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The field of UX has seen huge advancements in recent years. Well, that can be justified since it is one area that needs consistent learning and improvement. UX designers, user researchers, writers, managers, and strategists are roles you may have been familiar with, but UX consultancy? It’s one term turning up often lately.
A lot of startups or even established businesses are getting great product ideas launched but are experiencing very low or average user acceptance or customer retention, it’s no surprise UX Consultancy is getting the look in these days.
Are you also experiencing these pain points as a business owner?
Professional Consultants are there to relieve you. In this blog, we’ll give you a complete overview of the UX consultancy field and guide you toward finding just the right partner.
- UX Consultancy and Why!
- Difference Between a UX Designer and UX Consultant.
- How exactly can they Help Your Business?
- Things to Look for When Hiring one.
Ready? Let’s get kicking!
UX Consultancy and Why!
A UX consultant can be explained as someone or a group who specializes or doubles as a UX designer and a business consultant. He comes with years of experience in the UX field, so this enables them to provide a cohesive perspective to organizations.
User experience consultants help businesses to unify their outlook regarding a product or service, perform client analysis, do design audit, create strategies, and support designers. Thus we see that UX consulting has different implications. On the whole, they use their experience and knowledge to provide expert advice for organizations to better their user experience.
Why UX Consulting?
A user experience consultant can enhance an organization’s efficiency with their expert opinion and experienced viewpoint. The benefits of having an outsider perspective is always a bonus, and this can provide that.
Here are some reasons why you should do user experience consulting.
- Find UX issues: User experience consulting can help find issues that a UX team could not detect. They can help diagnose these issues and at a faster pace owing to their experience.
- Honest feedback: If you plan a redesign, you would want honest feedback on your current design and understand its pain points. A UX consultant is the best choice for that.
- Business transformation: They focus not only on design but also on business analysis, insights, and strategies and can be of significant help in business transformation.
- Innovation: They can help businesses discover unexplored opportunities and meet unseen needs. This can help to take the business to a higher level.
Difference Between a UX Designer and UX Consultant.
The role of a UX consultant has some similarities with a UX designer; however, there are considerable differences between the two.
UX Designer (UD) vs. UX Consultant (UC)
- UD focuses on the design of a product/service, WHILE UC focuses on the user experience provided by the organization.
- UD solves UX challenges related to a product/service WHILE UC solves UX challenges related to business problems.
- UD Does research to improve the experience of a product/service WHILE UC performs research to understand business challenges.
- UD works under the guidance of business leads WHILE UC leads an entire organization’s UX journey with their expert service.
- UD informs stakeholders of any UX issues WHILE UC shares best UX practices for improvement.
How exactly can a UX Consultant Help Your Business?
You may have your in-house UX team, but the value that a UX consultant can bring to your business is unrivaled. Here are some of the ways they can improve your business.
Fill Gaps
Most times, what hampers the growth of brands is the lack of clarity about their vision. Often, people know what is needed, but a gap comes in communication. Having a consultant on board can fill this gap by interviewing the members, performing user research and gathering data. And to illustrate their insights, they use techniques such as journey mapping and storyboards that can help organizations to clarify their vision.
Perform Audits
Consultants are often experienced UX designers. This makes them very quick to spot weaknesses or common mistakes in strategies. When performing audits, they can therefore be priceless assets. Their expertise can help a brand improve by finding areas of improvement, fixing them, and increasing their conversion rates.
Create Strategies
As we saw earlier, a UX consultant brings about the digital transformation of an organization. They do a lot of research, analysis, and implement strategies to achieve organizational change. Then, they help organizations implement this change by addressing the challenges in policies, culture, and assets and providing support and guidance.
Implement a Design System
As an organization grows, it is natural to have differing goals. But if there is no unified approach in place, it will lead to inconsistencies. A UX consultant can implement a design system that can help employees to move in the same direction. This design system can include guidelines about UX design principles, content, UI components and their consistency, and documentation.
Provide Coaching
UX consultants can help develop a team by coaching them to enhance their design skills and personal skills such as their mindset and communication. To do this, they conduct workshops, brainstorming sessions, and provide tips for best practices in UX design, user research etc. They thus aid the personal as well as professional growth of employees in an organization.
Things to Look for When Hiring a User Experience Consultant.
Organizations might require user experience consulting services for different needs. It could be during the beginning of a project during the user research stage for example), or during a redesign, or when there is a need for expertise and innovation. Whichever the reason, it is vital for the organization to know why they are hiring one and what it is that they look for.
User experience consultants usually specialize in specific areas or industries. Once an organization is clear about their need, it should find experts in that line. It is essential to know about their experience and work history. Discuss their previous works if possible, ask about their approach (generally and to user research), their UX design process, and budget. Make sure that they are reliable and authentic.
Finding a good UX Consultant?
There are several efficient firms that offer excellent consulting services. To find one for your business, you can check through platforms like Behance, LinkedIn, or Google Search. Good firms should have great reviews and samples of previous work done (Portfolio).
You can also find a good UX consulting firm through referrals from friends or other businesses that have used their expertise. Some UI/UX Design agencies provide effective UX consultancy as part of their services, they are also great options for a good service.
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