In a world of faceless corporations, it’s hard to stand out as more unique. Thankfully, it’s not impossible, but you should understand key aspects of brand perception, such as visual identity and the impact of user experience.
The return on investment of UX is significant, which is a good enough reason to look into it. On top of that, it helps you develop your brand identity and can awaken positive emotions in customers.
The goal of this article is to dive into what makes UX important for business and brand perception. Furthermore, we will provide you with some of the key steps to achieving excellent UX for your business.
UX design is a process of creating a functional yet good-looking product design. While it can be applied to physical objects as well, we will stick with online products. UX design is often hand-in-hand with user interface or UI design.
Individuals who are working on UX need to consider usability, branding, and design in their work. It can be described as an overall “feel” that someone has when interacting with the product. With that being said, it’s obvious why UX has an impact on brand perception.
UX designers' responsibilities involve strategy development, product testing, implementation, and constant analysis of the product. Just like a marketer, a UX designer is advised to analyze the behavior of customers and other metrics.
This way, they can make better adjustments and increase traffic and conversion. UX has a significant impact on the first impression that someone can have when visiting a website. A poorly designed website can turn away customers.
Furthermore, a product that’s not functioning properly can lead to problems such as refunds, lowered conversions, and poor reviews on the internet.
There are numerous benefits that a well-executed UX design can bring. They range from customer satisfaction to increased profits and better traffic. UX intertwines with some of the other important aspects, such as SEO and social media presence.
However, we will break down the benefits that can be applied to brand perception and improvement in business earnings.
A functional website that’s easy to use is beneficial for how visitors will perceive your website. Allowing them to quickly find what they are looking for ensures a smoother experience and increases their effectiveness when using the website.
When considering certain SaaS platforms, we can instantly recognize their unique features and usability. They stand out among the competition by having a design that’s both unique and functional.
Poorly constructed websites leave users with a bitter taste in their mouths. They will opt for your product only in situations where they have no choice. A combination of functionality and individuality will improve how users perceive your brand.
A more obvious impact that UX leaves is how the website looks. Pretty websites always seem more reliable and trustworthy. It signals that the company behind the platform invested time in how they are going to be perceived.
We can also mention some of the popular brands, such as Mcdonald's, Starbucks, and others, where colors immediately associate the customer with the product. The same lesson can apply to websites.
The nice-looking color palette that associates the customer with your product is quite beneficial for brand perception. Colors are only one part of a website’s visual identity. The overall design, position of the objects, and details all play a key role in establishing a striking visual identity.
More so than the technical functionalities of a platform, the visual impact that a website leaves plays an important role in the emotional connection between the individual and the product.
The fewer barriers that a user meets when using a website, the higher the chances that they will make a purchase. A confusing user experience can only lead to frustration and abandonment of the shopping process.
Exceptional UX design ensures that the customer’s journey is paved with straightforward directions and helpful guides. From the first visit to the website, the chances of the user making a purchase increase if their experience is straightforward.
As your company continues with expanding and reaching new customers, you can always do more to optimize the user experience and increase conversions even higher. Furthermore, you shouldn’t limit your metrics to conversions only.
Customer engagement can be just as important. Increasing sign-ups, downloads, and clicks can be a good basis for future leads. Customer retention is just as important because a drop in this metric can signal that your product isn’t functioning properly.
There are numerous ways that you can achieve a user experience that customers will enjoy. The most important aspect is that you hire a proper professional and that you understand what your product should represent.
If you want to increase your brand perception you not only have to have a good UX but also one that will adequately represent your company and the product. The methods below are only some of many that you can implement that lead to great results.
One of the novelties in the UX landscape is the creation of UX research strategies. Through the process of UX research, you’re developing your product’s concept and establishing pain points that users experience.
You can take a look at Hubble’s UX research strategy guide to understand how to apply this concept to your situation. These strategies ensure that your team is moving in the right direction when developing the product. Each product has different needs and characteristics, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for this.
The goal of UX research is to do the proper legwork before going too far into product development. This way, you’re ensuring that the company is moving in the right direction without any setbacks.
To ensure that you’re developing a user-centric design, you need to understand your audience. You can leverage artificial intelligence to analyze vast amounts of user data. Thus, make more accurate assumptions about the characteristics of your average customer.
One great way of devising a user-centric approach is by creating user personas. These are fictional users that represent a portion of your target users. By developing UX with these personas in mind, you can expect better results.
You can develop user personas using the knowledge of a certain customer profile. On the other hand, you can use the previous statistical method by analyzing data. If these two methods don’t seem good enough, you can conduct surveys with a small portion of your users and base personas on them.
When we consider the different types of users that a website has, there are obvious differences in their behavior and knowledge level. For example, a software developer and a writer will have both different goals and unconscious behaviors in how they get data from a website.
In the context of audience understanding and segmentation, consider both visual and technical aspects of the website.
One aspect that you shouldn’t neglect is the words and information that your visitors are met with. Without having CTAs that are actionable, great design can become obsolete. A UX designer needs to ensure that the buttons look clickable and that they contain proper CTAs.
A “Visit here” and “Buy now!” are two completely different messages that you’re sending, but they are sometimes thought of as interchangeable. Along with the rest of your website, your buttons and clickable elements need to follow a visual identity that represents your brand.
Furthermore, through the understanding of your audience, you’ll be able to come up with CTAs that are the most effective for the certain industry or demographic you’re interacting with.
With the rise of new technologies, often we neglect the essentials. However, those essentials are necessary if you’re looking for success. User experience is quite important and it can make quite a difference when properly executed.
You can build a much better brand image if your website looks and functions flawlessly. But you should remember that UX won’t make up for poor services or unnecessary products. Instead, treat it as a way of giving your business a boost.
With modern tools that allow you to analyze your audience and UX, creating a better website has never been easier. Leverage innovative tools while keeping the basics in mind.
