June 15, 2021

Inside UX design: The importance of being customer-centric

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At Aivo we are customer centric, which means the reason we get up every morning is to offer value to our customers. That’s why user experience design plays a key role in every step we take and with every product we create.

So we thought, who better than one of our experts to tell you firsthand how we do it at Aivo?

In between work calls, research triggers and drafting new ideas, Nicolás Álvarez Quiró (aka “Shuga”), from our Product Design team, talks about the importance of user experience (UX) and how it runs through everything we develop.

How'd you get into the world of UX design?

I’ve always been into technology, but more from the “soft” side, how technology's related to people. When I was studying multimedia design, I discovered interface design. And that’s how I started doing what interested me: How to solve user problems.

It's trendy to talk about UX, but it’s not always clear what UX is and isn't, or even if UX and UI are the same thing. How do we tell them apart?

UX is an area that looks to cover all interactions a person can have with a product or service. The goal is to achieve as less friction as possible between the user and the product. Plus, that product is supposed to be aesthetic, pleasing, easy to use.

There are different branches within UX: UI is one of them and covers everything to do with interface design, which is design so people understand what they see and can interact with an interface that helps achieve their task. This involves the design of components, design systems and “screens” where people can identify where to click for an action, which icons are for saving or deleting, which colors and buttons represent a main action, etc.

And what are those other branches of UX design?

UX research is fundamental. This deals with researching the user, getting to know them and understanding their pain points. The product designer role is also important. It’s there throughout the entire design process (from research to final design) and also has an eye on the business side: making sure the proposal fits the business goals and contributes to user well-being.

User experience design is an area that looks to cover all interactions a person can have with a product or service. The goal is to achieve as less friction as possible between the user and the product. Plus, that product is supposed to be aesthetic, pleasing, easy to use.

At Aivo, what’s the first thing the product design team is asking before starting work on the product?

We’re currently focusing on evolving the experience with our products. The first question we ask ourselves is: What problems are people having? For example, we had the insight that customers couldn’t really see the bot window because the text was illegible or the fields were too small. So then we work on the problems with our product and the user problems with that product.

Besides that, we’re always asking: Do we know everything we could possibly know about the customer and their users? What do we have and what do users need? What works and what doesn’t? And something else really important: Where's the AI bot industry heading? Because we can’t go to the other extreme, we have to know how to find the balance, keeping our identity and the balance between end users, customers and Aivo as a business that seeks to provide solutions.

At Aivo, we're lucky to get lots of feedback from our customers, and there's the challenge that our end users aren’t companies but the companies' customers, so what defines the end user experience changes depending on the industry.

What would you say are our best practices within Aivo?

Aivo’s challenge is that customers are very diverse, and there are even more diverse users. It’s not the same to provide a solution to a bank, where users need the bot to block a card that's been stolen and they're nervous, as opposed to a telecom, where people use the bot to check their balance. That’s why we emphasize getting to know the end user as much as possible.

 For this, we follow these steps:

-        Know the user and have as many insights as possible.

-        Map everything we’ve got, knowing ourselves and the market we’re serving.

-        Do a ton of research to get to the solution we’re looking for, taking insights and references from the market.

-        When we have something that works, we check it internally and then with customers.

-        And repeat. It's an iterative process with the product because we’re constantly getting feedback. Technology changes, products and services change, and experiences are updated based on that.

How important is UX for customer service?

When someone contacts customer service, it’s usually for something specific and not just because, so it’s important to know how to provide a solution in this scenario. If the solution is bad, it really sours the relationship between the brand and the customer. But if the response is good, it’s super rewarding.

Say I want to cancel my subscription to something and I have to click 10 times to get to the right place, and then I’m referred to an agent where I have to explain what I’ve already explained. Next time I'll do it differently because that clearly was no good to me. But if I go on the page and have clear options and can find what I need, as a customer I know I can trust that service.

Any effort that has the end user in mind is first thought about within UX.

The customer always comes first

More than 80% of people who've had a negative user experience on a website will never go back to it. That’s why putting customers first and developing the best UX isn’t just a strategy, it’s the difference between a company's failure and success.

If you’d like to know how we can help you improve your customer experience, contact us.



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