Competitive Analysis In UX Design: What You Need To Know

When a business hires a web design company because they want a brand new website to represent them in the industry, they want the website to bring in loads of revenue through their eCommerce options. But building a new website or hiring an agency for its website redesign services isn’t as easy as it looks or sounds.

Many complex and intricate steps lead to the website's success. The foundation of any lucrative website is a sound and dependable UX design strategy that acts as a roadmap to how the website needs to be in the future. You can also think of a UX strategy a blueprint for the entire team to work on the website. 

But a UX design doesn’t just depend on a strategy. It needs the support of research and data to understand and establish a place for the brand in the industry. How does one make space for a brand-new label/product? By understanding the market, the competitors, the existing products, the demand for the said industry, and the impact the product has on its audience.

The best way to touch upon all the above-mentioned points to establish a new and improved product is to conduct a well-researched and many branding agencies start the entire process by first understanding what the brand stands for and who its competitors are.

Ours is a Los Angeles web design company and before starting any project with our clients, we also conduct all sorts of analyses so as to hit the bull’s eye and attract the right kind of target audience. But for that to happen, let us first understand what is competitive analysis and how it helps us in setting our base for a brand new business, shall we? 

The concept of competitive analysis and how does it benefit your UX design?

Be it an app, a website, a product, or a service, you need to understand how the target audience reacts to the launch of the same, and the best way to understand your target audience is to understand how your competitors won them over. This is where the concept of competitive analysis comes into the picture as you deep-dive into the features, advantages, disadvantages, and solutions of your competing brand and get an insight that will become the base of your path to success. Two things are important before you come up with a lucrative UX strategy - the goals of your company and an in-depth competitive analysis conducted on the existing brands in the market. But not just any product, it has to either be a direct competition to your upcoming brand or an indirect competition because of some of the overlapping salient features it shares with your brand/product. 

Now that you know what competitive analysis is, here’s why a UX design needs it for sure:

1. Do define your salient features and get a feel of the target audience

Many designers fail to understand their goals while making a UX strategy because they don’t have a clear idea of what the core features of their website our and what is the need of the hour in the market. A product does good business when there is a demand created amongst people and that product acts as a solution to that demand. But if you have no idea what are the needs of your customers, you will never be able to list down your salient features and keep getting confused about what your website represents. Competitive analysis helps you in understanding what the demand is and how the market is reacting to such demands. 

2. To include industry practices that are trending and lucrative

You may have a perfect product/website but if it isn’t adhering to any of the current industry practices then chances are, your product will either be launched at the wrong time and era or not get the desired results. For example, if you have a lifestyle brand that has been famous for its retail business but the current times demand online eCommerce websites to make the most of the technological wave and you don’t provide your audience with these new and improved practices, chances are you are going to face a huge loss. These days, the biggest requirement an eCommerce website has is to have a quick and hassle-free payment checkout system. So including this solution in your website will help you stay in the league of other successful eCommerce websites. 

3. To dodge creating the same errors as your rivals

Now even though we place all our salient features on our biggest competitors, we also need to make sure we don’t repeat the same mistakes they are making so as to get an edge over them. The whole point of a competitive analysis is that you understand all the aspects of what makes or breaks the competitive brands and choose for yourself what works in your favor and what doesn’t. For example, if your competing brand doesn’t have very well-defined navigation, chances are, it will increase the bounce rate of the website and hinder the conversion rates. What you can do is not commit the same mistakes they are making and improve upon your own wireframe. 

4. To come up with unique strategies and features to get an edge over your competitors

We all want to want to stand out from our competitors and the best way to do so is to fill the gap of their shortcomings with innovative solutions and stay unique in our approach. If you are planning to have a website for your business, you may take note of what are the unique features of your competitors and then accordingly come up with a feature that is unique in its approach and helps you stand apart. For example, if you are making an app or a website that keeps a tab on the menstrual cycle, you have to find a point that your competitor has not yet discovered. You could make it more human by adding features that immediately address the problems of your customers by connecting them to certified experts. 

The main features of a competitive analysis

Now that we know the what and the why behind competitive analysis for a UX design, let us understand the main features of the same, shall we? 

1. Establishing your long-term and short-term objectives and goals. 

2. Recognize your competitors and make a list of all the elements that make them your direct competitors. 

3. Understand what are the common aspects and the differentials between you and your competitors and create a comparison for these pointers. For example, study the overall UX design, loading speed, SEO tactics, mobile-friendly and responsive nature, bugs, shortcomings, and unique features of your company and its competition. 

4. Comprehend the data received from the above-conducted research with the help of SWOT analysis. (SWOT stands for the strengths of your unique UX design, the weaknesses that might bring down the functioning of your website, the opportunities your website could tap into and improve the ROI, and threats to the existence of your company. You can conduct the same analysis for your competitors as well to understand them in a better way. 

5. Design a UX design strategy that honors all your findings and helps you get an edge over your competitors. 

Conclusion 

Many companies start their UX design journey without applying competitive analysis as a tool for growth and understanding and end up investing loads of money that gets them no returns. So if you are planning to launch your own website and want to make sure you reach the pinnacle of success, do conduct a solid competitive analysis with the help of an established web design agency and realize your dreams of becoming one of the most sought-after companies in your industry.