Great digital products solve real-world problems. They let users do what they want to do, easily and effectively, and they provide the kind of experience that keeps them coming back for more. 

We’ve developed a guide to help you create exceptional digital products with user experience (UX) at their heart. 7 Steps to Building Great Digital Products explores how to approach digital product development, and why UX is so important, right from the start of the project. 

This starts with understanding what people want to achieve by using the product – and what your business wants to achieve, too. Fundamentally, it must solve a business problem, and a customer problem. 

Our seven steps can be summarised as:

  • Understand the goals. What problem does the product help both the business and the user overcome?
  • Audit your existing product portfolio. Do your digital products need updating? Be honest about what they do and don’t achieve, and then hold a product discovery workshop to define what you need. 
  • Do your UX research. This means putting yourself in the shoes of your users. What do they want from your product? How will they use it? Are you excluding people by not using the most accessible technology? Analyse what else is on the market, and where you can excel. 
  • Define the UX strategy. This should combine a complete understanding of business goals and user needs with a product roadmap that responds to them. 
  • Get into the UX design. This is an iterative process. Test, trial and refine. Visualise the design. Does it reflect your brand, and set you apart from the competition? Your design should focus on being simple, usable, visually appealing, and showcasing a great product. 
  • Develop the product. Keep thinking like an end user, and stay in tune with their needs and expectations, but with one eye to the future. Can the product be adapted quickly to meet changing needs? 
  • Keep improving and adapting with the user in mind. An agile culture of close and cross-departmental collaboration is important here, as it allows you to adapt and implement changes quickly and efficiently.

At Zenitech, our passion is great user experience and you’ll not be surprised to learn that we follow these steps ourselves when working with our clients. You can read more about our approach, and how you can prioritise user experience in digital product development by downloading the complete guide: 7 Steps to Building Great Digital Products.