Technological progress is always accompanied by rising consumer expectations. If from a dozen years ago a web product with an intuitive and simple interface that worked without a hitch had every chance of success among its target audience, today this will not be enough.
In particular, we are talking about the fact that today’s users expect to get something more than just “an effective solution to their problems” — they want to get a unique, personalized experience. This is confirmed by statistics: according to Twilio’s 2022 State of Personalization Report, 62% of consumers say a brand will lose their loyalty if they deliver an unpersonalized experience. So, how to recreate such an experience in practice? Let’s talk about this in detail below.
7 Main Methods of UI Personalization
Below, we propose you consider seven main methods of personalization in user interface design.
Customization
User interface customization usually refers to allowing end users to customize certain settings to suit their individual needs and preferences. Note that these features are not enabled by default — instead, the user must specify these settings in the interface.
In general, customization contributes to the improvement of the user experience when the users themselves clearly understand what exactly they want to receive. Therefore, to implement this aspect, there is no need to use artificial intelligence.
Adaptive design
Initially, responsive design is a way to correctly display the site’s interface on any device, but these days this concept describes more stringent design requirements.
In particular, it involves tailoring user interfaces not only to the specific form factor and operating system of the user device but also to the behavior and context of your product. This recommendation is relevant for multifunctional products that can perform several tasks at once and for products with different user roles.
Personalized content
Personalized content is the adaptation of various types of content to consumers based on the data that you have access to, for example, the user’s location, search queries, ads they clicked on, purchase history, the gender and age of the user, the type of the user device (smartphone, tablet, computer, etc.), the operating system of the user device (iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc.), user’s behavior during sessions, etc.
All of this data, taken together or individually, helps web solutions to better interact with their clients, resulting in higher conversions.
Recommendation systems
Recommender systems are algorithms that select relevant products and services based on user data. Often they are based on machine learning, although there are solutions with more primitive algorithms. One of the pioneers in the field of introducing advanced recommender systems into their services and products is the online retailer Amazon and Netflix.
There are two main approaches currently used in recommender systems: collaborative filtering and a content-based model. The basic principle of collaborative filtering is to generate recommendations based on data about other users with similar interests. At the heart of a content-based model is an object. This means that it is important for such a model to know any properties that characterize an object: brand, type, country of origin, etc.
Personalized search
Personalized search is an algorithm that is used to search the Internet with an individual approach for each user. In other words, this is an attempt by search algorithms to predict what a particular user will need to find next. Compilation of “guesses” is done using previous data, mainly browser history.
When searching, many factors are taken into account, among which are previous visits to the websites of a particular user, their geolocation, preferences, and others. In total, there are about 200 such factors.
Context-aware interfaces
The context-aware user interface configures certain settings for consumers depending on the state of the software solution they use. It typically applies sensors and data from the user’s environment to provide them with relevant information and recommendations.
The main reason for introducing context sensitivity is to boost user experience. In particular, thanks to this feature, users need to make fewer clicks or keystrokes to perform a specific action. Moreover, they will not have to be confused by the variety of menu items displayed on the screen at the same time since the interface itself will offer them the best selection from a limited number of options.
Personalized messaging
And finally, personalized pop-up messages that the user sees on the screen after performing specific actions with the interface. They use custom-tailored language and tone, giving consumers a unique sense of first-class live service.
Final Thoughts
We hope that now you have figured out how to create a personalized design and will be able to put the above recommendations into practice, and FlowMapp tools will help you with this task.
Originally published at https://www.flowmapp.com.
