OK, first off – What is user experience?  Here’s Wikipedia’s definition:

User experience (UX) is about how a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency of the system. User experience is subjective in nature, because it is about an individual’s feelings and thoughts about the system. User experience is dynamic, because it changes over time as the circumstances change.

In short: UX reaches beyond the superficial facades of design and technology.  It taps into the psychology of interaction.

A great UX should be baked into all modern web-designs from their inception, which, of course, requires additional time/resources/money to achieve.

So, why should we invest in better UX? What’s the ROI?

Dr. Susan Weinschenk breaks it all down for you in this nifty little stop-motion video below.

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O94kYyzqvTc&feature=player_embedded” width=”670″]

 

Also, be sure to check out Dr. Weinschenk’s video on the 7 Principles that make websites more engaging.