In Part 1, we discussed the 4 factors that make it crucial to modernize continuously your UX/UI applications. In Part 2, we’re going to talk about the best practices in the field that can be leveraged to improve user experience.

How to approach the modernization of your applications and which are the best practices in planning and implementing UX modernization projects?

Regardless of whether you decide to modernize your UI/UX in-house or hire a consultant for this, the 5 phases below will help you structure this effort.

1. Requirements collection

This is the first part of the modernization project where you assemble your internal stakeholders and try to come up with the requirements to satisfy the business problem that you have uncovered. This phase is super important and the more collaborative you make it, the better insight you are going to get. It usually contains a lot of interviews, so a good committee is crucial. We live in a global world, so our advice is to make the room as diverse as possible - people with different roles within the company (marketing, sales, technical leads) and demographics (age, sex, ethnicity). The best practice here is to start small (with up to 5 people) and expand as needed in case you need more feedback.

2. Research

This phase helps us understand the problem and the user needs. By the end of the research, we should have identified the different personas that will utilize our product and have a very clear understanding which is their specific need and why. In this phase, we take screenshots of the current solutions, watch user videos, get feedback both from internal/external stakeholders, read user reviews, etc. and this turns into our body of knowledge to prepare us for the next step - analysis. So, our advice is to have no secrets when it comes to this process – put everything on the table and look at it objectively. This will ensure you have all aspects covered. 

3. Analysis

In this phase, we analyze the collected data to validate the usability problems we have identified. We break down the data points/requirements and piece them apart, analyzing them into specific user flows. This is where we build your site map and scenario map. So, we get a really good idea of how the solution is constructed, how you intend your users to use the solution as well as how the users are using it. One of the problems we find in this phase is that there is a disconnect between the user path that is occurring and the intended user path. One of our goals will be to rectify this because if the user wants to use it in a certain way, we need to align with this.

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"The other problem we see is that often we start a project thinking one thing f.ex. there is a problem with the color scheme or the navigation and during the analysis stage we realize there is something bigger than that, so we can revise the scope." says Maria Kovacheva, UX/UI director Resolute Software.

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This aspect makes the analysis phase crucial because determining what problems you need to solve is something that would either set you on the right path for success or you are going to invest a lot of time and money in the wrong direction, and you are going to end up with a more beautiful UI but carrying out all the problems with the UX in the first place.

Our last piece of advice for this phase is that you need to define and plan for what you want – not for what’s available. If you can’t figure out how to make what you want – we are here to help.

4. Prototyping and validation

This is where the creative part is taking place and you will be validating some of the early findings and solicit further customer feedback. This is usually the most exciting part of the process. Our advice is to keep this as iterative as possible as an approach to make it efficient. Start with something small - create a general layout with a low fidelity wireframe and follow this up with a high-fidelity prototype containing design choices, colors, and data visualization. Our second piece of advice for this phase is that you prototype the experience for both desktop and mobile to have a consistent feel across devices. Check out how we did that for a recent client, for which we developed 2 prototypes – one for mobile devices, and one for desktop.

5. Implementation

During the last phase, the final design is implemented, and you see your project brought to life.

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Websites and Applications don’t just aim to generate traffic. They want visitors to stay as long as possible and to successfully complete a task - the purpose of most if not all applications. And this can be accomplished when you maintain a wonderful user interface offering amazing user experiences. Don’t forget that the new generations are looking at their digital consumption with another pair of eyes, so don’t get stale! You need to keep it flexible, modern, and advanced so that you can always keep up with the changing business environment and have your competitive edge maintained. UI/UX Modernization is all you need for this.

Resolute Software provide expert UX services, leveraging a well-established Agile-driven schedule. Building on the solid foundation of qualitative and quantitative research, along with UX best practices evaluation, our team of UX experts will meticulously track and identify the problems of your existing UX architecture and propose solutions backed by hard data and scientific analysis.

The UX assessment package we offer is an effective way to identify usability issues and map out the means to solving them. The UX assessment sets the stage for building future-proof, customer-centric user experiences.

Get in touch with us for a free 30 min. UX/UI consultation.