Navigating UX design challenges for better CX

The user experience (UX) is often what sets a good product apart from a great one in today's perpetually online world. It's also a critical component of the broader customer experience (CX) that shapes perceptions and loyalty. However, creating a UX that impresses, attracts, and retains users is increasingly challenging due to high user expectations shaped by their daily interactions with other leading brands.

This guide to UX design will reveal the common obstacles you might encounter — from the lack of user involvement to insufficient stakeholder buy-in, and the challenging limitation of scarce resources. 

But this isn't just about dodging trouble. We’ll also shed light on the good stuff — like how a smart UX strategy doesn't just make your product look good, it makes users stick around longer and rave about it too. 

The challenges and benefits of UX design

UX design presents challenges — but opportunities, too. Here are some of the common challenges of the UX design process that we’ve seen and advice on how to handle them:

1. Lack of user involvement

Challenge: UX design should be user-centric, meaning it should involve the users every step of the way, from research to testing. Assuming what users want without asking could lead you down an expensive, unproductive rabbit hole that creates more problems for users. However, sometimes it can be hard to access, recruit, or engage the users, or to get their honest and relevant feedback.

UX tip: Try various methods and incentives to reach out to and involve the users, such as online surveys, interviews, focus groups, usability tests, gamification, or rewards. Additionally, consider leveraging AI to analyze user behavior and identify friction points in their journey. Heatmapping tools like Hotjar can provide valuable insights into website sessions, serving as a workaround when direct user feedback is hard to obtain.

CX benefit: UX design can create positive emotions and associations for customers, such as delight, trust, and affinity, which can lead to long-term loyalty and advocacy for a brand. For instance, a Forrester report determined that every $1 invested in UX design yields a return of $100 (ROI = 9,900%). 

2. Lack of stakeholder buy-in

Challenge: UX design should align with the business goals and brand identity of your organization. However, sometimes it can be hard to convince the decision-makers, managers, or developers of the value and importance of UX design, or to get their support and collaboration.

UX tip: Develop and present a clear and compelling UX strategy and business case. Use real-world examples and case studies that showcase significant business benefits from improved UX. Highlight how these improvements align UX outcomes with broader business goals. Employ tools like Google Analytics and social listening to bridge gaps between current offerings and customer expectations, providing a clear pathway to aligning UX enhancements with strategic business objectives.

CX benefit: Effective stakeholder engagement not only secures the necessary support for UX initiatives but also integrates UX more deeply into the organizational fabric. This integration helps alleviate friction and frustration for customers by reducing errors, drop-offs, and complaints, which can lead to higher conversion and retention rates. 

Moreover, a well-supported UX environment enhances employee satisfaction by reducing repetitive service demands, lowering stress, and boosting productivity. One study found that, on average, companies that put in the work to improve customer experience see a 42% improvement in customer retention, a 33% improvement in customer satisfaction, and a 32% increase in cross-selling and up-selling.

3. Lack of resources and time

Challenge: UX design should be iterative, meaning that it should involve multiple rounds of prototyping, testing, and refining. However, sometimes it can be hard to allocate enough budget, tools, or time for UX design, or to cope with changing requirements, expectations, or technologies.

UX tip: Adopt a lean and agile UX approach. Focus on delivering a minimum viable product (MVP) that meets user needs and business goals. Then, iterate and improve based on user feedback and data. 

Concentrate first on low-hanging fruit, such as formatting features of your existing out-of-the-box technology to your specific industry needs. Prototyping tools like Figma can help you streamline the UX design process, collect internal feedback and work through different ideas before making expensive potentially disruptive changes to your users. 

CX benefit: It takes about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion on your website, including whether they like your site or not, and whether they’ll stay or leave. This rapid judgment underscores the importance of iterative UX design. 

Implementing smaller, iterative changes leads to faster issue resolution, improved user satisfaction, and increased flexibility. This approach also boosts employee morale, optimizes resource allocation, and enhances business performance through quicker market releases that accumulate into bigger improvements and results.

4. Lack of measurement 

Challenge: UX design should be data-driven to ensure that changes and improvements are based on actual user feedback and behavior. However, many organizations struggle to establish a robust measurement strategy that accurately captures the impact of UX efforts. Without clear metrics, it's difficult to demonstrate the value of UX investments or identify areas for improvement.

UX tip: You can measure the impact of UX improvements through customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and conversion rates. Use tools like SurveyMonkey to collect feedback and track these metrics over time. This direct, explicit feedback from your users should always be balanced with implicit feedback based on behind-the-scenes data. 

To capture implicit feedback, lean on your analytics tools, like Google Analytics, to monitor user behavior. How successful are users at completing core tasks? How long does it take them to complete a task? How many errors do they make along the way? Through these, you can infer the true ease and quality of your UX. Regularly review and analyze this data to inform your UX strategy and make data-driven decisions.

CX benefit: As we mentioned earlier, sharing metrics with stakeholders not only justifies past UX investments but also fosters support for future UX initiatives. Building a continuous feedback loop can drive an organizational culture that values and understands the critical role of UX in achieving business success, leading to sustained investment in UX resources and projects. 

Plus, evidence shows that data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire new customers and 19 times more likely to be profitable — underscoring the substantial impact that an evidence-based UX strategy can have on an organization's overall success.

The UX + CX connection

Remember, every button or swipe may seem minor, but they matter. That's because good UX is the key to great customer experience. Getting the UX right means we're not just making websites or apps more attractive, we're making people's lives more convenient, too. And in today's world, that's the kind of customer care that gets noticed.

So, let's keep users at the center of our UX and CX design. Continuously gather feedback, iterate based on real user data, and focus on creating seamless and intuitive experiences. Because at the end of the day, the best experiences are the ones that feel effortless. Here's to making every click a little more seamless — and showing the world that UX isn't just part of the customer experience, it's the essence of it.