It goes without saying that your website is pivotal for the overall user experience but your UX definitely doesn’t end there. Keep in mind that after a successful interaction on a website, people will interact with your brand through other channels, as well. They might look you up on social media and follow you for more content. They will have to confirm via email or SIM. In other words, there’s much more to UX design than just having a great website.
Then, not all UX takes place in the digital environment either. Unless you’re providing digital products, your audience might receive actual products in packaging. They might also visit your headquarters or passively encounter your ads (sometimes even on traditional channels like TV and radio). All of these need to be addressed in order for you to cover all bases.
There is so much you can do beyond the website in order to make a difference. Here are several UX design improvements that might revolutionize your business model in the future.
1. Mobile app
In order to improve your overall UX design, you need to work on your own app. Apps are much more popular for mobile users than mobile-first websites. This is what makes them a worthy investment. There are really several ways in which you can upgrade the user experience on your mobile app.
First of all, you need to reign in your notification system. While this is handy and a great way to remind your audience of your offers, the truth is that it can annoy people to the level of uninstalling the app. Remember that it’s far more important that you have something to offer to your audience, not what they can do for you.
Second, you need to allow personalization. This creates two major perks:
- It gives you more data in terms of user preferences to analyze.
- It creates a better user experience, which benefits your brand as a whole.
Third, it’s important that you go for a mobile-friendly layout design. Keep in mind that while this may sound intuitive, there are a lot of those who won’t necessarily stick to it.
In the end, the desktop app is optional. When it comes to the desktop experience, people are far more satisfied (even pleased) with browser-based experience.
2. Social media
While you can’t control the design of your social media profiles (this is up to the network), there are a lot of elements of professional web design that you can either learn from or use as resources. For instance, if there are cover pictures and profile pictures involved, you can always use your logo or a part of your web design in order to customize your web presence.
So, what about social media UX and its applications?
As far as visuals go, you’ll be mostly sharing graphics, videos, and photos. The resolution and quality of these content formats can make all the difference in the world. It is also one of the ways to make your engagement rates skyrocket.
When it comes to chat, which is a primary source of interaction with your clients on social media, you can achieve so much via chatbots. This is a method used in web design but on social media, it seems even more natural. Keep in mind that the right chatbot software makes a world of difference. So, rethink your strategy and give your audience what they want.
The key thing for you to focus on here is the customer support aspect of the business. Here, the format doesn’t matter nearly as much as your problem-solving abilities.
3. Email
When it comes to optimizing email for UX design, this is a topic that deserves an entire post of its own. However, we’ll try to simplify it a bit in order to help you achieve the greatest effect in the shortest period of time.
There are three criteria that email needs to fulfil in order to be deemed UX friendly. It needs to be:
- Simple
- Clear
- Honest
While this is definitely an oversimplified explanation, you would be surprised at just how many people get this wrong.
Even though you might believe that you’re doing everything right, there are several areas that you could definitely improve regarding your email UX design experience.
- If you’re not already, it’s a good idea to use the company name as the sender. All personnel should have custom addresses.
- The subject needs to provide decent motivation. In other words, instead of just filling this line, you need to ask yourself: “What would it have to say in order for me to want to click it.”
- The message of an email needs to be translated in 11 seconds. This means that the very core of your email should not exceed 55 words. This will also make you rethink the informational hierarchy.
By providing your audience with a better user experience, you’re actually doing yourself a huge favour.
4. SMS
While this may sound a bit odd in 2021, the truth is that SMS is still one of the best, most efficient means of communication with your audience. Seeing as how everyone has a phone on them and SMS doesn’t rely on the availability of the internet (free Wi-Fi), it’s the most assured way for you to get in touch with your audience.
This method of communication has some downsides (which is why it’s been abandoned in general use).
Problem: You have a (very) limited number of characters.
Solution: Your messages need to be as concise as possible.
Problem: SMS messages are considered uncommon and urgent.
Solution: Make sure to use them only for the most relevant notifications.
In other words, in order not to lose the trust of your clients, you need to be very careful in your SMS use for marketing purposes. Phone number is perceived as a far more private piece of personal information. Don’t make your customers regret giving their number.
5. Ads
Improving the UX on ads is always a top priority, regardless of if the ads in question are coming from google search, social media or blogs. Keep in mind that Direct mail ads and ad networks also make a huge portion of this market, this is why they should never be underestimated.
In terms of ad UX, it’s important that you understand a couple of things. Your biggest priority is to get to terms with the fact that usability comes first. People want responsiveness.
Second, if people want audio and video content, they’ll play it. One of the best ways to annoy your target audience is to automate play functions for audio and video ads. In fact, a loud noise is one of the easiest ways to increase your bounce rate and the bounce rate of the page where your ad is displayed.
Remember that you can’t always control volume because you don’t have insight into the setting on the devices of your users. Once the content creator puts two and two together and figures out that you’re the reason they’re leaving the audience… well, things won’t turn out for the best. This is one of this might interfere with their SEO strategy and they’re not likely to stand for this.
You also need to keep in mind the importance of having a clear CTA and aesthetics that point to this button. There should be no confusion on how they can interact with your brand.
6. Offline UX design
Even when they go offline, your audience is still going to interact with your brand, potentially even be affected by its design traits. For instance, if you have a headquarters, the exterior and interior design will affect your company’s branding. This alone will play a huge part in how you are perceived, as well as in the UX of people who come to visit you.
However, not everyone will come to your business in person. In fact, in the e-commerce era, the portion of your audience that will actually interact with your business in person is probably not that great. Nonetheless, they’re still going to place orders and receive your products. This is huge, seeing as how the UX design of your products and product packages can embody your brand in more ways than one.
If you’re the developer/designer/inventor, you can make sure that the very design of the product is user-friendly. If not, you can at least make sure that the packages are printed and designed in such a matter. Either way, this benefits your branding quite a bit.
In conclusion
The very last thing worth mentioning is the importance of making sure that your web design doesn’t represent all your efforts to improve your UX. Sure, this doesn’t mean neglecting your web design but it allows you to see a bigger picture. Proper UX development takes a lot of resources, so spending it all on your website is not necessarily a good idea.
Instead, take a look at everything there is to do, make a road map and learn how to budget more efficiently. This is the best way to get your money’s worth.