UX for Suits – How Does User Experience Translate to the Financial World?

A good user experience is well-known in the tech industry as a necessity for getting optimal adoption from users. If you don’t take the user into consideration when designing and developing a product, then in turn, there is a good chance that the user won’t take your product into consideration either. This piece of knowledge is rarely thought of in the grand scheme of things. No one ever thinks of UX as playing a pivotal role in the brand equity of companies, or the even bigger picture of their market value. Market value can be related directly to the overall stigma about a company’s user experience.

Sure, the stock price of a company has many forces pulling and pushing it; macro economics, outcomes of quarterly statements, and even natural occurrences. Even with all of these factors and variables, we can still spot trends and extreme differences between companies that exist in the same space and make the same type of products.

Ah, the storied, time honored tradition of comparing Apple to Microsoft. We’ve all heard it before, and we’ve all (well most of us) have touted that Apple products are better designed and engineered than Microsoft’s counterparts. People like using them better, people like the way they perceive themselves while using them. We could go on and on about the differences in the perception of both brands. A fact that is somewhat obvious but rarely bridges between creatives and business folks, is that this subjective divide in UX between these two brands can be quantitatively measured in market value. Microsoft’s stock has remained stagnant over the past 10 years, fluctuating between $20-40 per share; while Apple’s has grown over 3000%.

Let us not forget Google, who just came out with the widely acclaimed Google + this past week. They seem to have hit the UX bullseye in the eyes of tech experts (most of us at Intridea are pretty psyched about it, as well as these other blogs: need to add). This stock has risen almost 10% in the past week. Granted, the markets are making a bullish run right now, but still 10% is nothing to sneeze at.

Considering how users respond to products, maybe it is time to assess product releases and redesigns right next to quarterly reports as indicators on whether or not to pull the trigger on buying stock.

– Look into Target
– Johnson & Johnson
– Braun
– Nike
– Burton
– MySpace.com
– Need to define UX
– Bloomingdale’s