What is UX Strategy?

Smashy Design
5 min readAug 30, 2023

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Have you ever wondered how UX professionals monitor the success of their client organizations’ user experiences?

Well, they simply use a UX Strategy!

Let’s dig deep into learning what exactly is a UX strategy, how, and why…

To put it in simple terms, a UX strategy is a series of actions designed to improve the future state of a project’s user experience over a specified time period. It takes into account not just the company’s goals, but also the needs of the brand’s current consumers, and combines each customer touchpoint with the user experience that the firm desires to create.

To get the best out of a UX strategy, it requires three main components.

  1. Vision: What do you wish to build?
  2. Goals: What kind of influence do you wish to have?
  3. Plan: What measures do you take to get there?

Vision

Apart from businesses, digital products (websites, web applications, mobile apps) also have their own vision and expectations for how they should operate. Similarly, before developing a UX strategy, you should know what you want to achieve and where you want it to head. The vision, which expresses the predicted future state of a digital product, is at the heart of a UX strategy. The vision also expresses the work that the team will eventually undertake for the benefit of the user as the strategy proceeds.

The vision can also be of two types. One example is having a vision for a new project in which the developers want it to be more successful. The other would be for an existing live digital product that requires slight modifications, such as the addition of new components. Then, there would be a requirement for a shift in the vision assigned for the initial product.

Goals

Once you have decided where you are going and why, the following step is to meet your set goals and stay on track with your plan. Measuring the process guarantees that the business’s goals are reached and that further improvements are made along the way.

Goals are used by UX specialists to assess each design decision, and if the objectives are not satisfied, certain alterations are made. Having defined goals allows them to stay focused and ensures that they understand what they are working towards. This also encourages them to keep going since they will feel as if they have finished tasks and are reaching success in their work.

Plan

The strategy’s last component is the plan. The plan outlines all of the collaborative duties that will be required to make your vision a reality. User research, content strategy, information architecture, interaction design, and graphic design are all common elements that take place under the plan.

The plan may include deadlines, budgets for each action, and other details depending on your product. Once the strategy is in place, it is tested and changed as needed to ensure it fulfills your goals. You’ll be well on your way to producing an effective user experience that meets and surpasses user expectations if you have an effective UX strategy in place!

Uber is an example of a company that uses a UX strategy. Uber’s UX approach is centered on providing a pleasant and convenient customer experience. They accomplish this by utilizing data to optimize the user experience, which is done by building a simple and efficient interface that makes scheduling rides simple and by regularly updating the design based on customer feedback.

A vehicle service management application

Why is UX strategy important?

Now that we have understood what a UX strategy is, you might be wondering why it’s so vital. There are several reasons for this, but here are a few of them:

  • UX strategy assists company leaders to see the benefit of UX designs — Some clients may be unclear on what precisely UX designers do, thus implementing a UX strategy allows them to know exactly what their UX team will be working on and its progress. This way they would not have to wait until the last minute to fix the errors.
  • Provides a clear sense of direction — UX strategy gives a clear direction to follow while allowing the UX and design team to find the best way to get there. It also prevents resources from being wasted and misdirection.
  • Assists team members to be on the same page as the user — A UX strategy helps designers, CEOs, developers, and even customer support personnel to be aware of user demands, company goals, and overall action plans while creating the best user experience for their customers.

How do we create a UX strategy?

You might be thinking that creating a UX strategy is a lot of work, but we are here to tell you that it is not. This is quite an uncomplicated process and this process can be broken down into the following 7 steps. These 7 steps are intended to aid you in developing a thorough and successful UX strategy so that you and your design team can maximize your efforts and produce excellent products for your customers.

  1. Define and scope
    You’ll want to include plans for the ideal user experience as well as overall business objectives.
  2. Research
    Include what research tools you’ll use, what information you want to uncover, how to analyze your data, and assess if adding a UX research to the team is warranted when drafting your UX strategy.
  3. Analysis and Planning
    Develop ways that you and your team will come up with for designing the user interface.
  4. Design & Prototype
    Make a prototype of your strategy to check if it works as planned.
  5. Testing
    Test and assess your designs to discover whether they function effectively for your product.
  6. Release
    Present your product to your customers and consumers and await feedback.
  7. Iteration
    Be prepared to make continual updates, re-test, and modify some data based on user expectations.

As seen from above, UX planning is one of the best ways to present your customers with the most efficient and effective user interfaces available. If you want to get hold of your own UX design strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us at hello@smashydesign.com!

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Smashy Design
Smashy Design

Written by Smashy Design

Passionate in building digital solutions for Creative Agencies & Medium sized enterprises