A Decade of User Experience

By Samantha Silver
January 21, 2019
kli-10years


       Key Lime Interactive LLC is officially ten years old. On January 20th, 2009, CEO Ania Rodriguez created her very own UX (user experience) company, and is now able to celebrate a decade of that company's existence. In order to be able to really appreciate and understand how far Key Lime Interactive has come in the last ten years, it is also important to be able to look at all the ways in which the UX field has changed during that time.  
 

        UX is a unique field because it is always shifting and evolving to match the current demands of the marketplace and technological world. Since its beginnings, UX has developed into an important business and design strategy that is widely implemented. KLI joined the UX world a few years after the emergence of the iPhone, which would dramatically shift the way in which technology, user experience (UX) and  UX design  services were understood, implemented and carried out. Now in 2019, from a myriad of smartphone devices, laptops, wearables and tech gadgets for every industry, we can see how UX services have changed greatly over the past decade. 

       The very first iPhone emerged in 2007, and was widely praised for being the first fully capable hand-held computer operating system. Not only was the iPhone the first "smart-phone", it was also a device that Apple had decidedly placed an emphasis on the overall user experience when designing the phone. It wasn't long before Apple and the iPhone began being recognized as being "user-friendly" technology.  The iPhone not only helped open the doors to the smartphone market, but helped other companies see the value and importance of placing user-experience as the central factor of their design process. User experience services were gaining attention and importance as a business tool, and strategy. 

User Experience Design Process

      With the concept of user experience placed on the map, it began to shift the ways in which the design process was understood as well as carried out. Over the last ten years, the concept of responsive and adaptive design is something that has become a staple in the user experience industry. Now that smartphones were gaining more popularity, it was critical for the design of an app or website to be able to seamlessly transfer between various devices- whether it be differing smartphones, laptops or tablets. Not only were companies beginning to focus on the ability of their designs to adapt to various platforms, but the role of user experience research began to become a staple in companies processes.

       The development of the user experience field allowed the implementation of data-driven design to become more and more commonplace. Companies began relying on data to inform the types of design decisions that should be made, which means relying more on user experience research and user testing in order to ensure that the data they are utilizing will be relevant and effective to the design. User testing and research allows various companies to address issues such as flow, user design preferences, better understanding the customer's journey and being able to create more accessible designs. Accessibility in UX design services is something that has begun to gain increasing importance over the last 10 years within the field of user experience, with more research and attention being placed on the ways in which to make designs more accessible to all kinds of users in all kinds of situations. 

        These are just a few of the ways in which the field of user experience and UX design services have changed within the last ten years. While user experience is something that has been around for a while, it has really expanded, as well as solidified itself over the past decade, just like Key Lime Interactive has. We here at Key Lime Interactive are excited to see the ways in which the field of user experience strategy, research and even UX design services will continue to shift over the course of the next decade, as well as the ways this will allow for continued growth, innovation and expansion of the work we do here at KLI. 

 

READ MORE: 10 UX Trends to Keep an Eye Out for in 201910 Myths About UX10 Things We Always Catch Our CEO DoingKLI's 10 Lists of 10

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