As UX advocates and practitioners, we tend to focus on the immediate project at hand—the website, the app, the product interface. But that’s only a fraction of the actual user experience. Every digital interaction a person has with an organization shapes their perception. The problem? Most companies treat these interactions in silos, leading to a fragmented and often frustrating user experience.

The reality is that UX is much broader than we often acknowledge. It doesn’t start when a user lands on a website, and it certainly doesn’t end when they complete a transaction. If we want to deliver truly great experiences, we need to step back and look at the full picture.

The Many Touchpoints That Shape UX

Before a user even reaches a website or app, they’ve already started forming an impression. Consider:

• Search engine results and AI responses – The way your company appears in Google results or AI-generated summaries sets expectations. Is your messaging consistent and clear?
• Online ads and social media – Are these touchpoints accurately reflecting the experience users will have when they engage further?
• Email communications – Welcome emails, transactional messages, and support replies are all part of the experience. Are they seamless, or do they feel disjointed?
• Customer support and post-sale interactions – A great digital product can still lead to a poor overall experience if a user struggles with invoicing, onboarding, or troubleshooting.

Each of these moments contributes to what we traditionally call customer experience (CX), but in today’s digital landscape, they’re inseparable from user experience (UX).

The Hidden UX Killer: Inconsistency

One of the biggest UX failings organizations face is inconsistency across digital touchpoints. Marketing might promise one thing, while the actual product experience delivers another.

• A compelling ad says "Simple and Fast!" but the sign-up process is clunky.
• An SEO-optimized page ranks highly, but when users click, the page isn’t relevant to their needs.
• A chatbot answers a question, but the follow-up email contradicts the information.

This disconnect leads to frustration, distrust, and ultimately, lost customers. It’s our job as UX professionals to address these gaps—not just within the product, but across the entire user journey.

UX Needs to Be a Strategic, Not Just Tactical

If UX teams are only focused on designing screens and interfaces, we’re missing a much bigger opportunity. Instead of being purely project-based, UX needs to take on a strategic role in shaping the overall digital experience. This means:

• Advocating for a unified user experience across all digital interactions. UX shouldn’t be isolated within a product team—it should collaborate with marketing, sales, and customer support to ensure alignment.
• Defining experience principles that guide all digital interactions, from social media to transactional emails.
• Identifying and fixing broken touchpoints before they frustrate users, not just improving the ones we’ve been assigned to.
• Educating teams across the organization about how every digital interaction contributes to the overall UX.

Too often, UX teams focus on polishing individual products while ignoring the broader ecosystem. But if our job is to create great user experiences, then we need to think far beyond the boundaries of a single app or website.

The Future of UX: A More Holistic Approach

The shift from project-based UX to strategic UX isn’t an easy one. It requires getting buy-in from leadership, working across departments, and often stepping outside our comfort zones.

But the companies that get this right—those that ensure consistency, clarity, and ease across every digital interaction—are the ones that build trust, improve retention, and ultimately, create a better user experience in the truest sense.

So, as you look at your work this week, ask yourself: Am I designing just for this project, or am I shaping the bigger picture?