The Emerging Importance of Experience Design
No matter what type of business you may run, finding the best methods and practices of gaining and maintaining customers for the long-term can be challenging. Indeed, given that many markets are saturated and there are literally new businesses popping up overnight, companies now need to go above and beyond to encourage customer loyalty. Nevertheless, doing so can mean the difference between struggling to secure every dollar and securing years of effortless sales from a staunch selection of repeat customers. With that in mind, let’s look at experience design and how it is becoming increasingly important to brands and businesses of all kinds.
Why is User Experience Design so Important?
It’s no secret, more and more customers are shopping online searching for the best deals, rather than feeling any actual obligation to support any given brand or business. Therefore, brands need to find deeper ways to connect with their customers to secure them as long-term supporters. As a result user experience design is so important. It helps businesses uncover the goals and desires of their customers, in order to provide them with the goods and services they need to improve their lives and become more content overall.
What the Heck is Experience Design?
For those who are yet unfamiliar, user experience design is a process that takes on a customer-centric focus when it comes to designing and creating products and services for their customers.
In other words, by studying user experience, or the various ways in which customers interact with the goods and services, businesses are able to provide clients with an improved shopping experience in general. This can include everything from the packaging used, to the features of the products, and much more. The bottom line is that user experience design makes it possible for companies to provide their customers with enhanced experiences that serve as a foundation of a meaningful, long-lasting relationship between the customer and the company.
Experience Design: Meeting Users’ Needs
Focusing on the entire journey of the customer, user experience design helps meet users’ needs by offering:
- Empathy – One of the top benefits of user experience design is that it allows your customers to feel heard and understood. While previous marketing methods gave only partial consideration to appealing to the emotions of the customers, UX design makes it one of the primary focuses. This is one of the most effective ways to forge long-term relationships with your customers.
- Functionality – Another major benefit of UX design is that it allows companies to better cater to their customer’s needs by offering products and features. Rather than creating products based on what they believe is the next big thing, companies are now creating products based on what the customers have directly requested.
- Experiences – UX design goes above and beyond products. Rather, it focuses on providing memorable and favorable experiences. These experiences can become invaluable aspects of customers’ lives and something they grow to cherish and seek repeatedly over time.
Human-Centered Design for a Human-Centered Experience
By involving a human-centered perspective in every facet of your company, you are creating a brand that becomes more relatable and helpful to your customers. This method makes your customers feel respected and valued, rather than making them feel as though they are simply being used as a means to and end.
The Benefit of Humanizing Websites and Apps
Given that websites and apps are being marketed to humans, it only makes sense that companies would start to focus on making them feel more human. The benefits of humanizing websites and apps are:
- Aesthetics – Given that companies often pay top dollar to experts to figure out which color schemes and graphics will help them make more sales, offering aesthetics that are pleasing to the customer is mutually beneficial.
- Ease of Use – Many customers seek products that can help them become more productive. Therefore, by considering customer feedback when designing products, you will be able to provide them with a product that is not only easy to use, but adds value to their life experience.
- Information: Lastly, many customers are also seeking knowledge that can help enhance their lives in some fashion. Therefore, if you are designing an app or website, it should offer tons of useful information that helps empower the customer.
Experience Design improves Customer Retention
By creating memorable experiences, useful products, providing them with empowering knowledge, and life-changing products, UX design allows many companies to improve customer retention. For instance, if you have a website that offers your users useful information that helps them become more productive and successful, these customers will start to view you as a go-to in your realm of expertise. Over time, this will make them more likely to visit your website and purchase your products before shopping with similar brands, even if they are offering the products or services for less.
Experience Design Creates Competitive Advantage
Similarly, UX design can help establish your brand as a trusted source in your field. Once you have been established as a leader in your sector, many customers will always prefer you over your competitors.
Experience Design: Brands Become Stories
Since UX design helps to create memorable experiences, these experiences then become stories that your customers will love to tell for years to come. This is one of the most powerful types of word-of-mouth marketing as your brand becomes a part of your customer’s favorite stories and experiences for a lifetime.
Offering Enjoyable Experience Instead of Selling a Product
As mentioned, rather than just focusing on selling a product, UX design makes sure that the customer enjoys the whole experience. For instance, certain stores offer product demos, coupons, and other special perks to anyone who enters their store. When these experiences are warm and enjoyable, customers are much more likely to want to frequent your store.
Overall, UX design can be one of the most effective ways of attracting and maintaining your customers. Luckily, UXPin offers an all-in-one tool that makes managing your UX design efforts as simple and effective as possible. If you need help or guidance to help you incorporate UX design into your business, please contact our team of experts here at UXPin today.
