Future Tech Is Driven By Users Not Customers: Here’s What You Need To Know
By Justin Marcucci, Endava
Over the past decade companies have shifted from a product-centric approach to a customer experience-centric approach as a way of conducting business. Advances in technology, including AI and chatbots, now provide ease to customers by sharing customized recommendations for products and services and increasing access to, and communications directly with, companies in more accessible ways.
This transition revolutionized much more than business practices. It also transformed consumer expectations. A seamless, enjoyable experience is not appreciated by consumers anymore, it’s expected. Companies struggling to deliver will not survive in today’s marketplace. But that’s not the only factor companies must achieve. Companies that are thriving are also delivering a perfect user experience. Think they are the same thing? Think again.
The Customer Journey Is Unlocked Through Powerful User Experiences
For years, players in the digital space have been inconclusive when defining the “customer experience.” This leads to variation in meeting goals of delivery and confusion in the marketplace. Senior business leaders are starting to take interest in the when, how and why of customer engagement, with their owned, earned and paid touch points. But with so many conflicting interpretations of what customer experience truly means, how can businesses deliver a solution? Furthermore, how do technology solutions address these evolving business challenges?
Stepping away from the conflicting definitions of “customer experience,” forward-thinking companies are paying attention to the ambition and scope of the “user experience” (UX), which considers much more than simply assisting customers in their interactions with technology. Not only does UX analyze the customer, but it also provides a more holistic practice of thinking how we, as humans, live together with technology. Dated technology solutions can’t keep up with the anticipated future demands of users. The future of this industry rests on delivering powerful solutions that can handle much more.
The following dimensions are critical in the UX evolution:
- Perpetual Availability: The rise of mobile and the enormous computing power and connectivity that this unlocks means we are constantly available and have almost any knowledge at our fingertips. Good UX is in an always-on mode.
- Processing of Non-Digital Requests: As user interfaces continue to evolve and morph concordant with rises in computing power, humans adapt less to technology and the reverse is true. Speech and language processing, image recognition and biometrics are all layering to reduce the gap between humans and their technology.
- Anticipating Needs and Deciphering User Intent: There is an evolution — and even an expectation — that machines and digital interfaces are proactive. User intent is recognized even before the action has occurred and the needs of the user are anticipated. Machine learning and AI underpins this from a technology point of view, but for UX practitioners the challenge lies in developing interaction patterns and language in this new space.
- Decoupling Rich Experiences from the Physical World: The rise of AR/VR became apparent at CES in January 2017, where both from a content and a hardware availability point of view, AR/VR stole the show. This possibility to create rich experiences in a virtual world or in a mixed reality opens new UX opportunities.
- Contextually Autonomous Decision-Making: Outcomes of the above-mentioned trends could culminate into a world of invisible interactions that surround us and make our life more productive, more inspirational and even a bit more aspirational. The optimal user interface is one that creates no additional friction for the user and blends seamlessly into his/her world.
As these five elements are combined, a pattern emerges: UX is becoming simpler and more invisible to the user, with the bulk of the effort offloaded to the technology itself. The creation of this simpler, more human-driven experience requires significant technical ability to build the infrastructure to support it.
As Chief Digital Officer, Justin Marcucci is responsible for leading Endava’s global digital business, both from a client engagement and digital delivery capacity. The digital philosophy he has instilled within the organization is focused on enabling businesses to dramatically improve the experiences of their users through the introduction of technology, while giving them the strategy, data, and insight to evolve and succeed as the overall market landscape changes. Bringing over 18 years of practical knowledge in the digital arena, Marcucci’s past experiences leading Product, Business Development and User Experience organizations for both AT&T Interactive and Sony Electronics, along with his current role, have helped strategically transform businesses across all industries, worldwide.