Introduction
“Identicalnessâ€, is the word to describe the current marketplace. Consumers are hardly connected to a particular brand; achieving brand loyalty has become quite challenging these days. Traditional marketing strategies like getting a counter display or branded packaging, although still employed, have taken a backseat and are gradually being replaced or sidelined by new marketing ideas. How can you stand out in the over-crowded market place? Recently, Marketers have started adopting a new concept called 'experience marketing' . Read on.
Enter ‘experience marketing’
Due to the extremely dynamic nature of consumer behaviour, the traditional marketing strategies have given way to experience marketing. Experience marketing doesn’t stop at need fulfillment, but goes further to provide consumers a satisfying experience. Traditionally, imparting experience to consumers was easy since purchase was over-the-counter, but this is being replaced by online purchase at a very fast rate. This posed a major challenge to marketers in imparting experience to consumers as there’s no direct interaction between the two. So what is the way to gain an edge in the online marketplace?
Imparting experience through UX design
The need to create a niche for the brand, called for marketers to think out-of-the-box, so marketers identified the design, the medium through which online purchases are made, as a tool to impart experience to consumers. User experience design aims to win over consumers for the brand by taking them through a varied experience right from pre-purchase to sale and even extends beyond it. In a digital context, user experience design encompases every aspect that goes into the design of a website’s user interface in order to optimise the user experience. UX design is a user centered design that is highly customized towards the user’s needs, goals and assumptions. This has grown into a specialized discipline over the past few years.
Core of UX design
UX design should always be based on the consumer’s perception and should never be based on products or services. The whole point is to create a lasting impression on the mind of the consumer about the brand. In order to achieve the ideal UX design, it’s important to profile the users.
Sensory stimulation
A quality UI is capable of stimulating users’ sensory receptors. Right combination of visual and audible elements can help in retaining their focus. Users are highly receptive to things that are new to them or identifiable with them. At the same time they are susceptible to beguilement, hence don’t over do anything on the design that could lead to them losing their focus.
Complex reminiscence
Users’ capacity to remember things aren’t foolproof. The UX design should be based on the user's actual deeds and not what they say. UX design could also provide a brief history as to what the users’ activities were in the previous pages in the site.
Restrictions on information
Display only the required amount of information. Users cannot process huge amount of information and that too if it’s not properly organized. Information should be legible and short as users won’t take the pain in going through the entire text.
Predisposition
It’s a known fact that users are predisposed to an extent, hence the UX design interface must take into consideration the user’s method of getting things done. When it’s hard to change, the user must be taught to get used to the interface flow. Alternatively, instructions can be crafted carefully to get them used to the interface.
Optically appealing
It’s highly important to have the interface properly organized when it comes to content placement and colour combination. Have some kind of aid on the interface that tells the eye where it should look to find the needed information. Too much of styling cannot guarantee 100% attention, hence stick to light colours, normal fonts, etc.
To err is human
Let the interface be intuitive so as to be indicative when users are about to err. Features like error messages, ‘undo’, ‘spell-check’, etc can be included in the interface.
Gross misapprehension
Despite a lot already been written about UX Design, in reality, it’s more of misapprehensions than clarity on the subject. It would be meaningful to state what UX Design is ‘not’.
- Contrary to the popular belief, UX design saves costs and speeds up the design process. This is so because, a great deal of research goes into creating the UX, and the data collected aids in the development of the site rather than slowing it down.
- UX design, to a great extent, assures considerable ROI. UX is about creating an unique identity for the business through a lot of fine tuning of design process and analysis of consumer perception. It’s in the long run that the benefits are reaped.
- While ease of use is an important constituent of UX design, it’s not the sole feature. Usability focuses to improve ergonomicity. Whereas UX design focuses on user interaction.
The brand identity
It’s imperative to know that UX design has a direct impact on the brand as to how it’s identified among consumers. An effective UX design acts as the brand’s mouthpiece that speaks volumes about the brand through each and every detail it has. At the end of the day all that matters is consumer satisfaction, which translates into ROI, and if UX design can enhance it, then it’s a design revolution.
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