5 ways to enhance the customer journey

Added on 9 October 2014 Peter Bogaards

Will customer journeys be the trojan horse of design in customer experience and marketing?

“The customer’s journey, from behaviors before they’ve even opted in to your marketing messages, all the way through repeat purchases as a loyal buyer, is critical to not only initial marketing success, but also to generating long-term revenue from repeat customers. Below I highlight five critical stages in the customer journey and how you can leverage digital marketing technology to ensure you’re creating that awesome customer experience. “

(Ellen Valentine a.k.a. @EllenValentine ~ Silverpop)

The future of UX leadership: Radical transformation

Added on 7 October 2014 Peter Bogaards

UX morphing into Enterprise UX.

“This column is the first in a series that will offer insights on how to help companies progress from delivering mediocre user experiences, as is all too common, to producing truly great experiences that differentiate their products and services in the marketplace. Doing so requires a radical transformation in the way business executives and UX teams engage in creating user experiences.”

(Jim Nieters and Pabini Gabriel-Petit ~ UXmatters)

Teaching and learning UX: Considerations for academic-industry partnerships

Added on 7 October 2014 Peter Bogaards

How can you make practice better without any reading from research? Only partially.

“Let’s face it: UX is difficult for many of us who study it, teach it, and do it for a living to define. We owe it to the next generation of UX professionals to introduce them to UX as soon as possible in their professional development, to be the frontline of UX education, so-to-speak. That’s the only way to make certain that students who are dedicated to becoming UX professionals have the opportunities they need to make that possibility a reality.”

(Guiseppe Getto a.k.a. @guiseppegetto ~ Boxes and Arrows)

Improving library user experience with A/B testing: Principles and process

Added on 7 October 2014 Peter Bogaards

Another item to the acro soup: LUX. Great initiative this peer-reviewed journal.

“This paper demonstrates how user interactions can be measured and evaluated with A/B testing, a user experience research methodology. A/B testing entails a process of controlled experimentation whereby different variations of a product or service are served randomly to users in order to determine the highest performing variation. This paper describes the principles of A/B testing and details a practical web-based application in an academic library. Data collected and analyzed through this A/B testing process allowed the library to initiate user-centered website changes that resulted in increased website engagement and improved user experience. A/B testing is presented as an integral component of a library user experience research program for its ability to provide quantitative user insights into known UX problems.”

(Scott W. H. Young a.k.a. @hei_scott ~ Weave: Journal of Library User Experience 1.1)

Every company is an experience company

Added on 1 October 2014 Peter Bogaards

CX, the sum of design for UX and BX a.k.a. XD.

“Reflecting on my earlier work on brands as media companies, I realize that the word media was really a placeholder for experience. It’s not that every company should be a media company per se – but rather, that every company must become an experience company. Media is one kind of experience – but for many companies, the right kind of experience is not media, at least if we understand “media” to mean content. (…) I believe that every brand needs to get good at experience design and delivery. Those that are great at it tend to grow by exponential word of mouth – think of Google, Facebook, Uber, Airbnb, or Earnest (a new lending company). When marketing becomes experience design, brands win.”

(John Batelle’s a.k.a. @johnbattelle ~ Search Blog)

UX researcher: A user’s manual

Added on 30 September 2014 Peter Bogaards

Always handy to have a step-by-step list. Research is more complicated though

“This article is a guide on what to expect, and how to get the most from your UX researcher – a user manual, if you will. You will invest a lot in your researcher and you deserve the greatest return. You should have high expectations for this critical component of your UX team, and following the recommendations presented in this article will help maximize your return.”

(Victor Yocco ~ Boxes and Arrows)

The architecture of human experience

Added on 29 September 2014 Peter Bogaards

Everything with a structure has an architecture, human experiences not excluded.

“The built environment is the ultimate platform for human experience. No matter which social network we frequent or which software we use, we are all logging on from real, physical space – our house, our office, our favorite café or pub, or local park. In a world where up to 70% of the global population will soon live in cities, one might say that architects operate on the front lines of experiential design. Learn how architects are using design tools and back-to-basics observation to better understand the mechanics of human behavior and the qualitative value people ascribe to the experience of daily life. Discover how quick access to information and interdisciplinary collaboration is affecting the shape of building design and the patterns of city planning. See how people use and occupy space – and hear why they come back. View the world from the perspective of one profession that is designing it.”

(David Cutler a.k.a. @davidcutler_sea ~ Adaptive Path UX Week 2014)

CUBI: A user experience model for project success

Added on 26 September 2014 Peter Bogaards

Every designer their own model (a.k.a. perception) of what they’re doing.

“We all want to be a part of compelling creative projects—projects that solve business problems and engage users through meaningful and valuable experiences. However, given tight budgets and timelines it’s challenging to create genuinely innovative design, identify gaps in the process, and consider the variety of factors for effective user experience. To solve these common challenges, I researched existing user experience models or frameworks and found that most UX diagrams are confusing, unorganized, complex, or antiquated, making them useless for designers and clients. That’s why I decided to create my own model.”

(Corey Stern a.k.a. @CoreyAStern ~ UX Magazine)

The culinary model of Web design

Added on 25 September 2014 Peter Bogaards

So much to learn from established experience design fields, like music, cinematography and gastronomy.

“Just as Escoffier took Ritz customers on a kitchen tour, Guillaume recommends explaining to your clients how their site or app has been cooked. The more open and understood our design processes are, the more their value will be recognized. Have you ever been running late and prepared dinner in a rush? I have and it was, unsurprisingly, a disaster. So tell your clients their website is nothing but a good meal; it takes time to make it a memorable experience.”

(Antoine Lefeuvre a.k.a. @jiraisurfer ~ A List Apart)

Redesign democracy: Dare to think big

Added on 24 September 2014 Peter Bogaards

Great to see Dirk taking on a very wicked problem.

“Why are you in UX? It probably isn’t to get rich. Yes, there is plenty of money in being a UX professional today. If you’re competent, you should be enjoying a very nice lifestyle. But we do this not for money–being on the business side would be far better at achieving that goal. We do it for creative reasons, expressive reasons, quality of life reasons, perhaps even altruistic reasons.”

(Dirk Knemeyer a.k.a. @dknemeyer ~ Boxes and Arrows)

Environmental communications: How understanding experiences in virtual space can influence the design of experiences in physical space

Added on 22 September 2014 Peter Bogaards

Digital and physical encounters, the ingredients of compelling human experiences.

“UX professionals are accustomed to thinking about how people interact with digital user interfaces. Whether we’re designing a mobile application or a marketing Web site, it’s in our DNA to consider what would be the optimal experience for people. But digital user interfaces are not the only elements of an experience with which people interact. In services, people may also interact with each other, with processes, with communications, and with physical spaces, and it’s the responsibility of the service designer to understand their needs and create an optimal experience that considers all of these diverse elements. Plus, while the goal of a service designer is to think holistically about how these elements work together in a service experience, each element has its own discreet set of design considerations.”

(Laura Keller ~ UXmatters)

A new era for search: The zero moment-of-truth is now defined by shared customer experiences

Added on 19 September 2014 Peter Bogaards

Search and brand, the marketeers heaven. Find and experience, the designers heaven.

“Search is a natural step in the discovery process. In a web world, search engines offer a lens into a qualified and structured view to help online consumers focus and make informed decisions. With Google dominating search, marketers concentrated on improving search ranking through tried and true techniques to ensure that what they were marketing earned a coveted position in the likely search results a customer might consider clicking.”

(Brian Solis a.k.a. @briansolis)