How to successfully incorporate UX and CX into your business, allowing both your business and that of your clients to benefit

User experience (UX) and customer experience (CX), both ultimately serve the same purpose. However, they were not designed to be randomly mixed and matched. This case study will reveal how to incorporate UX and CX into your business, allowing both your business and that of your clients to benefit.

A well-designed application makes life easier and more convenient for the user, not only by providing them with a pleasant-looking, functional product but also by anticipating its possible difficulties or inadequacies and eliminating them at the very first stage of implementation. That’s where UX and CX play their crucial role.

One main focus of user experience is the usability of a product. It should be intuitive and easy to comprehend, as well as enjoyable to use. It is essential to analyse it from the user’s perspective and understand that the application may be used every day and be a chief component of a user’s work. This is where UX can help. It focuses on areas such as:

• Information architecture
• Navigation
• Visual hierarchy
• Learnability

A good user experience enables a user to find essential information quickly and complete the desired task with ease. As a result, it contributes to the effectiveness and efficiency of a user’s work which translates directly into the quality of the relationship with the company that created the product.

The concept of customer experience is much wider. It covers all the significant values of UX and captures a multitude of qualities indispensable for meeting a client’s needs, increasing loyalty, and advocacy. CX concentrates on the customer’s perception of an organisation as a whole. It pays great attention to the usability of a product as well as brand reputation, customer service, pricing, and the general sales process. Nevertheless, the decision-maker, i.e. the customer, is not necessarily the end-user of an app. This knowledge helps us take account of the bigger picture here. Well-conducted CX corresponds with the overall satisfaction of a client – considering a single product and a whole company at the same time. It is measured by the willingness to recommend the organisation to others and the likelihood that the customer will continue using the application.

In the end, it’s all about meeting, or possibly even exceeding a client’s expectations. It may not be easy but it is worthwhile

Although changing the design of an already existing application may be challenging, we managed to help our client and achieve an extremely positive outcome. This was done by simultaneously giving the application a fresh look as well as improving its usability through the application of UX and CX principles.

Our client is a fully integrated platform, delivering data and insight for planning and executing successful 360° business development campaigns. The company works internationally and is recognised as a reliable source of information for providers of marketing services. Its analysts and researchers cooperate with more than 20,000 international budget holders which results in a comprehensive and accurate database of decision-makers from some of the most influential brands in the worl

Why did they need us?

Our client needed a user-friendly platform combining complex and demanding processes with a simple user journey. Recognising future demands, the company wanted its users to have a professional tool that fulfills their needs by understanding every step they take whilst gathering all the necessary data.

Our role was to implement a prepared design and match it precisely with the platform’s functionality as well as the UX and CX requirements. Analysing the process where we introduced these changes, we also saw the opportunity to adapt “the insides”. As a consequence, we recommended migrating to a newer server and supported our client throughout the whole process by choosing the correct parameters and configuring the workings. Thanks to these alterations the system accelerated up to ten times!

Rethink, recalculate, redesign

During the implementation process, we encountered some difficulties and challenges but they only motivated us to work harder and more effectively. We faced issues around evolving the following solutions:

• How to present data in a transparent, modern way and match the functionality of the front-end with the back-end
• How to speed up the process of data retrieval
• How to download and process data from various sources
• How to simplify the analysis of explored data to educate the client

If the challenge exists, so does the solution

We embarked on changing all of the graphic design as well as the structure and presentation of some of the data and the technical infrastructure. We did our best to adapt the technical layer to accelerate the system and use the platform’s potential to its fullest.

One of the most essential adjustments was the implementation of the new advanced search features. Thanks to our alterations a user can explore the platform easily and choose the most applicable category, such as:

• Sector
• Location
• Finance
• Number of employees

Users are also able to browse the contact data of individual companies or even specific products in the reports. Briefings, on the other hand, can be searched by sectors and products from chosen categories. To speed up the process of data retrieval we changed both the server and the searching algorithms. Some alterations were also implemented at the very core of the project.

We developed basic news feed integration including a live option, as well as incorporating the latest reports with notifications and statistics. The system uses intelligent solutions to present clients with the most suitable data. Reports are sorted by the number of clicks and recency. We also altered the daily email alerts to be more applicable to the user’s needs.

Additionally, the platform was integrated with many financial data sets.

We value working closely with our clients because we know that such intensive and frequent cooperation triggers the most effective and satisfying results.

We began with setting the priorities of the workflow according to the client’s recommendations. Our team analysed the business needs of the company and proposed customised system solutions. We thus came up with a general overview of the project evaluating a list of functionalities, wireframes, and a user story. It all became a foundation for the UX and CX design prospects and led to creating a competitive hi-tech platform that meets every demanding customer’s expectations.

A good business doesn’t exist without innovation and innovation requires constant change

We keep abreast of current innovations and technological novelty to continuously follow our clients’ needs and prevent their business from losing its market position. Those using the platform should be able to have quick access to any necessary information at all times. That’s why, now that the system has gained stability, our next steps are:

1. Updating the back-end elements to the most recent version and making the platform stand out from the competition. Thanks to these alterations our client will be able to develop the site further, choosing from several varied components.
2. Creating technical documentation of the building process and solutions deployed. Along with the precise description of the parameters, it can be a useful source of information in the future.
3. Proposing a development of the project for iOS and Android users. Adding new functionality may increase interest in the product.

Proposing a new method of importing data and the possibility to create advertisements on other websites. This additional convenience will increase the competitiveness of the platform.

The difference between good and excellent is in the details

Keeping up-to-date with the latest technologies we created a competitive solution for our clients’ customers seeking similar solutions. Users commend the platform for the advanced search functions, vast base of contacts, and integrations with the most popular financial systems. Functional and constantly updated features build a solid ground for fruitful and long-term collaboration. Satisfied clients are not only loyal but also eager to spread the word – and we all know that it’s one of the most effective forms of marketing.

Project facts

• Team – Developers 6 (Senior backend dev 2, Mid backend dev 2, Frond-End developer 2), Architect 2, UX designer 1, QA 3, BA 3, PM 1
• Project management – Scrum for production and Kanban for maintenance
• Technology – ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET WEB API, .Net Framework, Orchard, Angular JS, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, NHibernate, Autofac