Innovations In User Experience Are Driving The Competition

As businesses move into an increasingly fast-paced and complex competition for customers, one thing has become clear—customers will accept nothing less than an outstanding user experience (UX). And businesses that are unable to adapt to those changes will quickly fall behind.

In today’s market, technology is no longer the main competition driver for users; it’s the actual user experience that drives the competition. As organizations adapt, they need professionals who can use advances in technology to identify UX-driven innovation opportunities for greater market success.

As students look to degrees that help them have the greatest impact, organizations are seeking professionals that can translate UX-driven innovation into business growth. For companies, designing effective product or service experiences has become a critical business strategy. The repeated demand for innovative technologies in our daily lives, both at personal and organizational levels, is intensified by the rapid pace of our digital economy. To maintain this kind of edge, tech companies must look at user experience design through an innovation lens to ensure that their products are successfully embraced and effectively used by their intended users.

If you’re looking for cutting-edge in-demand professional skills, finding a program that focuses on emerging tools and techniques for creating UX-driven innovations will help you reach your personal and professional goals. Programs like WPI’s Innovation with User Experience (IUX) master’s degree offer students the expertise needed to help businesses make targeted and strategic decisions that are driven by UX innovation. WPI’s IUX program, one of the first such programs in the nation, gives students opportunities to work side-by-side with faculty to gain real-world IUX skills and experiences in varied industry settings. You’ll delve deep into the technical approach and the business reasoning behind UX strategies and apply that knowledge to implement effective tactics.

As more products and services are produced, purchased, and delivered electronically, the role of UX-driven innovations, which hold key insights into user needs within an organization’s entire digital presence, becomes even more crucial in setting business goals and defining business strategies.

Focus on the User

An effective UX strategy must be aligned with a company’s business goals. When considering a program that gives you the real skills you’ll need in a business environment, you’ll want to find coursework and project work that gives you an authentic experience with how organizations make decisions.

A UX-informed business strategy must ask, and respond to, ‘What do users find valuable? What do users need?’ No matter what your product is—from smart and connected robotic agents to web and smartphone apps—those questions reveal many user patterns. WPI’s advanced IUX program fuses diverse methods and incorporates cutting-edge eye-tracking equipment in its distinctive User Experience Decision Making (UXDM) Lab to bring the design world and the dynamic user world closer together. Even the most strategic business designs can be upended by users’ unpredictability. When organizations apply the UX-driven innovation framework to develop products, they can respond to each unique need, reduce uncertainty, and keep the user engaged in the task and satisfied with the experience.

A Tech-Informed Business Perspective

A business-focused IUX program prepares students for management and executive-level careers in product design, user experience design, user experience engineering, interaction design, human factors in computing, and web and mobile app design. Because WPI’s program is grounded in technology, design, and business disciplines, graduates have a comprehensive view of how UX decisions impact every level of business strategy. Upon graduation, they have the real-world experience needed to be able to apply everything they have learned in the classroom to the projects at hand and make immediate decisions.

When you think of user experience as something that helps propel products and ideas forward, you start to see UX as a business strategy. In fact, for most companies with extensive digital presence (virtual presence, product, and delivery method) it’s almost impossible anymore to separate UX-driven innovation strategy and business strategy, as they’re intricately intertwined.

Learn more about The WPI Business School

The WPI Business School is grounded in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and integrates these elements into its graduate programs. Students receive a world-class education that prepares them to lead at the intersection of technology and business. A project-based approach to learning and doing informs our curriculum that considers the ethical and social context of everything we do. Our students take advantage of the university’s strong relationships with technology-intensive organizations around the world.

The WPI Business School integrates STEM elements into its graduate programs.

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