Providing a good user experience is not a focus limited to the ecommerce experience.
The entire digital experience can be tailored for users – there is no experience that can’t be optimized.
The user experience (UX) is how a user feels and interacts with a digital product, whether it be a webpage, an entire website, or a mobile app. 
Specific parts of the UX can be built by developers and designers with a businesses’ users in mind. According to research by the University of Pennsylvania, “businesses that place more value on UX than their peers achieve productivity gains and higher value.”
Wherever there’s a user there is an experience. And that experience can be edited, improved, and personalized. This also applies to the user experience of CPQ platforms.
When it comes to the UX of CPQ platforms, there are two components to keep in mind:
The workflow. Ask yourself questions such as whether the workflow is intuitive, if sales users would adapt to a new product, and whether they would be able to find the products they want to quote.
- The visual design. Ask yourself whether the company website and its interface feel and look cohesive.
How to optimize the design
Our personal preferences can affect how we experience and interact with the user experience design.
There are multiple points to keep in mind when it comes to optimizing the UX design for CPQ.
Key considerations include:
- the ease of use, given that users will have limited capabilities of a platform.
- the fact that we crave information and generally socially geared.
- the fact that we also process information unconsciously.
- The visual look.
- The fact that we like to feel in control when we navigate online.
For those that create user experiences, such as us here at ArganoUV, basing designs on industry-standard principles is important. This makes sure that key UX usability aspects are maximized.
The important CPQ design considerations include:
The structure
Every section on a page should be intuitive, which means that they should have a strong structure.
The simplicity
Common CPQ tasks should be simple and easy to accomplish for users, while the learning curve should be as suppressed as possible. 
The common CPQ elements are brought to the forefront of the user experience so that users can perform their tasks fast and efficiently.
The feedback
User experience implementations should provide users with feedback in order to validate solutions and continue through the process.
Complex products such as CPQ platforms can be difficult, particularly because users begin on the platform as non-experienced and need to learn it fast.
The patience
The majority of CPQ platform users are non-experts of the platform. This means that the UX design should take this into account and that managers should be tolerant of errors while providing clear guidelines and guidance.
The usage
Consistency is key. Maintaining and reusing design cues keep a CPQ platform consistent and easy to use.
This saves on users having to remember multiple methods to do similar tasks, to reduce the amount of time training staff, and to boost ease of use.
The visual design
The visual design, the user experience, impacts deeply how we perceive the quality, professionalism, and message of a company, a store, an organization.
We are heavily influenced by the aesthetics of things – stories, images, videos, even colors and balance.
The foundations of usability are good function and good flow. Visuals are laid on top of that for engaging the user and directing them towards the messaging that a business wants.
Even subtle changes such as the use of colors and icons can impact how we pay attention to specific elements of a digital experience.
A top implementation partner (such as ArganoUV) will design these elements with the brand in mind in order to boost the usability and engagement with the website, knowing that positive experiences lead to positive feelings towards a brand.
So spend more time and creativity on the user experience of CPQ platform experiences, because we all like nice digital journeys, whether it’s for ecommerce or processing payments.
PS: ArganoUV is one of the world’s leading CPQ specialists. Contact us to see how we can work together.
