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It is logical that where a lot of attention is paid to building a good experience, users purchase more products and services and the threshold for a greater use of time is much lower. It is not for nothing that the American research bureau Forrester concludes that 72 percent of the companies (studied by them) indicate that improving the overall customer experience is their top priority and that technology plays a very important role in this.
This article is written by Tilt Amsterdam, Creative Studio in Amsterdam.
Now that you know what UX design is and what it needs to do, we’ll take a closer look at the other disciplines and work areas that fall under the umbrella of UX design. And how UX design relates to online marketing.
User Research, User Testing and Conversion Optimization
UX design always starts with User Research, the user research. Who are the users? What are their needs? A development that stems from user research and is currently incredibly trendy is, for example, online personalisation, in which a user experience is tailored to an individual user. If a user feels recognized and served by his personal preferences, there is a much greater chance that he will return via the same online channel.
This article is written by tiltamsterdam.com. Creative Studio in Amsterdam.
In addition, the focus is also on the company or brand that communicates with the user. How well known is their brand? What identity does the brand want to convey? How do their current, digital communication channels perform?
In the research phase there is a range of methods to investigate all these issues. Think about, among other things:
Mapping types of users with personas, so that we know who we are dealing with and what their motives are.
Use measurements in the current communication channels, so that later in the process we have a reference to which we can compare (differences in) user behaviour.
Surveys and other survey-like tools, to find out more about the current experience and to collect suggestions from the user.
Testing of users and the designs in different phases of the process, with the aim of optimization based on significant results / data. You must have heard about A/B testing!
Inventory of marketing data that is already available, because marketers have often already collected a lot of data, such as conversion and demographic data.
A brand optimization research, so that it becomes clear how, and with which audience, a brand connects and what commitment it gets in return.
This research is carried out by a whole team that brings together different specializations: conversion optimization, brand optimization, online persuasion (behaviour on the web from a psychological approach, just read how profound and interesting that is!), usability and user testing. This integrated collaboration ensures a strong and multifaceted research process. The results are well-founded design choices in which as much as possible is based on rock-hard data.
Visual design
People remember 80 percent of what they see, but only 20 percent of what they read. When people hear ‘visual design’, they often immediately think of end products: web pages, page elements, complete websites, apps, banners, and so on. However, in a visual design process, there are often also many intermediate products. Think of the storyboards, moodboards, flow charts, mockups, prototypes, and of course… wireframes (yes, there you have ‘em!).
In this article we limit ourselves to web design, but the design principles largely correspond to the principles of any other design process. The most important ones:
Functionality first, because no one benefits from a design that doesn’t work (properly) or that is misunderstood by the user.
Standard conventions & design patterns: users have learned certain patterns that you don’t want to deviate from. A company logo is always somewhere at the top of the web page so that it is immediately visible. For the user it is weird if we suddenly only show it at the bottom, out of sight.
Data for the win: where you can draw firm conclusions on the basis of data (because an A/B test has been carried out, for example), the data should be leading for design choices.
Ethical design: I’ve never heard a user honestly say that he would benefit from a pre-selected checkbox placed out of sight when ordering online. This means that he – without knowing it – orders extra mumbo jumbo that he doesn’t want to pay for. As a designer, your job is to produce designs that do not run counter to the user’s morale.
The brand aspect: companies, brands and branded campaigns often have their own house style, colours, logos, shapes, etc. Unless otherwise requested, you design as close as possible to the brand aspect. This is important for the recognisability and built-up associations with the brand.
The aesthetic value: in a project there is often room for the aesthetics, which is why it is so important for the
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