User Experience (UX) is the New product: Market Opportunity in Digital China

Knowing the end-users’ opinion in your industry is crucial today because finally, this is the key success into the market, according to Hu Yuwan, the project manager at Daxue Consulting. Especially in the digital area (such as gaming, apps, e-commerce, media), but also in every other business fields including services and products. Particularly, in the Chinese Internet market with already more than 721 million users, the digital world of apps and websites in China does not pause growing thanks to the ‘great firewall’ and restrictions. More, in our consumer-oriented world, research has become indispensable. Uncovering the of users results in faster decision making and may avoid time- and cost-consuming rework. User experience is all about the design of a product or service to fit the needs of the users. UX research, which is sometimes also called design research, helps us to understand those users, identify their problems or needs, (dis)prove our assumptions, and recognize opportunities as well as mental models. By doing so, you may save development or process cost, increase customer loyalty and happiness which in turn will result in positive recommendations for your brand or product. Thus, having better user experiences leads to a better business outcome.

In brief: UX research encompasses a variety of investigative methods used to add context and insight to the design process. Regardless of the environment, it is to examine in which stage of the product development lifecycle you are. However, every UX project is different, and the tasks that one researcher takes on will differ from those appropriate in another setting. Some of the most popular methodologies which UX research comprises are usability tests, click testing, scroll tracking or eye tracking, card sorts, tree tests, multivariate tests or A/B testing. Also, desirability studies or diary studies, as well as heuristic analyses, may be conducted. Contact Daxue Consulting to find out more about UX research methods.

User Experience in China: Our Client wanted to see through customers’ eyes.

Daxue Consulting carried out a project for our client who aimed to enter the Chinese market with a new service within the digital field. The company asked our Daxue team to conduct secondary as well as primary research about the current market and its competitors. Moreover, the client wanted Daxue Consulting to investigate the most appropriate design for their service as well as the perspective of the potential end users towards and the consumers’ interaction with all aspects of it.

How Daxue Consulting’s expertise in UX research made it possible

Daxue’s research team, therefore, set up several tasks and processes to be able to distinguish:

1. In the first phase, Daxue conducted a proper Desk Research. It included and trends to get a better understanding of the overall conditionsDaxue’s research team gathered information about our client’s competitors throughout SWOT-analysis identify possible challenges and opportunities.

2. Secondly, our research team worked closely together with our client by having Participatory Design Workshops, which encompasses collaboration between users, designers, developers and other business decision makers focusing on creating solutions. The major goal was to provide appropriate answers of how the services can best suit the users’ needs, according to the preliminary market research. Therefore, the selection of the core content was the most significant part of the decisions.

3. The next phase included the choice of Design and Research Structure. It comprised the setting of the timeline, characterization of personas, as well as which methodology to use. C

4. As a fourth step, Daxue ensured to have the right kinds and number of participants for the in-depth interviews. Moreover, Daxue’s research team established key attributes to be able to collect a truly representative sample of the targeted consumers. The interviews were then conducted with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) and users within the market.

5. The fifth phase consisted of instructions which Daxue presented to technology specialists. Daxue obtained insights via the interviews, through which the research team was able to further direct the technical team on how exactly the service needs to be established and developed to fulfill the needs of the users. According to the guidance of Daxue Consulting, the technicians created a first model of the service.
6.  Daxue’s research team conducted the UX analysis by utilizing the concept of usability testing. The participants were asked to perform By doing so, the candidates were observed by our research team and also throughout appropriate tracking and recording equipment and software. Daxue considered questions such as:

• What is the users’ general opinion about the service, how do they like it?
• Do the participants have troubles using the service?
• Do the definitions of each term fit the users mind?
• Are the functions and their purpose easy to recognize?

• Which of the processes are attractive for the users, which are not?
• Which parts of the design are successful, which ones are not?

Objective thereof was to gain a deeper insight of the usability of the service to be able to improve and maximize the user experience in China.

7. After executing the UX research, Daxue Consulting continued with the next step, Data Processing Daxue’s researches the client might face. Finally, our team synthesized the data and created a final list of actionable recommendations.

8. In the last phase, Daxue Consulting provided comprehensive information about the users’ experience and their perspective towards the services. Furthermore, our team gave recommendations to the client of how to adapt and further develop their first version including the market development and on which processes the client should set their priorities. Moreover, the final report of Daxue delivered players and key competitors.