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When UX doesn’t consider all users: A brief discussion on what qualifies as user experience in a tech startup world. The article works from a rhetorical statement – what happens when UX doesn’t consider all users? Shouldn’t it be called some user experience or SUX?

Although a playful usage of words, I’d like to focus the article on defining your customer base, identifying how your majority of the users respond to UX and UI changes. Design changes can be contentious and it isn’t always easy to get customer feedback. It is very important to ensure that you devise an objective mechanism to understand what your customers’ real responses are. And make sure that you don’t sacrifice the views of your entire customer base for a single customer. It is a fine balance to tread.

With that in mind, I’d like to talk about the quote of the day:

When UX doesn’t consider ALL users, shouldn’t it be known as “SOME User Experience” or… So, When UX doesn’t consider ALL users, shouldn’t it be known as “SOME User Experience” or… SUX?” — Billy Gregory, Senior Accessibility EngineerX?”

Defining your users

Before I completely defy the logic that design should consider all users, I would like to question the importance of defining a boundary for this user requirement. Remember, not all users of your system are qualified users. In other words, they might not all be using it the same way. You need to define the sweet spot in which the majority of your users use your system. This is to protect yourself from developing a system that works for only a few while the majority suffer. It is key to ensure that your feedback is structured enough to take appropriate decisions.

Key questions to consider while defining this boundary are:

• Is it supposed to be accessible to every user or the customer segment you are focused on?
• What are the key drivers which define your user persona? Does it form a significant element of your design work?
• How easy is it to get lost in trying to make a design to work for everyone? It is impossible to keep everyone happy. The key question is – should design try to make everyone happy?
• How to combine this back to business requirements and key priorities? Is it a revenue driver or customer experience focus?
• How to balance the purist view of user experience to the business requirements which naturally focus on a profit motive?

Once you define your user base and type of usage, you’ll be able to take actionable steps for further decisions. You can find a detailed explanation in – 5 Key Tenets of User Experience Design

When UX doesn’t consider all users

Although UX is not for everyone, I’m sure you can appreciate that it’s rhetoric we’re trying to talk about here. The majority of your customer base is still represented by addressing the questions we talked about above.

Once you know that there are some areas of design that don’t work for all users, you’ll need to drill it down further to understand

• What if users find it difficult to use this design?
• Does this mean that users will stop using your product?
• If they do, does it impact your business altogether? If so, shouldn’t you be considering and quantifying it into a business requirement

Resources are always limited – you cannot always do everything at once. It is imperative that you decide the priorities and for that understanding, your customer base can be very impactful.

Related post: What qualifies as design in a tech startup

One Sided Approach

The key point in this article is – you should avoid a design that works only for a few people. Even if you work on it, please make sure that it doesn’t affect your other customers. This can be done by developing license specific designs although they can be expensive. But it prevents compromising your existing user base.

I believe this is where I’d like to re-impress the point on a design that ignores the majority of the user base. It eventually sucks. You’ll want to avoid that if you want a long term relation with your customers.

When UX doesn’t consider ALL users, shouldn’t it be known as “SOME User Experience” or… So, When UX doesn’t consider ALL users, shouldn’t it be known as “SOME User Experience” or… SUX?”

— Billy Gregory, Senior Accessibility EngineerX?”