Customer Experience Obsessed Marketers: Why UI/UX Is Important

It's not new news, digital is going to stay. Paired along with that, the obsession(s) to empower users to have the best experiences possible while interacting with your interface, will surmount.

We're living in an age of 'instant', movie tickets to international flights, a few button clicks and we have our queries fulfilled. Our ability to make 'instant' decisions are fundamentally correlated to how easy it is for us to get from question to answer. This is the exact intersection where the gap exists and conversions happen.

Marketing is a function created to create wants.

Design is a function created to satisfy wants in the most seamless way possible.

Marketers, especially, need to understand UI/UX for this very reason; to create user-friendly interfaces where relationships initiated by clicks are nurtured based on trust and authenticity. The relationship between people and technology is where the domain of UI/UX falls within the broader landscape of marketing.

A lot of times as we are unaware we tend to misinterpret, abuse or interchangeably use the terms UI/UX - This is something we want to change via this series. We will dig deeper into each of these segments and understand it as much as possible to create a seamless experience for back/front end and end user.

Rather than designing for what looks pretty and supports the business’ goals, UX taps in to the most important resource and decision maker for your customer journey – your customer. Talia Wolf, Founder and Chief Optimizer, GetUplift

When's the last time you, as a marketer, used the word 'chunk' or 'part' to describe a part of your website you wanted to be changed by your designer? - "Move this chunk to the left and this 'insertmadeupword' to the bottom."

The answer: PLENTY of times.

Stop doing that!

Here's why every marketer should have essential insights into UI/UX:

1. A good experience requires more than just design - Everybody, from sales to marketing to design should be and needs to be closely knit with their design team. Maintaining a consumer mindset will help each department optimize campaigns better and designers, the ability to create products better geared towards consumers, potential customers.

UX is a mindset that everyone needs to embrace. Content writers need to understand how people interact with text online. Designers need to understand the conventions to which users are accustomed so they can make informed design decisions. IT professionals need to understand that increasing server speed is directly connected to UX. (Speed is noted by participants in almost any usability test.) The UX mindset should be a top-down practice that will affect your employees’ priorities and eventually benefit customers. Melissa Eggleston, Director Of User Experience at Teamworks

2. Designers think 'why' before 'how'; we should too - Thinking of usability and experience before motives of increasing conversions help understand user psychology. Are we disrupting the flow? Are we adding too many confusing buttons?

3. Value gain through research - Marketing research within the digital space is mostly based on quantitative numbers, whereas design is based on experiences, a qualitative approach. There is lots of value that can be added by considering both sides of the spectrum.

UX is a qualitative foundation for all marketing. If we’re not focused on helping users make good decisions to overcome challenges and accomplish their goals, what’s the point? Angie Schottmuller, Growth Marketing Advisor and Keynote Speaker

4. Start optimizing, stop frustrating - I cannot count the number of times I've shut down a particular website because I couldn't find the information I was looking for, within a couple of seconds. While the page might be beautifully designed from a marketing perspective to pull me down a funnel, it failed design wise. In this instance, user testing from a design perspective, carried out by a team of designers and marketers, would've helped. This is also why both teams need to work in conjunction.

UX and Marketing need to co-exist. A website with good marketing and no UX is like serving microwave food at a royal party, while a website with good UX and no marketing is like throwing a royal party without any guests showing up. Iris Grossman, SEO Strategist at FlipSnack

5. Understanding the HEART framework designed by Kerry Rodden, Hilary Hutchinson and Xin Fu, from Google’s research team - Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task Success. A simple yet very useful metric system which conveys the successes and downfalls of UI/UX in an easy to understand format. We will discuss this in a later part of the series!

Conclusion

To wrap up this introduction to the series, I want to welcome you and my co-authors on this journey of learning and discovery as we share our knowledge with you.

As I started writing this and understanding concepts better myself, I can confidently say that there's an ever increasing need for UI/UX/Design teams and marketer(s) to work in conjunction to understand human behavior and strengthen loyalty towards your brand.

Therefore, I envision this series to be a comprehensive guide for marketers who are looking to expand their UI/UX knowledge to design better campaigns, experiences and interactions leading to happier, more satisfied consumers of the experiences.

Take the time to understand what a positive user experience looks like for your users and how to create it. Your brand, consumers and bottom line will all thank you.

PS: I'm still looking for co-authors for segments of this weekly series. If you are interested or know someone who is, please DM me and let me know! I'd love to chat!

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