UX expectations: 20/20 Digital on digital product must-haves and mistakes

We live in a digital-first world, but it’s not just about showing up online, but about offering users an enjoyable experience—and that’s what 20/20 Digital excels at.The UX, product design and consulting company creates digital products that your customers will love. Jamie Gerrard, 20/20 Digital’s founder, started his career as a web developer and has more than 20 years of experience helping businesses create new web and mobile applications, optimizing existing ones and expanding or pivoting into new markets.“A big chunk of my business is actually doing hands-on design for products, but I do training and facilitation of internal teams to help them design products as well,” said Gerrard. “That’s been probably one of the bigger, more rewarding pieces of what I’ve been doing lately.”As technology evolves, so do customer experience expectations. Gerrard said when it comes to mobile applications in 2023, onboarding can be “make or break” for a company.“Onboarding has to be absolutely seamless. But more importantly, it has to be quick and fast,” said Gerrard. “You have a very short amount of time to capture someone's attention, and if that experience is not great—while they’re onboarding—more points of frustration will come up, and they may be less likely to want to use your product.”Accessibility in UX design is also critical for digital product success, and where many digital products may lose points, said Gerrard, concerns colour contrast, font sizing and tab navigation.“When we think of accessibility, we want to find a balance between design and aesthetics, but making sure that the design and aesthetics actually support somebody being able to read and use the product,” he said, adding a user-friendly interface can still be aesthetically pleasing.“If I put on my designer hat, it's less about the amount of constraints that I have and it's more about, ‘Here's the opportunity, the sandbox I have to play in’... Instead of looking at it as restrictions, look at it as an opportunity to make it that much more accessible, because a great design, if it's accessible, more people are going to see and be able to use it.”But his designer hat isn’t on full-time these days, as Gerrard is also busy working with the internal teams to support good UX design with organizations.“Whether it’s an enterprise-level team or a small early-stage startup, the passion that I've sort of developed over the last several years is working with them and helping them be successful in whatever area they're doing.”If you’re interested in learning more about 20/20 Digital, UX design and what makes a good digital product in 2023, make sure to listen to our full conversation with Jamie Gerrard in All Hands on Tech Episode 20: Digital experience expectations. https://youtu.be/DPRiV7CCkis