BA or UX? BA vs. UX (if we believe some project management and job-title oriented blogs)? Where does business analysis stop, and where does user experience start? As a UX specialist in Geneva, Switzerland, I have worked both on projects involving business analysts, and on projects for which they were not part of the team. Whether we need BAs and/or UXs is not a question anymore, and having BA insights is a great advantage for starting the UX part of a project. Instead, I wish to focus this article on the similarities that exist between the two roles, and on this business analysis part of UX that we, as usability consultants, often, and more and more, integrate as a part of our mission.

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I have just received my Google Digital Active certification. The Mountain View company has recently launched this new training and certification platform. Dedicated to small business owners, it covers 23 themes on Internet, like Search Engine Optimization, display ads, e-commerce, organic search, social media, etc. It is actually quite interesting and helped me get to know better a few fields I don’t directly work on, like social media or paid search. I was especially interested in the e-commerce and international aspects of the training. It is also a very good resource to send to smaller clients who can’t afford to pay a specialized agency for everything, and help them focus on their strategy first.

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A recent study conducted by Google and Ipsos in June 2016 focuses on the usage of Internet for luxury shoppers in France, Japan, Italy and in the UK. This study highlights the importance of Internet in the shopping process for luxury products, during the research phase as well as later. Here is a summary of the main actionable conclusions in a user experience point of view, and how we can use them to improve the UX on luxury e-commerce and brands websites, including work on pictures, videos, real-time conversation online, etc.

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Among the billions tools Google develop and open to the public, they have recently launched Google Digital Active. Dedicated to small business owners, this training gives an overview of main new technologies challenges, like Search Engine Marketing, social networks, organic search and search engine optimization, as well as analytics and conversion. I am afraid there is no topic about user experience or usability, but they do talk about content, writing for the Web and optimization for conversion. As for me, I was really interested by some other domains (I’m a UX specialist) that I know less about.

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Watchmakers, fashion, beauty, jewelry… luxury brands are at the digital crossroads, with an important decision to make: how should secular brands integrate and stay on top of the new technologies world? Today, they all know they have to face the luxury e-commerce challenge. Whereas 40% of high-end brands don’t sell via the Web (Bloomberg Business), online sales of luxury goods could triple to €70 billion by 2025 (Altagamma-McKinsey Digital Luxury Experience Observatory.) Because the secret to getting ahead is getting started, and based on my own experience on the matter, here are 10 user experience challenges a luxury brand should consider when initiating a purchase process on their website.

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What should the luxury industry do with new technologies? With new possibilities come new challenges… How can the luxury industry get ready for these new challenges? How can an industry based on centuries of history and crafts adapt to new technologies, and to what extent? This was the theme of the second edition of the Crea Luxury Day in Geneva last Wednesday.

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