The essence of user experience (UX) design is highlighted in the famous Henry Ford quote “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Ford recognized a demand for quicker transportation beyond one’s two-feet, a horse, or a train. However, rather than try to improve upon the status quo, Ford came up with an innovative solution to solve a universal and timeless need.

User experience designer Ben Ralph defines user experience design as “studying user behavior and understanding user motivations with the goal of designing better digital experiences.” In recent years, UX has become increasingly popular because it fulfills the user’s needs. And it goes without saying that satisfying the user increases positive experiences with your product, and therefore brand loyalty.

Here’s how you can apply user experience to your brand to drive new business and increase customer loyalty.

Do Your Research and Know Your Customers
User experience research is the process of gathering data and documenting human behavior to learn about your target audience and meet their needs and expectations. One of the keys to understanding your customers is to gather their feedback through interviews, surveys, and reviews.

Conducting User Experience Interviews
User interviews are a great way to get direct interactions with your users. Many customers are happy to share feedback and feel valued, yet it is always a good practice to offer some sort of incentive as a thank you. UserTesting offers great advice for conducting user research:

• Pay attention to wording. When writing questions makes sure there are no ways to misinterpret them.
• Ask open-ended,objective questions. Leading questions can skew the answers, and the goal is to get honest feedback.
• Give the user one question at a time. No need for long questions like “Why do you use our business, and what do you like most about it?” Get better answers by splitting up the questions.

Sending Out Surveys
Surveys are a way to widen your reach beyond customer interviews. There are free tools like SurveyMonkey you can use to create a simple questionnaire and send it to your database. Unlike interviews, surveys are better suited for specific questions and are more likely to be successful with multiple choice options. Do not expect survey participants to spend more than ten minutes.

Collecting Reviews
There are many public review sites, such as Google, Facebook, and Yelp. Reviews are a great way to see customer feedback after they have purchased a product or interacted with your business. You probably already have some that you can use too, and many reviewers give detailed reasoning about what they like or dislike.

Have a Clear Understanding of the Market and Competitors
Understanding the market and what else is available can help you make your product better. It can also help you understand how your competitors connect with clients. Netguru outlined some questions you should ask when performing a competitive analysis:

• Who are your competitors and what are their missions?
• What are the similarities and differences between your competitors?
• How are your competitors’ brands unique?
• What are your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses? What are they good at and where do they struggle?

Apply Your Research
If you have done your research properly, you should be able to gauge the actionable items.

• Do your customers wish pricing was more visible?
• Do they want more practical packaging?
• Is one of your website pages hard to navigate?
• Does your product fully meet customer needs?

The answers will vary by industry, but a key thing here is to identify action items from your research and get to work. Keep in mind, it is better to start improving one design aspect at a time.

Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Visual Design
A key piece of people-first design elements is to ensure you have powerful visual design. Visual design has a significant effect on user interaction with a brand. As Sean Dexter put it on Medium “users prefer better looking interfaces to the point where they’re willing to forgive usability imperfections.”

Dexter further noted that “just ‘making things look good’ is only the simplest view of the value of visual design. As graphic designers have been saying forever, visual design is about communicating.”

Repeat

Once you have improved your brand, you are going to want to test what you have done and measure your design impact. Additionally, the key to success is always to evolve and improve your brand with the times.

If you need help creating a strong, visual brand targeted for your users, Evoke Idea Group is ready to help. We are a creative partner for marketing teams helping brands across all industries tell strong stories through smart design. For more than three decades, we’ve helped some of the world’s most trusted brands captivate and convert customers through impactful print and digital projects. Our experience allows us to hit the ground running on any size project. Find out what we can do for you in a complimentary consultation. Schedule yours today by email at hello@evokeideagroup.com or give us a call at (630) 639-8985.

About Evoke Idea Group

Evoke Idea Group is a Tucson, Arizona-based creative agency and marketing partner helping businesses nationwide solve marketing, branding, and communications challenges. For 30 years, we’ve helped businesses build stronger brands and connect with their audiences through strategic marketing, brand strategy, logo and identity design, graphic design, advertising, advertising campaigns, marketing campaigns, digital marketing, social media, video and motion graphics, packaging, print and sales materials, presentation design, trade show displays, infographics, and other creative services.

We work with businesses and marketing teams that need an experienced creative partner to turn ideas and strategies into effective marketing. We develop the creative concepts, produce the deliverables, and execute the materials needed to bring campaigns and communications to life. From a single creative project to a comprehensive marketing or advertising campaign, we help businesses move from strategy and concept through creative development and execution.