Neglect user experience (UX) and you’re neglecting your business’s bottom line. It’s true in most business sectors and certainly in digital publishing, where technology and user expectations develop at breakneck speed.
As a UX designer at OpenAthens, I speak with many publishers. Sometimes, their development projects have drifted in scope, size or cost because they’ve focused on delivering a feature without enough insight into whether users will engage with it in the way they hope.
The best way to avoid this drain on resources is to talk to end users. Here’s some tips that might help you save both time and money:
Ask customers and end users for their perspectives
Set up a user-testing panel to discuss new features objectively during development. Students and researchers often want to get involved, particularly if they’re paid. We’ve had good results from targeted LinkedIn campaigns to create a database of willing participants, and market research companies can also help with recruitment.
Don’t rush to conclusions about UX issues
Take time to understand the problem. Think carefully about what the business needs to achieve, examine your assumptions and assess how confident you are about the solution. If confidence is high, you might not need to do much validation with testers but if it’s low, talk to your panel.
Think accessibility first
Make the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2 AA) the overarching guide in every UX project. It is essential if you sell your products into public sector bodies and large organisations, and simply good practice in general. However good your content is, customers won’t buy it if it isn’t discoverable and usable by all.
Start small and test, don’t guess
Get back to your user panel at various points during development work, particularly for important new features. Spending a few hundred pounds on early-stage feedback could save thousands on reworking later, and result in a more marketable product.
Share ideas and expertise
Talking with fellow publishers can help everyone avoid missteps and make better progress. If this tip sounds surprising, consider that many publishers are facing similar issues and working with similar end users, even while their product portfolios may be markedly different. Late last year, a group of people working in publishing companies in the UK, Europe and the US began meeting online monthly to discuss common UX issues and share their ideas and experiences. This community of practice was initiated by Cambridge University Press, De Gruyter Brill and Sage Publishing as well as OpenAthens, and we’re supporting it by providing a Zoom infrastructure and Miro boards for collaboration, coordinating sessions and contributing our own perspectives, challenges and ideas. If you’re interested in UX, whatever your job title, you’re welcome to join.
About us
OpenAthens, a not for profit with more than 30 years’ experience, delivers simple and secure access to digital content for libraries and publishers worldwide. Our products – including the OpenAthens Federation and our cloud-based Keystone service – enable reliable single sign-on, support scalable access management, and replace outdated IP based models. We help publishers reach wider audiences, improve user experience, and provide seamless, trusted authentication. Click here for more information about the ‘UX in Publishing – A Community of Practice’ initiative.
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