- Understanding user experience consulting
- UX design consultant: defining the role
- Carrying out in-depth research
- Mapping out user personas
- Team guidance
- Testing and validation of results
- The benefits of having a user experience consultant
- Outside perspective
- Enhanced user understanding
- Efficient product strategy
- Quick development process
- Impeccable design quality
- Training and mentorship
- Scenarios when businesses need a user experience design consultant
- Key attributes of a strong UX consultant
- Breadth of experience
- Strategic mindset
- Excellent analytical capabilities
- Inquisitive mind
- Aptitude for collaboration
- Andersen as your partner for digital transformation
- A user-centered approach
- Data-driven perspective
- Future-focused strategies
- Agility
- Knowledge transfer
- Wrapping up
As helpful and necessary as digital products can be, they can only find acclaim if they have an engaging user experience. That's why designers implement a solid UX right from the start or improve existing solutions. Clear and intuitive interfaces leave users satisfied and bring revenue to businesses.
Therefore, to build an efficient solution, you need not only top-notch developers but also an experienced UX/UI consultant. Such professionals are becoming increasingly popular globally and significantly contribute to software success.
In this piece, Andersen's specialists shed light on the advantages of having a reliable UX design consultant.
Understanding user experience consulting
To fully grasp the concept of UX consulting, you must understand what user experience means. It covers all interactions a person has with a product or service. And customers are happy only if the design is clear, with intuitive interfaces, appealing visuals, and easy navigation.
However, even with these elements, digital solutions may struggle to connect with people effectively. That's why you should find an experienced UX consultant—this specialist will identify and address the problems extremely efficiently. They comprehensively analyze the architecture, layout, metrics, and design. This enables them to identify opportunities for improving the user journey. As a result, your platform, system, or app leaves a lasting impression and brings profit.
A user experience design consultant helps with improving existing software or developing a new solution. By involving a UX expert in the creation process—from planning to design, development, and post-launch support—you can ensure a stellar user experience right from the start. Their supervision helps implement best practices for usability and visual attractiveness into the product’s DNA.
UX consulting helps businesses nurture their software holistically. It provides an outside-in perspective based on expert analysis of the competitive landscape, user needs, and strategic goals. This bird's eye view of the product experience identifies areas of opportunity, so enhancements can be made systematically. With their approach rooted in research, such experts uncover paths for solutions to reach their full potential. Their insights help a company keep clients happy, engaged, and loyal over the long haul.
UX design consultant: defining the role
A UX design consultant is a bridge between your in-house personnel, end users, and stakeholders. Blending design skills with analytical ability, they study your solution and target groups to pinpoint issues and find ways to polish the user experience.
Some of their key responsibilities include:
Carrying out in-depth research
User experience design consultants gather extensive insights into your business, product, target audience, and market. They analyze this data and give expert recommendations on how people perceive your application and how you can enhance it cost-effectively. They carry out their tasks with your brand positioning and strategic objectives in mind.
Mapping out user personas
Through their research, user experience design consultants gain a profound understanding of different segments of your audience. This knowledge helps them build detailed personas that capture each group's behaviors, motivations, and pain points.
Team guidance
By leveraging proven frameworks and tools, user experience consultants advise your team on crafting effective wireframes, prototypes, and interfaces. They ensure alignment to a sound UX strategy and schedule.
Testing and validation of results
UX consultants play an active part in the usability testing of prototypes and finished products. This process shows if the objectives have been met and the software delivers a smooth experience. They use established UX metrics and provide assessment reports.
The benefits of having a user experience consultant
A UX consultant brings immense value to your business in several ways:
Outside perspective
Engaging a UX consultant means having a fresh pair of eyes to evaluate your solution. Biases do not constrain such a specialist, so they can detect any issues your platform has. Also, they see opportunities for growth. Top-notch experts with cross-domain expertise and extensive experience can easily benchmark your UX against those of your competitors. The outside perspective is beneficial—no more blind spots and plenty of innovative ideas to realize.
Enhanced user understanding
Meticulous research, thorough testing, and robust analytics help a UX designer consultant comprehend the needs of your audience. Thus, they can offer valuable suggestions on how to optimize features for real-life needs. Designers and developers now know which functions to prioritize, thanks to this advice.
Efficient product strategy
A UX consultant looks at the overall picture to create a successful strategy. They consider business goals, user needs, and technical capabilities. They lead strategic planning to create an impeccable UX, facilitate team collaboration, and steer the product roadmap in the right direction.
Quick development process
By leading the initial research and setting up a solid UX strategy, a consultant makes the development process smoother. They ensure consistency in the product experience and improve workflows. Having an experienced UX consultant from the start helps prevent expensive rework caused by poor design decisions. With their recommendations, the development team will work more efficiently.
Impeccable design quality
UX designer consultants turn research insights into intuitive and attractive interfaces for enterprise, multimedia, and other applications. With a deep understanding of UX principles and patterns, they know how to implement consistency across various platforms and devices. The resulting designs are not only visually appealing but also highly functional.
Training and mentorship
Beyond hands-on design work, UX consultants coach and mentor internal teams. They provide training on processes, methodologies, and tools, thus elevating team capabilities. With expert guidance, in-house designers, developers, and product managers can expand their skills. Knowledge transfer makes the organization ready for future challenges.
Investing in a UX consultant pays dividends through superior design, accelerated development, and mentorship. Their fresh perspective, user insights, and design expertise make them a valuable asset.
Scenarios when businesses need a user experience design consultant
Determining the right moment to engage an outside consulting firm or outsource some development services can be tricky. The following typical situations indicate that your business can benefit from extra expertise:
- Despite considerable investments, your current application, website, or other solution is showing poor performance. Conversion rates, engagement metrics, and feedback lag behind your expectations. Bringing in a seasoned expert could help pinpoint issues in a more unbiased, structured manner. Their fresh perspective can uncover problems that may go unnoticed internally;
- You want to create entirely new software. While your team may have vital business domain knowledge, they likely lack the specialized skills to craft an intuitive, user-centric product. A specialist well-versed in UX strategy guarantees that you build a solid foundation right from the start. Their involvement is an opportunity to optimize both the user experience and development costs;
- Your organization needs assistance when developing an effective UX strategy and vision. You may want to redesign an existing solution, but your team is stuck or lacks specific expertise. Or perhaps your staff members need to strengthen their skills in leading frameworks and methodologies. An experienced consulting agency can provide mentorship and training while also guiding strategic planning and design;
- You seek an objective audit of your product's user experience. Bringing in outside specialists to thoroughly evaluate and test your app, site, or software can help uncover blind spots. With their broad exposure across industries, they can identify gaps and opportunities to improve satisfaction, engagement, and performance. Their assessment will help you leverage the interaction patterns and features expected in today's top interfaces.
Key attributes of a strong UX consultant
Now, let’s delve into the professional and personal qualities to consider when interviewing a candidate to augment your team. To make the right decision, consider the following professional and interpersonal qualities:
Breadth of experience
A robust portfolio reflecting a specialist’s experience across different projects is the first thing you should look for. If they have already worked on similar solutions, this will enable you to evaluate the skills and knowledge of your potential partner. Also, make sure to review case studies and client feedback—these prove their ability to deliver results. When searching for an ideal candidate, pay special attention to their expertise with current tools and methods.
Strategic mindset
If you want your solution to succeed, search for a specialist with a genuine entrepreneurial spirit. Such people are active, full of ideas, and have impressive management skills. Those who cherish team spirit, share their knowledge and expertise, and support other staff members influence the overall mood within a team. Moreover, they can devise long-term plans and offer sound strategies, taking full responsibility for everything they do. Self-motivation and readiness to conquer new heights are their vital features.
Excellent analytical capabilities
Strong analytical skills allow a specialist to quickly synthesize data to gain product and user insights. Prioritize candidates capable of conducting research thoroughly. Their critical thinking will help you make strategic decisions.
Inquisitive mind
Top consultants are lifelong learners who stay on top of technological changes and advancements in their domain. Thanks to their inquisitive nature, such specialists are eager to absorb new knowledge, delve into the latest industry trends, and seek additional sources of inspiration.
Aptitude for collaboration
Mature consultants are team players who establish rapport with other professionals. They have the communication skills and emotional intelligence to collaborate effectively with other experts—designers, sales representatives, programmers, BAs, and testers.
Andersen as your partner for digital transformation
Since its establishment in 2007, Andersen has been striving to enhance its IT services with top-quality personnel and in-depth expertise. We have earned a name as a UX/UI design company that uses their strategic thinking and design expertise to assist organizations in reaching their digital potential. We have partnered with leading companies worldwide and have contributed to various systems with top-notch interfaces and navigation.
Our primary aim is to ensure our clients achieve long-term success. When collaborating with businesses in such industries as FinTech, healthcare, logistics, and others, we emphasize the following:
A user-centered approach
Our specialists do their best to understand the diverse needs of people who use software. Empathy, attention to detail, and understanding what others may lack or need—these and other qualities help us suggest the best possible solutions. Andersen’s research and testing help businesses improve the interfaces and usability of their digital platforms. We know that personalization is key to creating impeccable software. And we craft tailored experiences that meet the needs of different user groups.
Data-driven perspective
We use a data-driven approach to find opportunities and assess various scenarios. Analytics, benchmarks, and business metrics support our decisions. This analytical foundation ensures that the improvements we offer have a measurable impact on your KPIs. We offer a 360-degree view of the product experience.
Future-focused strategies
Our UI/UX design consultants keep up with technology changes to recommend strategies that maintain the competitiveness of our business partners. We propel innovative concepts to be in line with industry trends and the real-life needs of people. This helps businesses get future-proof software.
Agility
We use iterative techniques to validate concepts and collect feedback. This Agile approach refines the product direction and helps our partners control costs. Our flexibility helps us learn and set the right priorities. We bridge strategy with efficient execution to boost speed-to-market.
Knowledge transfer
Beyond project execution, we focus on transferring knowledge to the in-house teams of our partners. We offer end-to-end consulting spanning various aspects of design:
UX strategy
- Competitive benchmarking
- User research
- Persona development
- Journey mapping
UI design
- Wireframes and workflows
- Visual design language
- Style guides and pattern libraries
- Interactive prototyping
Usability testing
- Expert reviews
- UAT
- A/B testing
- Analytics and reporting
Coaching
- Design thinking training
- Agile UX workshops
- Staff augmentation
- Design leadership
Wrapping up
If you want to enhance your software or build a new product with an impeccable user experience, Andersen is here to assist you with a solution of any complexity. We employ experienced UX design consultants who can assess your business concept and offer a working plan. Contact us for more information if you need top-quality services.