How to Set UX Goals That Work

Eighty-eight percent of online customers – or potential customers – say they will not visit a website again after having a bad experience with it. Meanwhile, 91% of customers with bad experiences won't leave feedback – they'll simply disappear completely, never to return.

User experience (UX) is fundamental to your success as a business and brand. And bringing it to the forefront of your strategic plans starts with setting ambitious yet realistic UX goals.

UX Design Explained

Although it is called design, UX is much more than aesthetics. Visual appeal is certainly part of this, but it actually encompasses all user interactions with your product. This is a comprehensive process that involves usability, performance, accessibility , practicality and overall functionality.

Today, UX designers are central to the software and web development process as companies are increasingly aware of competition in the market. Ultimately, your goal is to deliver an exemplary experience to your users and potential users that is relevant and solves their problems. This, in turn, helps build brand loyalty, keeping consumers coming back to you again and again.

A UX designer must be technically qualified and have a series of interpersonal skills as well, such as the ability to communicate and exercise empathy with their audience. The process involves extensive research, wireframes, strategies, product development, prototyping, design and testing.

6 Tips for Setting UX Goals

Great UX starts with clearly defined goals. How do you set these goals? Here's what to do.

1. Think about the big picture

UX goals don't exist in a silo. They must complement, support and promote your larger strategic goals . It’s important to align them with your organization’s mission, values, and overall goals.

Additionally, you must consider what it will take to carry out your projects. What is the process behind them? What do you intend to achieve? What problems are you solving? How will you and your team accomplish them? How will you test and evaluate them?

Remember to establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which will serve as metrics to evaluate your progress and results. It will also help you think in terms of the bigger picture and what you should do – or not do – next time.

2. Consider the W's

Who, what, when, why and how: these are all critical considerations when it comes to UX. Let's take a closer look:

• Who: Who are your target users? It helps you create personas to determine their wants, needs, likes, and dislikes.
• What: What type of product are you building? What does this mean to do? What will this achieve and solve for the user?
• When: When does your team plan to launch the product on the market? Deadlines are an important factor in the UX process.
• Why: Why should people or want to use this product? Why are you building this in the first place?
• How: How do you hope consumers use it?

3. Be SMART

SMART goals are a framework that allows you to conceptualize your project and evaluate your incremental and overall progress toward achieving your results. The acronym means:

• Specific: Objectives should be well-defined and as specific as possible.
• Measurable: Consider how you will measure progress and results. What measuring tool or tools will you use?
• Actionable/Achievable: There must be specific things that you are able to do in an effort to achieve your goals.
• Realistic: Your goals should be neither too lofty nor too simple.
• Deadline: There must be a deadline within which you will achieve these goals.

Using the framework will increase your chances of achieving positive results.

4. Build relationships with team members

While UX design service providers and their teams are the ones who shape the user experience, it is, in fact, the responsibility of everyone involved in the project. That's why it's so important to strengthen relationships with your team members – that way, you can be sure you're collaborating to create an optimal experience for your users. This will also significantly help your process run more smoothly.

Plus, think about all the skills and talents you'll need to leverage to make the user experience the best it can be. To use them, you must collaborate with each other.

5. Embrace flexibility

Things change. Ideas change. Projects change. Goals change.

This is an unfortunate part of the UX process, but it doesn't have to derail your project. To formulate powerful and achievable – but ambitious – goals you will need to accept that not everything is set in stone. You must embrace flexibility and be able to adapt. This is critical as your plans unfold. After all, software and web projects are creative at their core, and that means there is no rigid structure or path to follow. Therefore, you must keep an open mind.

6. Always exercise empathy

Empathy is the most important part of the user experience process. Any UX designer must be able to empathize with the potential user, and this must be fundamental to any goals they set. Therefore, it is essential to keep this in mind whenever you are planning, conceptualizing, researching and considering.

What makes a UX goal work?

UX goals should be central to your design thinking . But remember that they must fit into the holistic development process, complementing, supporting and defending the entirety of your objectives.

The user is the most important person for your project. They are the ones who will ultimately be, well, using the software or website and therefore their goals for the project must match their own goals. After all, this is the main reason behind all your work.