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Investing in User Experience – A Developing Competency in Asia

By Maria Sit, 23rd November 2010

As one of the handful of end-to-end digital user experience (UX) specialists in Asia, the folks at HeathWallace are always cognizant that we have a unique role to play in the regional markets we operate in. There is the important responsibility of being an evangelist and champion of UX for the digital channel whilst delivering commercially effective user–centric solutions for our clients.

State of play in Asia

Asia is a very diverse region, not only from the perspectives of language and culture, but also from the perspectives of technology infrastructure (e.g. internet access), user adoption and usage behaviour across various digital touch points.

The application of user–centred design (UCD) methodology is invaluable in providing a level playing field for our clients who aim to provide coherent global or regional solutions that effectively address the varying needs of their customers and employees across a number of different markets.

Thinking through the work HeathWallace have been engaged to carry out in the region, it's fair to say that there is an increasing understanding and appreciation of UCD and the value it brings to an organisation in terms of creating a meaningful customer experience and generating optimal commercial value. In fact, this is becoming a critical success enabler for several leading international firms that operate in Asia. Many of them are beginning to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to investing in developing their customer experience competency where UCD thinking and techniques play an integral role. But for certain, the stage of maturity of UX as a way of thinking, discipline and practice here in Asia is still in its early days and needs to be actively nurtured.

Hong Kong – ripe for championing UX

Looking at a brand saturated market like Hong Kong, for example, the locally born and bred brands (with a few exceptions) have been slow in adopting a user-centric approach to developing competitively differentiated solutions. The game around here, at least within the financial services context, has historically been focused on the quantity of features and functionality, rather than the quality of experience. The prevailing mindset and approach has been one motivated by simple benchmarking against local competitors, or sometimes straight imitation. This is logical considering the territory's legacy as a manufacturing and trading centre where great, innovative ideas have historically been imported for cost efficient production. But times have changed, and as Asia is leading the way in generating much of the world's GDP, it is only sensible that the indigenous population in the region takes the lead in developing new skills and competencies for generating innovative solutions, rather than just making or copying them.

This is why HeathWallace are excited to participate as a sponsor of UX Hong Kong which will be held on 18th February 2011. The time is ripe to have a forum like this in Hong Kong as one of the financial hubs in Asia and of course as a natural gateway to doing business in China.

Ongoing education and collaboration

HeathWallace believe it is important to take an active role in continually developing the knowledge and skills of the community of people it works with. A greater understanding of UX as a philosophy, methodology and discipline will enable us to produce much better solutions in collaboration with our clients as an honest partner. This is because a lot of the challenges we come across when working with our clients stem from the level of UX maturity within their organization.

Creating an "optimal" solution for our client that ends up doing what it's supposed to do in a sustainable way requires a number of conditions that are dependent on the client organisation's culture, skill sets and processes. Clients who truly embed the values of UX within their organisation nurture those conditions. We are beginning to see a gradual but real shift in understanding and therefore increasing investment in UX as a key competitive differentiator and enabler.

So for HeathWallace, UX Hong Kong provides a wonderful forum for bringing together professionals from different private and public sectors to interact with the best UX international talent. Its aim is to motivate today's decision makers as well as inspire the next generation of designers and decision makers from the local community to drive innovative home grown solutions for businesses and people in Asia.