Whenever a product is designed, may it be a paper clip or a giant ship, the topmost concern is the product’s ease of use and how users will perceive the product. This theory is no different when it comes to creating mobile applications, websites, or any other interactive medium that any business uses to connect with its clients or customers.
User Experience – a term commonly used to describe how a user feels while interacting with a product, system or service – is a crucial factor that is often overlooked by enterprises. However, Gartner has stated the opposite by declaring Ambient User Experience as the top technology trend of 2016.
So, what exactly is ambient user experience?
To start with, let’s get to know what ‘ambient’ conveys: something that affably merges with the environment in the surrounding, appearing to be a part of it, without demanding attention from users. Suppose you are dining at a restaurant and soft music is playing in the background, the music would improve your mood, without you noticing why. Now suppose that instead of melodies, we are dealing with technologies, information, and applications that run in the background and affect the overall user experience even when users are not consciously interacting with it – this can be defined as ambient UX.
Looking at the concept of ambient user experience from a different perspective, you can define it as a “system product.” Suppose you hailed a cab to reach home, you’re listening to your favorite song on the way. Now, as soon as you reach home, your phone will stop playing the song, your home sound system will take over and play the remaining song.
Now imagine jogging as an important part of your morning regime. So, wouldn’t it be great if you can simply go to your favorite jogging spot, without having to worry about keeping track of your data or carrying an additional device to do that? A platform that provides ambient user experience can do it so that you can enjoy your run and later analyze the data once you are back home.
So, the idea behind ambient UX is to provide a seamless user experience even when the place and time keep changing, without requiring any input from users.
Why it’s needed
User experience design is not an alien concept for businesses. Improving user experience while they interact with a company has long been a part of business strategy for a lot of companies. While the term “User Experience” might sound new to businesses, the notion of having a user-friendly design has been around for years.
Ambient UX will work with device mesh, which consists of a variety of devices equipped with sensors that are vigorously collecting data all the time. This data collected by the sensors in the device mesh is then communicated to other devices directly. Therefore, device mesh can be used to customize the user experience without requiring human intervention or awareness.
Why is ambient UX so important for a business, you ask? Here are some of the benefits that clearly state that good UX translates to good business:
Redeploy your business based on user needs
Ambient UX is built while keeping the users’ needs in the center. By using ambient UX for testing, solution providers can get aware of how customers interact with an interface and define their needs accordingly. Once the business is aware of what customers expect from their product or service, they can make meticulous improvement in their strategy. User convenience is given preference over anything else when ambient UX is implemented.
Increased user satisfaction
The basic purpose of developing any interactive medium is to satisfy user needs by providing an easy-to-use interface. Whether you interact with your users through a mobile application or through a website, the ambient UX will increase customer satisfaction by allowing them to accomplish their tasks seamlessly. They would be able to undertake their tasks even while switching mediums and changing places, without consciously knowing about it.
Better brand value
A satisfactory user experience will establish trust among existing users and will attract new users to get more interactive with the company. This can establish a loyal customer base for the company and can contribute significantly in company’s brand value. By providing seamless integration of devices across different environments, companies are trying to represent “system product” as the new normal.
Improved product/system features
A user experience can be reviewed using the response of users to improve their system or product according to the ever-changing customer needs. Businesses can benefit by leveraging the power of most responsive UX after gaining feedback from the target audience. After knowing user preference, companies can add a bunch of new features or improve existing ones to offer a unified user experience.
Better understanding of preferences based on context
Once users’ context such as time, place and user profile is known, ambient UX can work wonders by delivering the right recommendation or performing the right action. The aim of ambient user experience is to deliver the right information at the right time, in the right place, on the right device, and in the right context.
We can push you forward
We can help you to come up with a strategy to develop a continuous interface for the user, irrespective of the surrounding environment, which is a major ingredient of making an ambient UX. Taking a step further to provide more ease to customers is going to improve your brand value in the long run.
Added convenience doesn’t harm anyone, does it?
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