UX can be a strategic differentiator for companies especially post COVID19

Zeux Innovations has become one of the prominent names in the UX landscape in India in a reatively short span. It claims to deliver outcome-driven design solutions (not just focused on aesthetics) and adapting the traditional user experience process to be agile and lean. Saurabh Gupta, Co-Founder, Zeux Innovations talks about the business and the overall trends in the UX space and its growing importance post COVID19.

What are the solutions and services in the ZEUX portfolio for the Indian market?

We commenced operations in 2016. ZEUX Innovation has today emerged among the top and full-service circle User experience (UX) Design and Innovation firms in India. Driven by the mantra of “Outcome driven UX”, ZEUX offers holistic UX solutions at the intersection of design, technology, process, cognitive psychology, and behavioural science to empower its clients, achieve their business objectives. It offers refined services such as UX Assessment, UX Research, UX Design, Omnichannel UX Strategy and UX Lifecycle Management.

How has been the traction for ZEUX solutions and services in the Indian market?

In the early 2000s, most companies and executives did not care much about UX. They did not know that it existed. It gained ground earlier this decade with the advent of smartphones and the app ecosystem. It is now a must-have for companies whose future depends on the digital ecosystem. In fact, most companies have made it their mission to make UX a strategic differentiator. Also, with the government push on digital India and with newer technologies such as AI, IoT, Blockchain, AR, VR, and Machine Learning gaining ground, the opportunities for creating the best in class user experiences are endless.

What exactly is UX/UI Design? What are the potential and growth drivers of UX/UI industry in India?

User experience design denotes the emotions or feelings that a user is left with after she/he has used the product or the service. UI refers to the actual interface that a user would use to engage with the product or the service. UI and UX are not interchangeable. UI design is a part of the overall UX Design process.

As per Nelson Hall, the current market size of global UX and User Interface (UI) industry is $5308 million – expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.4% to $10956 million by 2022. Indian UX industry remains fragmented and nascent as compared to the developed countries. However, given the thrust of companies across sectors namely finance, retail, telecom, media and tech – digitizing their offerings as well as engaging with their stakeholders with greater efficiency – the UX industry potential has gone up significantly.

Which are the sectors with maximum adoption in India and who are some of your marquee use cases?

BFSI, telecom, retail, travel, media, and software product companies are placing UX as a strategic priority. As an innovation company, ZEUX Innovation continuously strives to craft UX solutions that push the boundaries of a human being’s experience with technology. However, ZEUX’s real secret to delivering customer satisfaction and best-in-class digital experiences lies in being able to marry cutting edge innovation with specific measurable business outcomes. ZEUX caters to more than 30 clients including Vodafone, Discovery, Money Control, DBS, Reliance Retail, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, E&Y, Yes Bank, Network 18, BCG and InCred etc.

Talking about the use cases, our recent project for HDFC Life garnered amazing ROI post our designs went live for their flagship product called Click2Protect 3D Plus. The whole journey was re-imagined to make it simple and jargon free. ZEUX ensured to keep the user at the core of the design. The UX design changes led to some phenomenal improvements. Their number of policies issued increased by over 76% and average ticket size increased by over 25%. From business POV the client recovered the invested amount in the project within 5 days of going live.

\

Another recent success story that makes us feel proud is for Discovery India. ZEUX designed the Discovery+ app – with an end objective to help it stand out in an already cluttered entertainment streaming app ecosystem. This led to designing a novel user experience using principles of UI design – to enhance the stickiness of the user, improve recommendations based on intelligence, offer better discoverability, and sustain shareability of the content on the platform to attract newer users. The firm’s unique and core features includes Shorts and WhatsApp sharing that garnered great user reviews.

What are your differentiators from many other UX design providers?

While there are several UX companies, only handfuls qualify for being a true UX company. Of the few ones, there are some premium UX companies and there are some, which provide routine and workable designs. Our core expertise lies in helping companies (with large and complex digital landscapes) leverage UX as a strategic differentiator. We have always believed in pushing the boundaries of user experience towards the ultimate goal of completely humanising technology.

With the advent of big data, AI, and IoT, digital solutions are becoming more personalised. Digital interfaces are evolving from content containers to conversations. Users are now craving a new, seamless, on-demand, digital experience: one clad in a conversational interface, ready to serve and capable of complex actions. ZEUX has always taken the lead in defining UX Design standards and putting frameworks in place for new technological paradigms. Most importantly, we understand that creating exceptional user experiences often requires cutting through the hype of the latest technological trend and distilling down to relevant use cases that will ultimately make life better for the user.

What are ZEUX’s business and operating models? In light of the COVID19 crisis, how has this model got impacted?

Speed is critical in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. We have adapted our robust user-centered design framework to be more agile and lean as required. This balances the need to be process-oriented with the need to design and deploy rapidly.

In the current scenario, it is surely a wakeup call for many organisations. Businesses need to plan for an operating model that allows their workforce to work from anywhere in a secure and smooth way. This will not only reduce risk in the event of a Corona-like emergency but also result in massive cost savings. We already had work from home policy at ZEUX from inception. Also, from day one ZEUX took a conscious decision to invest heavily in cloud-based services. Even people with desk jobs were allocated laptops. This vision of ZEUX thought leaders helped us switch on to work from home within 24 hrs without any disruption. However, we continue to take certain measures to support our people and make them feel safe.

How do you scale up operations considering the nascent nature of UX/UI in India?

Scaling up in a country where the UX industry is still at a nascent stage, we are working on three key areas – Training, Talent Management, and UX Evangelism. We have developed a robust in-house design-training program that mitigates our risk of hiring only trained UX designers with prior experience. This not only makes the hiring process more efficient but also helps to build an organization with diverse skill sets with standard quality. Training coupled with a culture that fosters creativity, harmony, and happiness and led to zero attrition in the company since the last two years.

We are equally focusing hard on building the right ecosystem in the industry. We evangelize UX by doing several speaking engagements in various conferences. We are helping reputed design schools to come up with a robust UX Design graduation programme. In addition, most important of all is improving customer experience and comprehension of UX design through innovation, knowledge exchange and delivering experiences to achieve client’s business objectives.

During this COVID19 crisis, what are the measures ZEUX has undertaken to continue its own business without disruption?

• Safety: Our first priority was to ensure the safety of our team. We took a pre-emptive decision as a company to have our entire teamwork from home two weeks prior to the nation-wide lockdown.
• Support: Our team constantly stays connected over WhatsApp, email, zoom meetings, and phone. It goes a long way in ensuring that the team collaboration is smooth, and the mood stays upbeat.
• Service: We have assured our clients that we will do whatever it takes to ensure that project deliverables don’t get delayed due to the corona upheaval and we are willing and able to put in the extra effort to make up for the loss in momentum.

What are the actions initiated to take care of the uninterrupted service for customers?

We have assured our clients that we will do whatever it takes to ensure that project deliverables don’t get delayed due to the corona upheaval and we are willing and able to put in the extra effort to make up for the loss in momentum.

What are the contingency plans you have put in place if this crisis persists or gets escalated?

At ZEUX, we encourage our employees to follow the 3R approach until the crisis persists:

1. REFRAIN: stay home, stay safe. You owe it to yourself and others.
2. RECUPERATE: this is the time to give your health and wellbeing the much-needed attention that you have never had the time for before.
3. REINVENT: the global pause gives us all the space and time to reflect, re-imagine, and innovate on our company’s offerings, processes, collaterals, and come back stronger.

So, the message is focus on the 3 Rs and take the COVID fight head-on.

What sort of business and financial impact do you expect on ZEUX’s business as a result? 

We are a completely digital organisation, so all our IT systems and work tools were anyway perfectly suited for a work from home scenario. Additionally, we have always had an extremely flat org structure where every person takes ownership and responsibility for the work, they need to do without requiring too much oversight and handholding. This aspect of our company culture has also really helped us ensure that business continues as usual when everyone is working on their own without supervision.