How the State of UX is Changing in the Post-Pandemic World
The pandemic has redefined the way we live life, especially when it comes to the state of UX in digital transactions, see how.
Lockdowns, remote work, and changing business paradigms—the pandemic has been redefining the way businesses and customers interact in a way never seen before. With customer trends and patterns undergoing this rapid influx of change, UX is adapting to the uncertainties of the post-pandemic world.
In the bizarre experiment that would have never come to be had the world not been compelled by a global pandemic—the workforce across the world was made to retreat back to their safe havens and operate indefinitely.
One year on, as the world healed and the economic downturn subsided, a major chunk of the workforce would rather not return to offices. With the ginormous shift in the way the global workforce operated, the ways digital products were utilized and experiences delivered have changed. It is evident that the UX of yesterday would not be the UX of tomorrow.
Shifting Paradigms
Digital products and experiences are being consistently replaced and substituted in the umbra of silence cast by the coronavirus pandemic. As offices operate in a limited capacity, there are more people gearing up for Google Meet sessions and Zoom calls than ever before. Transactions have taken the touchless, digital route. E-commerce is booming, and the experience is only growing more seamless.
In the emergent digital economy, a UX strategy that emphasizes leveraging the transformation is an absolute necessity for businesses.
To ascertain products and experiences are at the top of their game, the onus is upon the leadership of the business—to drive innovation by spearheading technological progress, identifying challenges and implementing best practices.
User aspirations are changing at an enormous pace—with most expectations being influenced directly by the pandemic. As such, user demands must be met with meticulous care.
The precursor to meeting user expectations is identifying them in the first place. Identification, fortunately over time, has become much simpler thanks to modern methods of usability testing, surveying, and data analysis, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Evolving Methods of Research
To fine-tune digital products that meet the aspirations of a user in the post-pandemic world, a variety of diverse research methodologies can be employed, such as surveying, usability testing, and field studies.
Surveying remains an excellent research method to identify user personas, providing valuable qualitative and quantitative insight to the UX researcher. Broad-scale user surveys provide a window into the mind of the user and help enhance user-centricity in design.
Usability testing acts as a litmus test for the strengths and weaknesses of a product that helps in the identification of the places that provide room for improvement.
Field studies help designers gauge the idiosyncrasies of the user in the rawest form possible, and bridge the gaps in understanding. This also aids UX professionals in understanding the goals and frustrations of the user directly and make sense of what goes beyond the labs.
Research methodologies, user aspirations, and design—in the domain of user experience, all three are evolving at a breakneck pace. If there’s any lesson to be taken from biology, it’s that the faster we adapt to change, the better we fare in the longer run.
