Today's consumers are smart, savvy, time starved and needs delivered in a moment . Whether at a desk, on a bus or during a bank queue, people wish to access the web for a spread of reasons; be that to buy , find answers via search engines, book flights or sign up with friends. within the execution on all of those tasks, the standard of a person's online experience makes an enormous difference.
A critical part of that is that the ease with which they will find, access, review or buy products and services. For businesses eager to attract and convert that interest into revenue, user experience (UX) is crucial to their success and in many cases survival.
When it involves developing and executing modern digital marketing strategies, UX can often get forgotten as 96% of mobile customers experienced once they found websites that weren’t optimized for their device. More worryingly, 79% admit to checking out another site if the one they landed on doesn't live up to expectations.
The ideal online customer journey may be a user-friendly website that mixes seamless navigation; a clean cut purchasing journey; dynamic and digestible content; top notch customer support and mobile device compatibility. By combining these elements a business can create a web environment which will make a brand. So why do organizations so often neglect UX when it involves engaging with customers?
User experience during a mobile world
The rise in smartphone usage has changed the way people view, buy and interact online. With mobile now accounting for 65% of digital media time, the desktop is becoming the secondary touch point for an increasing number of digital users.
Mobile is so ingrained into the psyche of today’s user that mobile users are five times more likely to abandon their if an internet site isn’t correctly optimized for his or her phone - and if you’re running a business, this might mean a serious loss in conversions, or maybe damaging to your brand’s reputation.
That said, what’s alarming is that 52% of users said a nasty mobile experience made them less likely to interact with a corporation - and with 80% of local searches converting on mobile devices (if they're designed properly), UX may be a incontrovertible fact that simply shouldn't be ignored.
Although mobile may be a dominant force in today's world, it doesn't suggest that desktop is not any longer relevant. the bulk of e-commerce transactions still happen on the PC, and intrinsically , a balanced multi-platform strategy is important to the buyer’s journey. Despite this, many marketers and makers still treat the desktop as their main area of focus, which is out of sync with today's consumer behaviour.
User experience is quite just usability
While many marketers dismiss user experience as an industry buzzword, this is often not the case. In fact, the foremost successful marketers within the industry will tell you that user experience is that the key to facilitating conversions and helping you to become that glistening needle during a giant (and oversubscribed) digital haystack.
According to American professor and statistician Edward Tufte, “Confusion and clutter are the failure of design, not the attributes of data .” This rings faithful user experience as an entire , and when you’re trying to face out from the gang online, one among the simplest ways to try to do so is by being clear, concise and accessible to your audience .
While usability is an important component of user experience, it's just one piece of the general pie because it focuses on things at surface level, while UX digs deeper into whether a private page or piece of content will satisfy the requirements of a user. As an entire , user experience determines how a brand speaks to its customers and delivers the message it's trying to convey, effectively.
Content is significant to user experience
One of the simplest ways to convey a message to your audience is by publishing content that they will truly engage with. consistent with Quick Sprout, 82% of individuals enjoy reading relevant content from company blogs while a whopping 71% of online publishers claim well-formed mobile content significantly boosted user engagement.
Well crafted digital copy that's optimized for search engines may be a key ingredient to an honest user experience. Not only will this help your website to rank well for relevant search terms on Google, but SEO friendly copy also will give the buyer an informative answer to the question in a moment . this may ultimately end in conversions instead of website abandonment.
While it's going to seem obvious for online businesses to supply search optimized, engaging and consumer-focused content it's often overlooked by many.
Where UX fits into the five tiers of content marketing
A mind-blowing content strategy that yields incredible results is usually best planned from the bottom up. Essentially, there are five levels to a successful content marketing model, which are:
1. SEO: this is often essential because if your site isn't optimized for search engines, your target customers will never find you within the first place.
2. User experience: this is often where UX fits into the combination . By now, you're presumably conscious of its importance, but let's put into perspective. consistent with a recent study by Adobe, given quarter-hour to consume content, two-thirds of individuals would rather read something beautifully designed than something plain. And that’s only one piece of the general UX puzzle.
3. Content strategy: The blueprint of your commercial direction as once your site is SEO optimised and your UX is tip top, you'll use metrics like visitor numbers and bounce rate to craft your content to satisfy the requirements of your audience , and begin achieving the results you desire.
4. Content creation: With a technique in situ , it is time to start out the fun part - creating content. Refresh existing content, create new blog articles and confirm each bit is formatted for digital consumption.
5. Content distribution: Once you've got created the world's most dynamic content, it is time to start out getting it noticed. Share it with the proper people using your various social channels and the other glistening connections you'll have.
As user experience is the second step during a robust content strategy, it's to be done right. Otherwise, the entire strategy will come toppling down before it's even began .
Apple's user experience makeover
Taking note of just how crowded the smartphone and mobile device market has become, Apple recently announced their plans to reinforce their user experience within the near future. during a drive to make a seamless experience across all of its platforms and grow their business after a growth reduction in recent months, the software juggernaut is docking threads and pulling the platforms even closer together.
Along with improving its already successful portable desktop - iCloud during which Apple’s services are going to be available on Macs also as across iPads and iPods - is additionally opening up its sensational digital assistant, Siri, to 3rd parties. this suggests that developers can cash in on Siri's sophisticated voice command technology outside Apple applications, a move the corporate hopes will drive use of Siri amongst new users.
It's plain to ascertain from Apple's forward thinking just how crucial user experience is to today's consumer. Without constant improvements to the way companies interact with customers, any brand will fall by the wayside within the current fast changing climate.
The rise of visual searching
A star on the horizon, visual searching is predicted to become huge within the not so distant future. for instance , augmented reality style app Blippar is taking user experience to an entire new level with its intuitive sort of brand interaction, which it plans to urge people to use it for visual search, instead of rummaging through Google - and it seems a possible target too.
Jordan Harper, Chief Technology Officer at Iris Worldwide, explains "Andrew Ng of Baidu said (not that long ago) that in five years time half all searches would be either voice or image based, and up to date innovations by Amazon and Apple demonstrate that voice based search is certainly being prioritized. Visual search is potentially even more powerful, though, but outside the lab, it's only really Google who is advancing the tech within the mainstream. It's good to ascertain another company revving up.”
Food for thought for companies out there. The very fact is that humans are intuitive creatures, and it seems that visual searching will cater to our ever growing need for fast gratification during a world that gets busier by the day.
UX isn't an optional luxury for competitive businesses. To offer the user experience the eye it deserves, time, money and resources must be invested, which also means acquiring the talents required to make sure success. As our Co-Founder, Ian Dodson says: "Fresh ideas fuelled by clever interpretation of knowledge and an honest user experience deliver great results."