So what is a UX then?

Here's an example of what I am currently working on for Tudor Rose Gifts. An e-commerce site where the business owner Jo, can control her very own online shop and hence control her customers' user experience (UX) which in turn converts to sales faster. Check it out here: TudorRoseGifts.co.nz! 

Bear this site in mind while I briefly take you on a journey on how to convert more customers online by creating the perfect user experience (UX) for your prospects.

To create business value, owners and leaders need to think about the journey they want to take their audiences on and design their business model to make every UX count.

The idea of UX is everywhere these days, largely due to its application to websites, apps and other digital environments, but it’s not a new idea or an idea limited to online. Pick up any brochure or flyer that I have created and you will see that I have given thought to how to get prospects to pick it up, how to move your attention around the page, and how to draw you to key messages. And even bigger, focusing on your journey leading up to picking up that piece and where that’ll lead you after you put it down. The same applies with a great website – how to find it – where SEO is high on the list.

The irony of good UX is that often you don’t realise you are being taken on a journey. Bad UX is much easier to spot like a punch to the jaw. In the web world, good UX means you enter a site and it feels like it knows what you need and it makes it easy for you to find it. Navigation is seamless and intuitive and the site keeps presenting things that are of interest to you. If you came to the site because of a promotion or a recommendation, this great experience will positively reinforce perceptions. If you stumbled on the site, then this positive experience will become the basis for your perceptions of the company (and hopefully concert to more sales).

I found a great way to design the customer’s experience was to start with a clear customer value proposition (CVP) – Why do customers buy from us? Those things that make the CVP true in the customer’s eyes.

Next we focus on mapping the customer journey from first hearing about us, to finding out more, buying the product, regular communications, right through to the end when a return/benefit was delivered to them. Understanding this journey was fundamental to how we design our products, visual communications, processes, service standards and even email footers etc. Every experience in the journey was designed to reinforce the CVP. Even follow up as an e-newsletter.

Try it. It’s a great way to align messages and behaviours, a good tool for driving change and for ensuring everyone is focused on the same thing – the end user.

These days, working independently as a hybrid strategist, marketer, designer and website builder working with lots of companies on developing their brand, I apply similar thinking. I’m big on the idea of "customer first". We focus on what a company wants their brand to stand for and compare this to where they are today and what the customer wants and expects. We particularly focus on the customer experience and how the current experience reflects or differs from the desired positioning. 

As a boutique design studio we regularly get asked to develop small distinctive and "designery" campaigns. Through the briefing process we focus on the end-to-end experience, working with clients to understand the audience needs, perceptions and previous experiences. We also seek to understand the client’s desired outcomes. Often the outcome is sales targets but there is always a process to get to that. Our job is to design the user’s experience at every touchpoint along that process. This starts by thinking about what happens when audiences respond to the campaign via email, web or advertising. How do we fulfil? How do we follow up? And how does every touchpoint reinforce core campaign messages, while always moving the prospect closer to the final sales transaction.

Business leaders have to apply this UX approach naturally to websites and print campaigns but can even be applied to HR practices, organisational design and everything else that makes up the business model. When UX becomes part of the business, customers have great experiences and willingly take a long-term journey with a company. Now that’s how true long-term value is created.

This is how highlighting how good design thinking can address problems and opportunities facing businesses. The personal touch really does create more business.

XDC has been helping businesses achieve their business goals for around 20 years now. We specialise in logo design, brand, advertising (online and offline), website design (including UX), marketing and visual communications at www.xdc.nz

Let me personally make a website for your business (big or small) that is really easy, fast and economical for you. Unlike other companies who can charge around 5-10K for an eComm website (that you cannot fully control and may be just an off-the-shelf template), XDC creates customised websites just for you, that not only you can control your own content when you want, without the 'come-back' cost, but they are simply priced realistically, work harder and designed specifically for your needs.

We have a range of packages all of which can be customised just for your business at a 'real' price. If you can you use Word, well, that's how easy it is to control your own website yourself with us. We give you complete control and even offer cheaper hosting than most.

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