- April 16, 2014
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Using Data to Build a Better Website User Experience
Integrated marketers are collecting data to make decisions about everything from product design, logos, and packaging to which marketing messages and offers are most effective.
But have you ever thought about testing the look and feel of your website?
In tech terms, the way your customers feel about using your website is called “User Experience,” or UX. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Jay Samit of Realty Mogul makes the case for using data to craft a better User Experience.
UX is the Digital Face of Your Brand
“In the digital age, UX is arguably the most important face of your brand,” writes Samit. Few of your customers ever have the opportunity to meet the members of your product development team, but virtually every customer will interact with your UX. “The strength of brand loyalty begins with how your product makes people feel.”
Consider the difference between the experience of upgrading your computer to a new Windows operating system to opening the box of a new iPhone. One is dreaded, the other feels more like unwrapping a gift. Remarks Samit, “It doesn’t matter how good your product solution is if users don’t enjoy or understand how to use it.”
Samit argues that “In the age of big data, there is no excuse for not A/B testing every stage of design, from color scheme and layout, to font style and iconography, in order to design the perfect user experience.”
What Makes a Good UX?
Here are the three qualities Samit considers to be most important for an effective User Experience:
- Communicate the values and benefits of your product, not just its features. Your UX should help explain what makes your product different and how it makes life easier for customers. Your value proposition should be communicated on every page.
- We all know that consumer attention spans are shrinking. Consumers have little patience and will quickly click away from your website if it doesn’t hold their attention. Your User Experience needs to inform, reward, and entertain visitors.
- Your brand image should be reflected in your UX design. Your company’s look, feel, and language should be built into every part of your website design.
Ask Customers About Their Experience
Are you tracking the interactions you have with your customers? Start asking how satisfied they are about doing business with you, how they feel about your products, and whether they enjoyed the User Experience on your website. By leveraging this data you can gain insights into build a better UX on your website. When the majority of your customers become repeat customers, you’ll know your UX is working as it should.