UX @ WEX: A WEX Tech Talk

What do bottles of ketchup and good UX (user experience) design have in common? At a recent WEX Tech Talk, Director of UX Christina Keighley started her presentation with a demonstration by two WEXers using the classic glass bottle and the now ubiquitous plastic squeeze container of America’s favorite condiment. When you’re starving and a juicy hamburger is placed in front of you, Keighley observed that the speed, control and ease-of-use of a squeezable ketchup bottle clearly provides a better user experience.

Following this everyday example of good UX design, Keighley’s Tech Talk explored what UX is, why it’s important and how WEX is building a UX center of excellence. “UX is design that makes it easy to reach your goal – it’s as simple as that,” noted Keighley. “In our work, we can define UX as an actionable, data-driven plan for design that strategically and systematically solves a business problem.”

The Benefits of UX

As early as 1973, the value of user experience was noted by IBM President Thomas J. Watson who said, “Good design is good business. We are convinced that good design can materially help make a good product reach its full potential.” Keighley noted that UX can change the success and trajectory of products. Prime examples are companies like Google, Apple and Facebook that front-load their UX process, invest heavily in optimizing their web products and never stop looking at what their audience wants and how they can improve.

The business benefits of good user experience extend beyond the top ten customer experience leaders who, according to Forrester research, have outperformed the S&P by 43%. All companies stand to reap real rewards in customer attraction and retention, as well as increased revenue and reduced costs, when they focus on user experience. Keighley shared Forrester research from the past five years that brought home the impact of UX:

• Reduce wasted development time by 50%
• Increase customer conversion – from a 30% increase in sales to a 70% increase in the quantity of products sold
• 83% increase in key performance indicators
• 35% reduction in call center and help desk volume

The UX Process

Keighley’s Tech Talk also mapped out the end-to-end UX design process and some of the activities and deliverables for each of its four major steps:

Define: From user research, analysis and interviews to the development of high-level schematics, flows and prototypes, this stage is all about getting everyone on the same page and collaborating to define the problem that needs to be solved and possible solutions. Conducting random, grass roots interviews with your customers at this stage, offered Keighley, can get at the heart of what somebody really wants in a given situation.

Design: In this phase, the UX team works to bring initial concepts to life using journey maps, sitemaps and establishing a visual design language and content strategy. The design process then moves into the development of clickable prototypes that eventually lead to high-fidelity mock-ups and wireframes.

Execute: The pass off to developers and engineers to execute UX design requires thorough functional and design specs, as well as information such as style guides, to ensure that development can be handled quickly and efficiently.

Evaluate: User testing measurement and benchmarking all take place following launch of a new product, allowing for continual improvement through updates and optimizations.

WEX UX Center of Excellence

UX is a strategic priority at WEX, with the goal of integrating UX design into all the work done by the organization globally. To accomplish this, Keighley noted that her focus is on building a scalable UX practice at WEX that fosters common UX standards and best practices. She shared with WEXers an assortment of tools in use and in development to support this goal, as well as an action plan of anticipated projects and deliverables.

“A wide variety of people across WEX have a vested interest in making sure we’re putting out world-class products in the digital realm and that we’re upholding the highest UX standards,” said Keighley. “This effort will take people from across all our business units and from different skill sets. We want to make sure that UX is embedded in all our cross-disciplinary teams, with product, marketing, developers, UX people, writers and others collaborating to design the best user experience possible.”

If this commitment and approach to UX design resonates with you, take a look at our Career Center to see current job openings and to learn more about working at WEX.