mEda.Loves.Design

For every product, there will be an end user.  A product is usually created to fulfill some form of need or desire for specific groups of users.  As the market becomes saturated with products raising to fulfill different sectors and needs of our daily lives, the success of a product can't compete on cost alone.  

Products will need to differentiate themselves from their competitors by addressing the specific needs and removing friction for the primary goal it's supposed to perform for the user.  A user centric approach in product development starts with identifying the problems and possible solutions to remove the pain points that the users will face as opposed to completing a set of features.  User experience design emphasizes on alleviating user pain points by understanding and fulfilling their needs, allowing us to design an experience that relieve these issues using a combination of visual (UI), interaction patterns, psychological methods. 

A UX case study/app redesign for the McDonald’s app. I had to use this app at least once or twice a month after my kiddos’ swim classes on Saturdays. The convenience of being able to order ahead of time was the main reason I downloaded the app in the first place. The fact that it rarely worked for me, and upon asking to turn on my location services only reminded me to check in and then wait for my food to be prepared (no difference than ordering via drivethru) were some of the reasons this case study was more of a passion project.

I will be following up with a separate article exploring the relationship between UX and CX efforts and how one really can’t accomplish much when they don’t compliment each other.

http://www.getelastic.com/how-branding-influences-purchase-decisions-infographic/

This infographic presented a lot of interesting data regarding the importance of Branding and how much Social Media affects the online shopper.  Many e-commerce companies focus on User testing & experience, which makes a lot of sense from the Business side of things.  Branding plays such an important role in building trust, engagement and confidence in the customers that there should definitely be more emphasis placed in this area, especially Social Media.

This brings up some interesting questions...

How can companies test and target Social Media initiatives & content in relation to it’s effectiveness in building a Brand?

Which companies had success with Social Media content that have grown their branding and trust with the customer significantly?  What did they do?

How do we measure our Social Media campaigns in terms of building trust and increasing engagement levels with the customers?