As UX experts, we have to say yes, don't we? According to Ronnie Battista, Senior UX Executive with 20 years of user experience, 2016 is indeed the year UX emancipated itself. In his current column for UX Matters, he describes why UX has finally arrived right now. Today, user experience is considered a strategic asset. According to Battista, UX expertise, both strategic and technical, is no longer a nice-to-have triviality that is occasionally included in considerations. He gives three reasons for this:

1. The market for UX and CX jobs is exploding.
2. The training opportunities for UX professionals - and even more importantly UX inexperienced managers - are constantly growing.
3. Large companies that are not known for their UX create leading positions for UX experts with decision-making powers because they want to secure their future and gain competitive advantages.

Although convincing is still needed here and there, we can confirm from our experience that UX has arrived to stay. We are looking forward to the future!

UX number of the month

83 – 16 years ago: Already in 2000, IBM declared in a business case for user-centered design that every dollar invested in good usability increases at least tenfold. Today we have taken a huge step forward - the topic of UX is on the agenda of almost all companies with digital products and services. According to a 2014 Salesforce study, the focus is now on cross-device performance: 83% of all respondents said a seamless user experience across all devices was important or very important.

UX-Background

A UX expert is always on duty - no matter where he or she is? Our colleague Renate Schinköthe can confirm this. During her visit to this year's UXLx, she took a look at the city of Lisbon through UX glasses and documented her findings for all of us in a blog post: About dialogue principles in public transport and globally understandable icon language - her UX experience in Lisbon was extremely positive. Renate's tip: Check out the UX of your city!

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