Using Design to Drive Action

A look at how products and services with great user experiences are successful at creating change.

We’d like to share some suggestions and tips about improving user
experience (also known as “UX”). UX design challenges us to broaden our
understanding and expertise through constant innovation. Even the most
innovative companies struggle to generate new ideas and identify the best
opportunities to pursue — but this is where design thinking can be most
effective.

Design should guide your innovation efforts. Use design thinking to develop a strategy based on a deep understanding of the specific needs and challenges that your customers face. Look at their behavioral patterns to understand what drives them to take action. Think strategically about the
ways in which customers interact with your product. Successful companies
understand how their users behave and what leads to their behaviors changing.

It’s all about engagement. Consistent designs help users digest information (in their most natural way) and perpetuates usage. Look at your website and define the customer journeys that are the most conducive for success. Explore ways to provide a positive experience for your customers, while reinforcing your brand’s messaging. Social interactions can be a great way to add another level of engagement. If you take a look at human behavior, you’ll notice how people are social by nature. Apple Stores are successful because they are a gathering place for the Apple community to exchange information and solve problems, as well as providing a hands-on experience for their products.

Simplicity is key. Through incremental design improvements, you’ll start to see how the design of the digital world can influence the quality of our decisions. You don’t have to invest thousands of dollars to make an impact with your marketing and gain ROI. Even simple design enhancements can make all the difference! Some suggestions are simplifying your messaging with clear calls-to-action or organizing your content to help users make better decisions. Good UX design techniques enable users to overcome behavioral obstacles by removing friction and making decisions less complex.

Test and refine. Design-driven development is an excellent way for users to
see the value in your product. It’s significant to discover a creative thinking
process that allows you to generate scalable ideas. Use metrics to gather
direct insight into your design’s performance and test several different
iterations to see which one performs the best. And as we mentioned earlier,
design adds value, engages customers, and helps you gain insights into
customer behavior. And the reality of bad design means that your business
ends up leaving money on the table.

Next Steps. Remember, products and services with great user experiences
are successful at creating change!

RESOURCES

We want you to be equipped with the tools and principles of UX design and have selected some resources to help you:

Articles

Design to Drive Behaviours: Profile Completion — applying psychology
principles to product design.

How to Help Your Users Take Action — accounting for cue, reaction,
evaluation, ability, and timing in your design process can help spur your
users into action.

The Psychology Behind UX: What Drives User Behaviors — covers the
important psychological facts and facets that UX designers should consider
to get inside the mind of an average user and understand what drives them
to do what they do.

Books

Nimble will help you discover a creative thinking process that allows you to generate scalable ideas that are both sticky and stretchy.

Drive offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.

Change by Design explains design thinking, the collaborative process by which the designer’s sensibilities and methods are employed to match people’s needs, not only with what is technically feasible, but with what is viable to the bottom line.

Podcasts

The Design Of Business | The Business of Design explores how design shapes decisions, ideas, products, and people within complex organizations.

High Resolution is a limited-run video series on product design and design thinking that discusses how the best companies approach, communicate and deploy design.

Honestly is available for marketing, advertising, design and software engagements. Learn more about our work by visiting Honestly’s homepage.