E-mail:
jsem@patrikpilous.cz
My vision
A different kind of UX designer
What is UX? User Experience (UX), or user experience, is definitely not just design. Design is only one of its components. UX is about designing solutions and paths that clear the way for users as well as possible and help us reach our business goals. User experience is about testing, common sense and industry best practice. So why should you care about UX?
- You create an experience for users, and that experience decides whether they spend money with you and whether their opinion of you is positive or negative.
- Well-tuned UX improves the experience, the conversion rate and turnover. And we are not talking about 2%. UX changes can shift results by tens of per cent.
- Some changes are simple and have a quick impact. Many e-shops and B2B lead generation websites unknowingly put far too many obstacles in their customers’ way.
What does UX work and its output look like in practice?
UX audit
A UX audit, or usability analysis, is also known as a UX/UI audit. The process looks at how a website affects the way users think and checks whether it can deliver the right information, motivate people to buy and make buying as easy as possible. For an e-shop, the main goal is to find out whether products are categorised correctly, the navigation is predictable, the product descriptions are persuasive, and whether other criteria that affect purchasing decisions are met.
When do you need a UX audit?
It is frustrating when people visit your website but do not convert, whether by buying, calling or sharing. Google Analytics 4 shows that visitors behave illogically on your website or leave quickly. This may mean that your website presents the ideas, values and qualities of your brand poorly. If you feel something is not right, it is a signal to think about possible improvements. A UX audit by a specialist is the way to do that.
Implementation
The issues found in a UX output can be broad, from the checkout flow to the structure of page templates. Beyond the visual side, I focus more on data from Google Analytics 4 and often suggest tracking additional actions so that we can confirm our hypotheses. The client must always be willing to make changes and test the hypotheses we prepare. Without that, it will not work. A project can have many weak points. The outputs often reveal wider problems with how the products themselves are presented.
UX research
UX (user experience) research is about finding out what the end users of a system or product need and want, and then using those insights to improve the design of products, services or software. Research or a UX audit can take different forms depending on the focus. In a broader sense, research can mean testing brand designs and messages before products are launched or go live. More often, however, smaller changes related to using a product or website are tested. Sometimes these are, for example, button colours and sizes, the checkout flow or product recommendations.
When doing research, we estimate users’ motivations, behaviour and needs by observing and analysing how they complete certain tasks. That sounds complicated, but for a website it mainly means that we analyse web and business data. UX research can also involve working directly with users through testing sessions, remote user observation or evaluating patterns in feedback.
Quantitative research: This method lets us test theories about people’s behaviour and attitudes based on numerical and statistical data. I work mainly with a well-implemented Google Analytics 4 setup, where I also like to add further events to confirm or disprove various hypotheses. The aim is to quantify user experience, usually by measuring a single metric. Quantitative methods answer questions such as “What percentage of people can find the CTA?”, “Which product positions convert best?” or “How many users clicked a particular link?”. This method is key to understanding the statistical picture and what is really happening on the website. Tools such as Hotjar are also popular. They show heatmaps and help us understand behaviour from a slightly different angle.
Qualitative research: This focuses on understanding the reasons and deeper motivations, in other words why users behave the way they do, or why they need or want a product to work in a certain way. Qualitative research can be carried out through observation, field studies, moderated usability tests, tools such as Hotjar and, above all, user interviews. The aim of this research is to understand the human side of the data by looking for the underlying reasons and motivations that make consumers behave the way they do. Qualitative research is much less popular in the Czech Republic, partly because it is more expensive. And let’s be honest. There is also a high risk of subjectivity and bias.
User behaviour scenarios
UX concerns your website, but the user scenario starts even earlier. Where (from which marketing channels) do users come from, what are their most common needs and expectations, and what do they get? User scenarios describe the most common customer types and follow them through the entire customer journey. This output can take many forms and can also help other channels, typically SEO and PPC.
Website architecture
In most cases, a UX designer is not the right person to be responsible for the whole architecture. The ideal synergy is when the project manager designs the website structure and architecture together with an SEO consultant. The UX specialist should then give feedback and their own view. What matters here, however, is the skill set of the people involved. It can vary a lot.
Why do UX audits and research?
You can finally understand better how users really perceive websites, mobile apps, products and prototypes. In a broader sense, you can also understand how people perceive your brand and what they see in it. Above all, you get a clearer picture of people’s motivations and can then work with them strategically.
You can systematically evaluate and improve ideas and prototypes based on the results of UX research, which lets you make the right design decisions early in the development process. Simply put, you do not have to rely only on your feelings and ideas.
You will most likely discover new customer needs and business opportunities, or possible products you can add to your offer.
One of the most common reasons companies turn to UX audits and consulting is that they want to find and fix shortcomings in their products and services.
You will understand every user interaction across the whole customer journey and build a more useful picture of your target audience for better advertising and marketing. You will also stop building unnecessary and unpopular parts of your website and repeating the same mistakes over and over!
Being better than the competition.
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