In my earlier post titled “How Covid-19 has changed Consumer Behaviour and Challenges Ahead”, I briefly touched on the importance of UX for businesses entering into the digital foray. In this post, I shall elaborate further on what UX entails.

What is UX?

User experience (UX) is the interaction and experience consumers have with a company’s products and services. Regardless of its medium, UX Design encompasses all interactions between a consumer and a business.

What is UI?

User interface (UI) is the specific asset users interact with. UI design looks at the look and feel, interactivity of the product, for example, website’s buttons, typography, colour schemes, icons and imageries. UI is a subset of UX.

What is the difference between UX and UI?

UX design is all about the overall feel of the experience, while UI design is all about how the product’s interfaces look and function.

For example, UX is the feeling when you see a Christmas tree in December. It reminds you of the warmth and cosiness of Christmas spirit when you spend your time with your loved ones. UI is the fairy lights, decoration, and presents.

Having said this, UX and UI work together.

When would UX matter to a business?

If you are a business owner of an e-commerce site or app, you have to look into the user experience. For example, Google and Amazon, they are easy to use, even for a kid. When your e-commerce site or app is user-friendly, your consumers will have a good experience with your brand. You want to reduce the risk of frustration as much as possible. Happy customers bring you more businesses.

However, if you are an owner of a mama shop, in which you have loyal costumers supporting you, you obviously do not need to think too much about the UX.

Why is UX important in marketing?

It is important to implement good UX. Businesses depends on consumers’ spending to thrive. It’s important to attract potential consumers as well. Consumers are the ones who bring in the revenue for businesses. A good UX is similar in providing good customer service; which is to keep your consumers happy so that they become your loyal fans. A bad UX will only create a bad name for your business. Consumers will not want to purchase products or services from you.

How to capitalise on having a good UX as a marketing tool?

1. Create positive feelings for the brand

As I briefly mentioned in the earlier paragraph, the purpose of UX is to enhance the experience when the consumers interact with the medium. Having a strong UX eases accessibility to the products a business is selling and, in turn, a strong UX is likely to generate further revenue in terms of returning customers. Consumers may even introduce your products or services to their peers. Having a good UX may lead to more sales.

How do you feel towards each of these examples? Which e-commerce site would you prefer to shop at?

2. Converting Visitors to Customers

There are many factors that would affect the conversion. Here are some examples:

Is the website layout easy to navigate?
Are there sufficient information about the products, shipping cost, return/refund policies, etc?
Is the checkout experience fuss free?

Is the website layout easy to navigate?

It is crucial to create an online interface that’s easy for consumers to navigate. Human are lazy by nature. Supposed your consumer chance upon your website, the website is cluttered and hard to navigate, and they can’t find the details that they want. In this case, the consumers will simply exit the site and visit your competitors’ websites. Not only would you lose profit, but the consumers also would not have a good impression of the brand.

Example: Arngren.net

Your website should not look like a classified section of the newspaper. Potential consumers will close their browser immediately. There is an absolute need to redesign the website to make it neater, and have the information presented in a more accessible manner.

Are there sufficient information about the products, shipping cost, return/refund policies, etc?

There are many type of consumers. For example, one who is doing virtual window shopping, one who is budget conscious and one who knows what they want to buy. A good UX will be able to convert the various type of visitors into transactions.

Example: H&M

The example has a neat layout. It has the necessary information cater to the different types of visitors. Consumers who are budget conscious can sort the clothing from the lowest price to the highest price. Consumers who knows what they would like to buy, can use the side menu and search by the type of clothing. For visitors who are doing virtual online shopping can easily identify which are the newest item by the term “New arrival”. The website also provides different viewing options, such as products and models. This allows consumers to have a better look at the products. All of these can be done within the same page, without having to click on serval links. A visitor can also bookmark/save a product he/she likes on the same page too. These functions make the visitors feel as if it’s simple and convenient to shop online. The information are easily available. Hence, by including the necessary functions and information on a webpage, the visitors would just need to focus on a page to get their shopping done. Their mind would be at ease when shopping, hence completing the conversion.

Is the checkout experience fuss free?

Example: Nike

There are 2 options, Guest Checkout or Member Checkout, for consumers to checkout when they are ready to make their purchases. Guest checkout is a good option for consumers who do not wish to become a member, as they may not regularly purchase products from the brand. They may only purchase as and when they need an item. Or, they simply just wish to save the time.

When you remove the distraction, in this case - the need to create an account to checkout, the visitor do not need to go through the frustration of inputting their details, verifying their email address, etc. Hence, having a guest checkout option would provide a fuss-free experience for this group of consumers. They can simply focus on their one goal; which is to buy the product that they want and leave the page.

Having good UX for your websites will create happy consumers. Happy consumers will generate more sales. It’s essential to monitor the level of drop out on your site so that you can investigate the problems and think of ways to fix it. Always be improving, to generate more revenue to the businesses.

In conclusion, ignoring UX will cost your business a lot more in the long run.

x, Esther