on, Android too came into picture to worsen Nokia's condition, which eventually leads the company to replace its top level executives. Finally Nokia appointed Stephen Elope as their new CEO having a faith that he could do something amazing but results were not much different until Metro UI in windows Phone.
Prior to apple, there were many companies which used to sell Mp3 players and mobile phones but apple was still able to sell their products because they had ability to think different and provide Unique Experience to users. Nokia, which was a giant in mobile phones with the vision to connect every ordinary man, was struggling to sell their smart-phones until Microsoft came up with better and more interactive UI (Metro UI). Since the launch of first version of iPhone in market, Nokia shares were going down. Later on, Android too came into picture to worsen Nokia's condition, which eventually leads the company to replace its top level executives. Finally Nokia appointed Stephen Elope as their new CEO having a faith that he could do something amazing but results were not much different until Metro UI in windows Phone.
Google had their own vision to
sell their products. Today, Google has become part of our life as we
rely very much on many Google products like Gmail, Search, Youtube,
Adsense, App, Android, Chrome and Maps are very few to name. In
future there are chances that we’ll be dependent on Google TV and
Cars as well. Today, according to me, Google is one of the most
important things in our life.
Prior to Google, Yahoo was search
giant but because of the new search/mail/chat or other experiences
Google provided, people started forgetting Yahoo. In the same way as
Nokia did, they also appointed CEO Carol Bartz but they had to fire
her as she was proved incompetent to get users/revenue for the
company. They actually hired and fired few more top executives.
When I was a kid, I used to see people buying music systems which were good at loud sound (irrespective of sound quality, similar to Nokia phones which are durable but lacks in other (UE) aspects). I still remember the days when people with big speakers were appreciated more. But the trend has been changing. People started buying home theater or high quality music systems to experience music (rather than loud sound).
15 years back, there were not many people who knew about UX but today companies (some famous tech giants to name are Cognizant, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Flipkart, Nikon or Sony) consider UX as their one of the most important strength.
When Jeff Raskin designed Mac, people who were using DOS were amazed. They never thought that they could do all those things using mouse, there was no need to write commands for getting things done. Some people even had problems in handling mouse at first attempt. But they can never forget their first experience they had with the mouse (I personally met/interviewed some people who had the same experience :-)).
We are in the era where UEP matters more than USP. you can sell your products but you won't be able to reach sky heights until you come up with something which can provide a different/better experience to user.
You can design applications which asks user to select 10 options/fill 10 fields, and then presses some button(some of them even misses affordability) to submit some information/to perform some task/to get some info. What if user just needs to press a button/talk to the system and task is done. This is what SIRI is doing (Again Apple!).
When I was in college, I met Pranav Mistry, the creator of sixth sense, and I still remember one thing he said that people wants their life to be more comfortable and for that machines should have senses.
Our system should be smart enough to know our needs and should be capable to fulfill them.
Whatever you think about me,
Whatever you feel about me,
But it’s the fact and you know it,
You are nothing without me
- User Experience
When I was a kid, I used to see people buying music systems which were good at loud sound (irrespective of sound quality, similar to Nokia phones which are durable but lacks in other (UE) aspects). I still remember the days when people with big speakers were appreciated more. But the trend has been changing. People started buying home theater or high quality music systems to experience music (rather than loud sound).
15 years back, there were not many people who knew about UX but today companies (some famous tech giants to name are Cognizant, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Flipkart, Nikon or Sony) consider UX as their one of the most important strength.
When Jeff Raskin designed Mac, people who were using DOS were amazed. They never thought that they could do all those things using mouse, there was no need to write commands for getting things done. Some people even had problems in handling mouse at first attempt. But they can never forget their first experience they had with the mouse (I personally met/interviewed some people who had the same experience :-)).
We are in the era where UEP matters more than USP. you can sell your products but you won't be able to reach sky heights until you come up with something which can provide a different/better experience to user.
You can design applications which asks user to select 10 options/fill 10 fields, and then presses some button(some of them even misses affordability) to submit some information/to perform some task/to get some info. What if user just needs to press a button/talk to the system and task is done. This is what SIRI is doing (Again Apple!).
When I was in college, I met Pranav Mistry, the creator of sixth sense, and I still remember one thing he said that people wants their life to be more comfortable and for that machines should have senses.
Our system should be smart enough to know our needs and should be capable to fulfill them.
Whatever you think about me,
Whatever you feel about me,
But it’s the fact and you know it,
You are nothing without me
- User Experience
