According to Michael Porter, "Strategy defines the company’s distinctive approach to competing and the competitive advantages on which it will be based upon. A good competitive strategy creates unique value for a particular set of customers."
On the other hand, the UX strategy is about how you can leverage UX design to achieve those business goals set in business strategy, gain that competitive advantage, and at the same time, address customers' pain points.
UX strategy is vital to eliminating business pain points, such as reducing support calls and quickly fulfilling other business goals. Satisfying customers by addressing their plans to build trust with them, build engagement and retain them, and attract new customers to grow further. Users want assurance and confidence from businesses. Affirming their problems helps improve the user experience for solving business problems.
The first thing to devise a strategy is understanding each product stage's unique challenges - a new or early-stage product, a mature product, and a stagnant product. The next thing to consider is whether the product is a customer or an employee-facing product. Deciding whether budgeting plays a role in each strategy helps businesses identify and plan for resources.
Seven strategies to apply for solving these three core areas for businesses are:
Customer Journey maps are suitable for products essential to all product stages. Products have found their target audience and chosen paths for their UI. However, they need to understand the user's thinking process further when they engage in different interactions with products. The Customer Journey Map is a timeline of user interactions that describes the users' thoughts and emotions during the journey process. The Customer Journey Map is different from the user flow. Unlike user flow maps in the building stage of UX that focus on the technical aspect of tasks that users engage in, the customer journey map discusses interactions and the psychology of users' emotions. Customer Journey maps would be in the analyzed stage of the UX process.
There are five stages of creating compelling customer Journey maps for products. These stages are:
Product managers must identify the engagement area by defining the scope for startup products. The customer journey map can lead to a high-end map with numerous experiences and interactions for the product. A Journey map focusing on limited interactions can consist of a deeper analysis of one particular interaction. Identifying this stage first will make the next steps easier to focus on identifying scenarios and learning from users' thinking processes for interactions. At this stage, identifying user and brand needs and conducting UX research should have already been done.
Having some user research at the beginning process of the product, defining the user persona is for a better understanding of what type of users are in one's target market. It represents the type of user an app is designed for. In this process, one would identify the elementary characteristics of their ideal user from their target audience. Identifying the ideal user's demographic, gender, interests, and goals are vital to understanding their thinking.
Depicting the scenario and user expectations when product managers have defined the strategy of their product and the expectations they envision users to have. An example of this can be creating a UI for a food delivery service where the user desires to have food in under 10 minutes. This part of the Customer Journey map is the most important as product managers and startup businesses can backtrack to their customer's pain points and identify their expectations more likely to have. As the startup product progresses, we should remember this part of the Customer Journey Map for other parts of the UX process.
After defining the scenario and user expectations, one can create a list of touchpoints for understanding users' intentions by writing down different reasons for how a user would find the product. Examples can be a user reading a case study or looking to compare prices to existing products. New products should use UX research from user pain points and information from user persona for this stage to understand what kind of touchpoints would be their ideal customer. After creating a list of touchpoints, one would write a list of channels where they found the product. Examples of media can be from a business blog, finding the app on the App Store, or even from a social media post about the business. Mature products should already have existing touchpoints and channels for the product but should be monitored to see if any new trends or changes have been made from new UX research. Stagnant products may have the wrong list of channels and touchpoints mismatched or inferior UX research from their persona; therefore, product managers should update existing research processes and methods as necessary.
Considering the different user touchpoints is the last part of the customer journey map process before writing it down. This is where new products have to use logical thinking to decide all the potential reasons why customers are using the app. Essential questions to ask are: Is it for business purposes? Are customers looking to compare our status with competitors? Is it because our UI is easily navigable from other competitors? Like the previous paragraph, stagnant products could look at mismatched touchpoints and channels that could have led to invalid assumptions about why a user would use the product. Flawed UX research could be at play at this stage for products not making any progress. Mature products should have existing information for their users' intentions. Product managers should consider whether to continue enforcing previous research methods or see if specific purposes have changed.
Employee-facing products where users need to create drafts for product managers, understanding this five-step process can be helpful. UX researchers or designers with tasks for conducting research or developers in charge of app development can use Journey maps with color-coded sections for each stage to draft clear and concise data. The study will be more detailed, and UX designers can develop efficient wireframes for better prototypes.
For new products with already gathered user data, finding free tools for designing customer journey mapping would be beneficial, as company funds shouldn't have to budget for this. This will help new products begin to stretch budgets to prevent product managers and startups from avoiding financial debt when launching the app. For stagnant products that are spending money while remaining stuck, checking existing Customer Journey map tools and even tools conducting UX research can help stabilize their budget. At this point, product managers can decide whether to add or remove existing tools that cost. For mature products, there should already be customer Journey maps. Checking existing tools for the maps can help managers decide what further actions need to take place for the budget.
Another UX strategy is choosing the right demographic population. This is part of the understanding process (the first six-stage UX process) for understanding users and the brand. The demographic population would depend on one's target audience. The primary target audience that is looked at as the future of this generation is GenZ. This age range ranges from 17-25 years old as of 2020. According to App Annie, GenZ spends 20% more time on mobile devices on apps and engages with their most-used apps, 30% more than the older demographic (25 and older) in 2018. Even though gamification is a popular trend to implement for UX, this is not the case for GenZ. According to this information, studying this age range benefits mobile apps.
Gamification should not play a significant role in a strategy for this age range, but older audiences over 25. The top areas of interest for GenZ are socializing, communication, shopping, banking, etc. Although every UI should be responsive to mobile devices, Mobile phones are used most frequently for this age range with smartphones. This is where stagnant products have difficulties growing if they're not using responsive design. Researchers spend an extended time having the right existing strategies but looking at the wrong target audience. Stagnant products that fail to work on different size devices reduce conversion rates and are left with product managers back to the drawing board.
Studies show that 74% of games accounted for consumer spending in 2019. This study consists of more people ages 25 and older. According to the same survey, people spend 75% more time each month on their most-used games and access them 50% more often. These games are primarily mobile app games. This research indicates that for generation X (39-50) and Millennials (25-38), elements for gamification are essential for apps targeting these age ranges.
When looking at older people (65+), being the baby boom generation, accessibility is essential. With many older people, impairments and disabilities could be an issue. For this age gap, products place significance on cognitive memory. Not stressing out the cognitive load will prevent poor UX and poor usability with navigation. This target audience may face issues with limited memory or attention span. If this is your demographic population, certain things to keep in find are universal designs with a generalized UI that satisfies all impairments. A user interfaces to accommodate all impairments.
Choosing the right demographic is good for products stuck in the six-step UX process's first stage (understanding audience and brand needs). It will be easier to look at what strategies to implement for apps interfaces and to make sure their mission statement is accurate for their corporation by asking:
Employees who have to work on the floor or gather user insights for useful reports can be essential tasks for employee-facing apps. Employees have products to access better data on their corporations' targeted demographic can help them make better decisions for the customer. For example, employees working in retail know their target audience is children, and using an app for understanding their demographic, like a cheat sheet, can help make better decisions by knowing trends in children's attire and media for making suggestions. Employees using UX apps that give better user insights can craft better strategies for higher returns in positive customer experience and profit.
Depending on the target demographic, choosing to expand on certain advanced graphic features, such as gamification, could cost. At the same time, gamification can still be implemented using free resources for apps without even having to spend money. For example, businesses can promote using point systems without spending funds on gamification. Companies can set limits on the number of features used for this strategy. This will stretch budgeting for other focus areas, helping new products avoid financial debt. For new products looking to use specialized tools for UX research that could cost monthly fees or app purchases, finding tools with flat fees can help. If your business has a tighter budget with no room for extra monthly payments, free alternative tools for researching demographics, such as Consumer Barometer, can help with user insights and gathering data for targeted demographics.
To better understand what users want and get them to convert to your business instead of others is personalization. For mature products, product managers may already have the proper methods for their products using minimal design targeting the right concentrated audience but need an extra push for higher engagement and app downloads. Personalization is similar to emotional design for compelling storytelling and making users feel like a part of a product, but there's more to it. For the same reasons as accessibility, product managers at the mature stage should know that universal UI generalized enough for anyone to use is still essential. Adding personalized components for users to adjust puts them ahead of competitors, such as font size, coloring, and light and dark modes. Like the emotional design, stagnant products are likely to be stuck until the right strategy for personalization is found.
Adding options for personal profiling is a second strategy for personalization. Many social media accounts show personalization with profile pictures, biographies, or even sharing content with others. They can use these elements of personalization for products. Products at this stage, although having the right resources and support, still want to look at how users see the app in terms of whether or not:
Applying personalization to adjust components will continue to improve, driving more downloads, brand communication, and a better user experience. Even though the product is mature, this can help product managers maintain traffic flow and gain better insight into how this can improve existing areas that lack lower engagement in their UI and product. For products that might be in the stagnant stage, this can move app development in the right direction.
Facing issues on apps that lack personalization can be frustrating for employees who work for the customer service department. Workers with impairments need personalization, where features can be adjustable for all impairments. Personalization for customer support can be used by offering features like live chat for the UI instead of email. Another method used is a feature that color codes folders that order customer questions in different categories. This can reduce excessive support calls and better organize customer questions, reducing employee confusion and faster completion rates. Adjustable features for all impairments can create more accessible work environments and avoid negative customer feedback, leading to future lay-offs.
Budgeting for personalization should not be a stressful factor. A mature product at this stage should already have a set budget for UX Design set up by the corporation. The existing UX resources used for the app should be looked at. For this strategy, product managers should know they can use free features without spending funds. An example is having product designers use free plugins or templates from UX Tools like Figma. Personalization should play a small part in the company's budget. For instance, if managers were to use their budget to purchase premium tools for promoting personalized components to implement into the UI. Mature products can stretch their budget by monitoring existing tools' pricing and even looking into free plugins for their product.
Emotional design UX strategy is one of the best strategies successful companies leverage to stand apart from their competition- think Apple.
With the advent of cloud technology platforms like AWS by Amazon, GCP by Google, or Azure by Microsoft, the infrastructure is a leveled play-field for every company, even startups and SMBs. They can launch new apps or scale them up relatively easily compared to how it was a decade or two ago. So what differentiates one company from the other? How do you stand out in the crowd?
Emotional design is about understanding your customer so well that your product not only solves a specific problem for them but also exceeds their expectations.
Many businesses fail to remember when looking for app structure and layout strategies are avoiding Hick's Law. Hick's Law states that the more options you give a user, the longer it will take them to decide. This is more of a concern for stagnant products. This is where some companies make their mistakes. Some product managers are starting to think of a strategy for offering all these eye-catching features to eliminate the pain point of solving all of their customers' problems and reduce customer support calls. Showing too much excessive content and options will stress out the cognitive load. Users stressed out will lead to
An example of Minimalist design is Dieter Rams, Braun. When observing his designs, the simplicity, lack of multiple buttons; one solid color; and bland device structure stand out. In the past twenty years, his idea of easy structure layout and simple design has followed as a UX strategy. An example is Apple products. Steve Jobs used a simple layout not only for his devices but for UI and better user experience. Those products are now one of the most well-known products worldwide with great ROI and have been used by three generations of users (GenZ - Millennials - GenX).
Showing too many elements slow down UI speed. Having a lot of large image files is the main reason for UI to slow down. According to a Google study, 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load. Not only do too many elements stress out the cognitive load of customers, but it makes the UI slower in speed, putting a chance of decreasing app downloads and in-app purchases. Mobile screens must reduce elements to a specific size to avoid lagging and provide a better user experience.
One of the popular UI trends as of 2020 is minimal design. The minimal design uses a clear and concise approach to content. Reducing excessive components and elements while removing multiple color choices minimizes a design. Studies have shown that this UI theme can be more favorable and have a better ROI.
Minimal design places emphasis on using white space. According to a social media study, white space boosts concentration by 20%. With an increase in focus and concentration, spacing and reduction are other elements. Allocating enough space for elements is essential for minimal design. It makes important content stand out, so users can take away what is critical, and customers can easily make purchases. Reducing the number of options will help also. Using tactics like card sorting will help product managers decide what information to keep and remove. After implementing a minimal design to existing strategies, a new coming product will be on its way to becoming a mature product. Better corporate decisions to improve app conversions will be made, and steady app downloads will be seen.
Reduced features are suitable for apps specialized for employee users. Products are made to check inventory or check stats for hourly profit; reduced components can help spot information faster. Minimal clear and concise elements help employees make decisions quicker for assisting customers and reduce support calls. Employees can spend less time learning how to navigate a frustrating UI to ease unnecessary tension for a better user experience. Managers will see better customer reviews as a result of improved performance.
Using minimal design can save corporations more money by using less. Stagnant products that have used funds for additional research and purchasing advanced UX tools for adding multiple features can cut out devices that are draining money. The minimal design should not even impact the company's budget. This will help stagnant products become mature products using less but having the resources needed for customers. This will help employees who work with multiple UX tools and features and reduce their cognitive load with limited means.
Going back to previous stats, according to App Annie, gaming apps accounted for 65% of downloads and 74% of consumer purchases in 2018. People aged 25 and over, notably Generation X and Millennials, accounted for 75% of spending the most extended amount of time engaging in gaming apps. The gamification element doesn't necessarily have to play into gaming apps but can be implemented for a better user experience for particular concentrated fields.
This is good for new products. At this point, products are trying to give their products UI personalization and reach their target audience in a way that adds more character and personality to the brand. They are looking for ways to communicate the brand and possibly have an older audience, generation X and millennials. Implementing gamification for fields can attract the right target audience for consumer spend and downloads.
For this stage of the production process, for products that are not necessarily for gaming, inserting gaming mechanics into non-gaming apps and websites are ways to move new products up the ladder. The first way to do this is by setting up the product to operate with similarities to a gaming app. Several of the similarities are:
Like many games, one starts at the beginning level and then gradually works their way up to gain more skill and experience. Products should use this same concept for selected target audiences to generate a fun and exciting approach to product engagement. As users learn to get more acquainted with the navigation process and familiarize themselves with content, the user experience can advance along with the users. This concept doesn't indicate that content should be more complex and challenge users as their experience progresses. The element of expertise advancing with the user is critical for better engagement and driving traffic.
With many games, items such as DLC (Downloadable Limited Content) and limited sources are used for users to use specialized features and articles for the product. These items and components communicate brands that can't use them anywhere except for the app itself. This separates competitors from other corporations. Product managers can find improvement in traffic and boost engagement for a better experience. Startup CEOs can find better ways to improve company decisions for better brand image and increase brand communication for their corporation. That can feature these items on the UI. It will make stagnant products mature into personalized and fun to engage with. Several examples of DLC content are:
Companies that reward their customers after engaging in specific actions can boost the brand's image. Implementing tasks/features on the UI, such as a call to action, and users that complete those actions on the UI should have a chance to be awarded. This creates trust and loyalty for customers. Corporations can use this to build customer loyalty for brands or design customer loyalty programs and product managers to increase engagement rates and better user experience on apps and websites. This can change the status of the new product from having no results to having a better ROI.
Social elements are essential. Games that use the internet to engage with other players on the interface build a stronger community. Similar to how apps and websites use social media sign-on and social media to create accounts, users should connect live with other users in the same target audience through the same UI. Users can build bonds with the brand but communicate and share the experience with other users. They can learn and navigate the UI together and share similar experiences. This can boost traffic, better testimonials, and communicate brands separating businesses from others. Most importantly, this will be an intelligent UX strategy for a better experience when promoting prototypes or beta testing.
Employee-facing products can use gamification for employees at a particular agency or business to promote app engagement. Products specialized for employee members to earn employee discounts and reward points can boost morale. They can use gamification strategies for apps for employees to check their sales performance and other workers. Features such as employee charts can be set up like a battle royal to see which employee is in the lead. The one with the highest stats can receive exclusive rewards or a point system. This promotes fun and friendly competition. It can motivate workers to improve sales and boost the morale of employees.
Users can use free features and ideas for gamification without using money. Business startups can look at free gamification tools like tokens or point systems to implement into their UX strategy for a new product. This can save money without spending monthly subscriptions, which can have a better ROI in the long run. This can stretch budgets for better use for other strategies such as executive support. Looking at affordable gamification software for new products and looking to spend on gamification software can be helpful. According to Technology Advice, for low-end pricing software, there is Influitive that's specialized in all industries. NetBet is an average-priced specialized for consumer brands for mid-sized businesses. Before deciding on the right software, review fixed pricing to determine if hidden or extra fees are used. Also, checking for the right quality software helps. For instance, NetBet is suitable for mobile apps, social integration, and POS integration. But according to Technology Advice, it received negative reviews.
Many managers and business owners of SMBs who are at the maturing stage of their product after choosing the right audience and researching have heard of ROI. ROI can still be a factor to consider for maturing products. ROI for UI is the area that can still be studied for reassurance and to ensure all existing strategies are following what they're doing and achieving better returns on investments made for app development.
Areas that should be analyzed to determine if ROI has or is still taking place for products are:
For new product design, you may be tempted to try and install features or use specific methods in apps that take a shortcut to satisfy business goals. It's typical for product managers at the new product stage to be tempted to set strategies to achieve business goals to see more app downloads, profit, and an ROI that moves to a mature product. The target for dark patterns users are people who don't
Before doing so, you need to stop and read this section before proceeding further. One strategy that can help achieve better ROI for new products is avoiding dark patterns. For new products that have already gathered basic research for UX strategy, you may have heard this terminology before with specific UX designs.
Businesses use dark patterns for apps that make customers sign up for things or buy things that users don't want to. Whereas a UX is supposed to be user-centered, focusing on the user during each phase of the design and development process, enterprises that use dark patterns deliberately dissuade and persuade customers to benefit the brand's objectives and goals instead of the user. Users of dark designs try to target users who:
Products at this stage need to focus on avoiding using these methods to build trust from customers using value propositions and strategies that are truthful and honest. This will improve progress and avoid being stuck as a stagnant product with no progression. Avoiding these methods builds more engagement for the app, which will eventually see higher ROI. Enterprises caught using dark patterns can earn a negative reputation leading to poor user experience on their products from taking advantage of users. Suppose any methods suggest multiple counts of soliciting to persuade users into taking action towards things they wouldn't want to do or not making them aware of their options. In that case, these strategies need to be removed.
There are different types of dark patterns used, but four main ones are called:
Forced continuity can be seen most frequently for subscriptions. For example, apps may offer 30 free trials to get acquainted with an app that gives users free access to a service. For products using dark patterns, they may solicit users to put in credit and debit card information to get them to sign up. Users who fail to opt out before the 30-day trial are automatically charged the monthly subscription charge. This subjects users to have a negative experience due to hidden fees.
Bait and switch are where users proceed through taking an action that has an outcome but results in another unforeseen effect. An undesired outcome is performed by offering a button that customers click on in the app that's considered bait. An example is apps offering excessive app updates. The update limits the choices to either 'Update Now' or 'Update Later.' If users don't want to update the app during that time, they may try clicking the top right X button. When clicking the X button, the product designer may have made it so that users clicking on the X button automatically opts to update the system now. This would be considered bait and switch, and the X button is the bait.
Zuckering is when products share more personalized information with their customers. That named the name of this dark pattern after the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg. Companies using this approach will hide the truth under their terms in conditions, most likely in small print, stating it will sell personalized information from customers to data brokers. Information about users can be sensitive and specific. Companies using this trick to break users' trust and share customized information can create long-term damage to the relationship between the customers and the business. The uninstalled rate for apps using this tactic will more than likely increase.
Roach Motel is the process where it's easy for users to create an account but makes it challenging to opt out or delete an account. In this case, users can find it easy to create a profile on a UI for an app but may have to go through a long process to delete it later. Particular examples could be having to go through lengthy security questions or remember old passwords such as, 'what is your favorite color? For apps that offer subscriptions, the product can make it difficult for users to opt-out, leading to forced continuity and charging customers.
For employee-facing products, new products will begin to have employees working with customers on specific tasks for customer service. Ensuring employees are not both the victims and guilty of engaging in dark patterns helps prevent negative reviews. Including information on apps and the copy in the UI that contains hidden messages or hidden fees can help employees better by not misinforming customers. Preventing confidentiality is essential. Employees can use some products to improve team communication or personalized profiles for apps. For team management, certain apps, like Homebase, contain private information about each employee, their performance, and wages. New products used by employees need to avoid the zuckering tactic to prevent breaking the confidentiality of employees. Products used by employees that contain sensitive information about them could be
Avoiding Dark patterns can help enterprises avoid losing money from their budgets and potential profit from sales of new products. Budgeting for this dark pattern is unnecessary as there should be no reason for installing tools that could cost. The only thing needed to be implemented in the product is eliminating soliciting and hidden messages resulting in hidden fees or stealing information. They can use methods without spending any money. An example is displaying a price comparison feature on the UI. It can list fixed prices from one product to its other competitors. This will reduce potential long-term damages for earning a product a bad reputation, resulting in product managers and businesses spending more money to save the product.
UX strategies can determine success for each product development life cycle stage. At Designial, we offer assistance for helping businesses achieve this goal to ensure that products achieve business goals by providing the best user experience.
Designial offers a fixed-cost pricing plan with no hidden fees, excluding the use of dark patterns. While most B2B enterprise-grade mobile app development projects cost twice as much as the original budget, our pricing is specialized for staying on budget. We reflect our pricing on the outcome of the product instead of the number of outputs produced.
Designial promotes personalization for customers with laid-out plans and execution. We use incremental design and development and base UX research on your targeted users for your business as a priority one. Whether a product is for customers or employees, we will lay out all the strategies with a business-outcome focus, making it quicker to market.
It takes immense expertise and experience to get it right, so vet your app design agency candidates carefully. Fortunately, here at Designial, we deliver on all counts. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our services.