[Fireside Chat] The UX Landscape: Present and Future

In this webinar, our experts, Lam Huynh and Matthew Gessler discuss where things currently stand and emerging trends in the ever-evolving world of UX.

The conversation will explore:
UX Evolution
Role Specialization
DesignOps
Service Design

https://youtu.be/Uj06OEHBoEY

 

by Lam Huynh

[Fireside Chat] The Impact of UX Research on your Business Strategy

This webinar covers the strategic value of UX research and having research professionals with a holistic perspective on the team. The purpose is to demonstrate that the value of UX/CX research extends beyond the tactical benefits of building the best app or device for end-users to complete a specific project into the realm of strategy and business planning and mapping at the enterprise level.

The conversation will include:
•A broad definition of UX research.
•Illustrate why UX research practitioners can make significant contributions to high-level business decision-making.
•"Building the right thing" at the project deliverable level.
•The distinctions between research that informs business strategy and research strategy.

Guest speakers:
Dr. Racine Brown, Manager of User Experience Research and Business Analysis
Matthew Gessler, Director of Digital Experience

https://youtu.be/B00sdvvLMms

by Dr. Racine Brown

Metaverse – Design and Future

You’ve probably heard about the metaverse before. In recent months it’s been a hot topic in the news ever since Facebook changed their company name to Meta and signaled their intent to invest in the future of the metaverse fully. But what exactly is the metaverse? Why should designers be excited about the metaverse? And which areas of the metaverse are worth paying attention to in the next few years? In this blog, we aim to answer all these questions and more.

What is the Metaverse?

The metaverse is a set of interconnected digital spaces that allow users to do a variety of things that would be impossible to do in the physical world. It is essentially a parallel virtual world. You can socialize, complete tasks, play games, and learn through virtual activities within this world. When you’re inside the metaverse, you will have an avatar or virtual identity that is customizable.

The origins of the metaverse can be found in science fiction. Still, thanks to the creativity and innovation of designers and developers worldwide, it is no longer a fictional concept. Today, we are closer than ever to bringing the metaverse into everyday life. The metaverse has tremendous potential to be a new arena for UX and design through virtual reality, augmented reality, and extended reality.

Designing for the Metaverse

So, what role can designers play as the metaverse grows in popularity and compatibility? Designers will need to shift their mindset, methods, and skills to design various experiences that work in a virtual context. Maybe this will require them to stop thinking about “users” and to start thinking about the people that interact with their designs as “players.”

Designing for the metaverse won’t be easy at first. Many designers will need to expand their skillset and learn new disciplines. These virtual worlds could possibly function like mini-societies which will mean that designers will have to expand their knowledge of economics, psychology, and sociology.

We think some of the key elements designers should consider when thinking about the metaverse include:

  • Storytelling is at the forefront of designs.
  • A focus on field research and understanding a complex array of perspectives.
  • Learning 3D tools and making the most of completely adaptable virtual worlds.
  • The interconnection of designs. Your designs will no longer exist in isolation but will instead be part of a web of connected designs and experiences.

Which specifications are unique to Metaverse design?

There will be several design areas that will be uniquely challenging and effective within the metaverse. Let’s take a look at a few of the key specifications:

  • Animation
    • Animations will have the potential to move anywhere in the metaverse, but designers will need to exercise restraint to ensure their energies are natural to the human eye.
  • Audio
    • Spatial audio is reactive to the player’s position in the virtual space. The closer they are to an audible object, the higher the audio volume should be.
    • Ambient audio plays throughout the experience to convey the mood and atmosphere. It should enhance rather than distract.
    • Audio feedback that is prompted by sound triggers will help immerse users in the environment and ensure the metaverse sounds and feels like a real space.
  • Avatar
    • How should the user be represented in the virtual space? There is an opportunity for plenty of cosmetic creativity here, but designers must also be aware of how representation impacts their presence in the metaverse.
  • Navigation
    • Camera and Controls: What kind of perspective and camera angles will the metaverse support? (First Person, Third Person, or a 2D overworld map) And how will the user control the camera and its movement within the metaverse environment? Intuitive controls are important to the initial and overall experience.

The benefits

Why will the metaverse succeed? To understand why the metaverse could be a big deal, let’s take a look at some of the key benefits.

  • The Metaverse in the workplace

For workplaces, the metaverse presents enormous opportunities. VR technology will allow users to share ideas in virtual office spaces. In the current remote working climate, the metaverse could enable you to create authentic “in-person” experiences without coming to work physically. For designers, you will be able to create in a virtual space reducing costs and increasing the ability to be creative and collaborate.

  • The Metaverse in entertainment

VR games and experiences have already been around for a while. And the metaverse has the potential to take this kind of entertainment to the next level. You’ll be able to immerse yourself in films, games and music concerts.

  • Metaverse practicality

The metaverse has thousands of practical applications. For example, VR platforms are used in exposure therapy to confront their fears safely. Equally, the metaverse can be used in sport and combat training to simulate environments and reduce the risk of injury. For designers, the metaverse can be used to visualize, test, and compare designers in a way that is inexpensive, accessible, and enjoyable.

Your Metaverse journey

There is enormous potential for exciting innovation and creativity in the metaverse world. Today’s designers can be at the forefront of this change and should look to make the most of the metaverse to create, iterate, experiment and excel.

To learn more about how you can utilize the metaverse with your designs and fast-track your digital transformation, please get in touch with our UX experts at Radiant Digital.

by Siddhartha Baddi

What is 21st Century Design?

The design has always been about solving a problem. From the desk chair to the smartphone, our creativity has always been spurred on by a desire to make life easier. 21st-century design, which is about using design to address the world’s major problems, has evolved out of traditional design, which sees design purely as a way of solving complex human issues. 21st-century design is about finding the root cause of the problems that plague society and creating effective, sustainable solutions. But are today’s designers equipped to solve such problems? And design capable of overcoming the challenges of the twenty-first century?

Let’s take a look.

The Challenges of the 21st Century for Designers

One of the key challenges for designers in the twenty-first century is changing their mindset and approaching their work. Designers have been trained to think that one expert can solve everything for many years. In most cases, this is not true. And considering this way can lead to poorly designed products and general creative stagnation. Modern design is about collaboration, communication, and connectivity. Today, designers need to know how and when to receive input from their community and prospective users. They need to listen. If we stand any chance of combating the enormous challenges that face us this century, designers must keep humans at the center of what they do. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare our social, political, and environmental struggles. Rather than discourage, these difficulties should provide designers with the desire and the opportunity to create innovative and sustainable solutions.

Making the most available technology also lies at the heart of 21st-century design. “Computer use in the design for the 21st Century will act as the linchpin for most creative design activities. The design of the technology must not only save user (physical and cognitive) effort but create new ways of working and envisionment, allow greater dissemination of information and designed artifacts, and enable increased social inclusion of stakeholders” (UCL)

Human-Centred Design

There are four main principles to ‘Human-Centred Design’:

  1. People-Centred
  2. Solve the Right Problem
  3. Everything is a System
  4. Small and Simple Interventions

These principles can help to guide the creative vision of today’s designers in whatever field they choose to operate.

 

First and foremost, all designs have to place us (humans!) at the center. How can we create designs that prioritize our wellbeing and the sustainability of our species? This may require some proactive, outside-the-box thinking. And the answers may not always provide a design that is instantly ready to be consumable and profitable. Workflows may need adjusting, and designers will have to refine their priorities.

Secondly, human-centered design is about solving the right sort of problem. Are we looking for solutions that improve our lives and the lives of others in a meaningful way? If not, then the issues may not be worth solving. Of course, the purpose is not always immediately apparent when you start designing something. However, knowing that you are working towards something worthwhile will help you create innovative, modern designs.

Thirdly, everything is a system. Therefore, everything is interconnected. If you pull a string on a design over here, it will likely affect how it operates. This is an essential consideration for app developers and designers in practical terms. When working on their app, they have to understand the hardware their app is used on, the other apps they're competing with, how their user may treat their app, and how the UI of the app affects the UX.

All these things are connected, so designers have to think about the big picture: what do you want the final result to be?

Lastly, it is best to make small and simple interventions. Designers are unlikely to develop an all-encompassing design that solves the entire issue. Instead, it is better to focus on incremental progress through small and simple interventions in the world of twenty-first-century design. This is the best way to keep solutions human-centered and towards real and meaningful progress.

To learn more about modern design, check out this video on ‘21st Century Design’ by Don Norman, an acclaimed American researcher and Director of The Design Lab at the  University of California, San Diego.


To learn more about modern design and what the future for design may look like, get in touch with our UX and UI experts at Radiant Digital.

by Sai Sutapalli

Designing Future Products to Last

How do you know whether your product will endure? And why would you want to build long-lasting designs when the market steers you towards efficient, disposable items and short-term gains? In this blog, we wanted to take a brief look at what designing future products to last means and how you can create successful, enduring designs.

The Right to Repair

The right to repair regulations were introduced in the UK in 2021. These regulations aim to ensure that once you own something, you have the freedom to do what you want with that product, i.e., repairs, upgrades, and alterations. Similar rules were also brought into US legislation via President Biden’s executive order in July 2021. Although each state in the US has the right to set their own laws in place regarding the right to repair, these broad developments in the US and the UK that come from the top are indicative of the growth and development of the right to repair movement around the world. 

The right to repair movement has been gaining in popularity for years. For example, IFixit, an American e-commerce and how-to website that sells repair parts and publishes free wiki-like online repair guides for consumer electronics and gadgets has over 3 million members and has been steadily growing for years.

In July 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) unanimously voted to approve a policy statement announcing increased antitrust and consumer protection enforcement against business practices that make it difficult for consumers to repair their own products or use independent repair shops. Businesses will have to be aware that as they design new products, their users will be empowered to make their own alterations.

It is also important to note that the right to repair isn’t just physical. This repair applies to digital products and services and ensures that users have the right to download and change how the product functions to their liking. These changes should encourage designers to alter their approach and create designs capable of lasting and evolving. By all indications, the right to repair is here to stay.

Designing for the Future

Is your product robust? Will consumers be able to use your product in five years in the same way that they use it today? When we design products, we should be thinking about how we are contributing to a culture of e-waste. We must think about the lifecycle of our products and how the life cycle can be improved and extended. Designing for the future means designing products that are long-lasting, modular, and capable of being disassembled. Making long-lasting products is by forging an emotional connection with the consumer. If you can create something, authentic users will be more likely to care about it and prefer to repair it rather than throwing it out. This isn’t solely a designer problem. Consumers will also need to adjust their attitude towards products and not always choose the latest and greatest thing. 

On the design side, repairable items capable of being disassembled will also help extend the life cycle of your designs. Indeed, modular devices that allow users to swap out faulty components for new ones will enable consumers to fully understand the structure and keep them functioning long after buying them. Please take a look at companies like Frameworks and Fairphone, which will allow modularity in their devices and empower their consumers to take ownership of their products. There are limits to this route when it comes to proprietary information, designs, or software; however, it is still an idea that is worth thinking about if you are hoping to design for the future.

Documentation is Key

Companies should create guides and manuals that provide a step-by-step walkthrough of how to disassemble and reassemble their devices. Similar to manuals for IKEA furniture or toy models, this documentation should be user-friendly, engaging and allow users to interact with your product to extend its shelf life.

You could include illustrations or QR codes that link to video tutorials and simple instructional videos. You can even allow consumers to publish their own documentation online about their own alterations. This will help to create a community around your designs that can grow organically and evolve into something unexpected.

Then you should nurture the ecosystem that has developed around your product. If your device needs special tools or instructions, make sure that they are as accessible as possible. As you engage with your consumer through this documentation, you will be able to show that you care about your product and you’re excited about the potential of your design when it’s in the hands of users. All of this will help to show the flexibility and value of your product in the long term.

Products that Last

It is clear that the landscape for product design is changing. Businesses must keep their fingers on the pulse of the industry and users if they want to succeed.

Whether it is with the right to repair, designing lasting products, or creating a community around your product, designers have a lot to pay attention to today if they want to create something that endures and improves the lives of their users.

 

It is exciting to think about the products that await us in the future. If you want to be at the forefront of this next wave of change, get in contact with our design, UI, and UX experts at Radiant digital.

 

by Christopher Bailey

What is Journey Mapping?

Customer journey maps can be used to understand the relationship between a customer and a business over time. You can visualize the customer journey through the maps and track their interactions across all channels. Design teams can use customer journey maps to understand their customers’ experience, find out their customer expectations and identify areas where they can improve.

In this blog, we want to take a brief look at journey mapping to understand what it is, how it functions, and how it can be used to improve the experience you provide.

Tell customer stories

Journey mapping is about telling customer stories. They are research-based tools that provide designers with a clear narrative about their users that can improve the overall experience of all of their customers. With journey mapping, team members have the opportunity to examine tasks and interactions to determine whether their design fails to meet the needs of their customers. These maps should be rich with detail and indicate the most important tasks and events.

In general, a journey map should include:

  1. A timescale - a set journey period (e.g., one week or one month) that allows in-depth and sustained evaluation of the customer journey.
  2. Scenarios - the context and sequence of events, from first to last.
  3. Touchpoints - how the user interacts with your design.
  4. Channels - where the user interacts with your design and performs actions.
  5. Thoughts that arise from interactions - what the user thinks and feels throughout their journey.

The step-by-step process of user journey mapping

To ensure you get the most out of your user journey mapping, it’s essential to know the goals of your business, the intention behind your product, and your hopes for the future of the product. This will help you to align your aspirations with those of your users.

  1. Choose a scope - Do you want a user journey map that shows the end-to-end experience, or do you want a more detailed map that’s focused on a single interaction? that shows the end-to-end expertise or a more detailed map
  2. Create a user persona - Who is your user? Interview prospective users, understand the context around your users and analyze the results.
  3. Define the scenario and the user expectations - What is the situation you want to address? Is it actual or anticipated? What kind of expectations does the user have when interacting with your product?
  4. Understand your touchpoints - Create a list of touchpoints (user actions and interactions with the product)
  5. Understand user intention - What motivates your users to interact with your product?
  6. Formulate the journey - Make a sketch of the entire user journey and understand each step and interaction
  7. Understand the user during interactions - What does your user feel when interacting with your product? Considering their emotional state and their decisions will help you connect with them on an authentic, human level.
  8. Refine user journey - Ensure that your journey is realistic and relatable. Creating validated and refined user journeys is essential if the mapping process is valid.

 

Journey map variations

Several concepts are closely related to journey mapping. Let’s take a look at what makes them both similar and different.

Experience map

An experience map is far broader than a journey map. An experience map aims to understand general behavior, whereas journey mapping focuses on a specific product and a specific set of users. For example, an experience map can be used to know how you can solve a problem and isolate pain points.

On the other hand, a journey map can be used later on to take these pain points, assign them to a specific product and understand whether or not that product is meeting the customer needs. Therefore, to gain a complete understanding, you could use an experience map for the early stages and then a journey map later on.

User story map

User story mapping is a UX-mapping technique often used by Agile teams that helps plan features and functionalities. With user stories, mapping teams will sketch or use sticky notes to outline the interactions they want their users to go through to complete their goals with a digital product.

It is a helpful, visual way of condensing information and seeing everything from the user’s point of view. In general, the user story map is more about planning and implementation, whereas journey mapping is about discovery and understanding. With user story mapping, you could be more focused, specific, and detailed, whereas; journey mapping prioritizes the big picture and the whole customer journey.

 Service blueprint

Service blueprints can function as extensions of journey maps. Suppose experience maps are the broad version of journey maps. In that case, service blueprints are the complete opposite: a focused method of visualizing specific components at touchpoints in a specific user journey.

A service blueprint can help you address what you do internally to support the customer journey. In every business, the nature of the service blueprint will differ, but, in general, it should provide a framework to understand each touchpoint and help you thoroughly examine specific customer journeys.

Success through journey mapping

With journey mapping, product managers, designers, and developers can gain a holistic view of the customer experience. They can uncover points of frustration, illuminate moments of ecstasy and really dig into why some interactions work and others fail. It is not a fool-proof system, but it simplifies the whole customer process. If done successfully, journey mapping reveals opportunities to address customer pain points and create an improved experience for your users.

Are you ready to start improving your users’ journey? If you’re curious about the next steps you should take, feel free to get in contact with our experts here at Radiant digital.

 

 

by Vinod Mourya

White Space in UX Design

White space is a technique used when creating design layouts to ensure that your page's important elements and content have room to breathe. Using white space is quite simple. Whether you want to emphasize an image, a graphic, or some text, all you need to do is leave blank space around the particular item you want users to focus on. Space is an important and often underrated design element that significantly influences the user experience.

Below we’ve highlighted a few types of white space and what makes white space so crucial for effective UX design.

Types of White Space

When designing for websites and applications, smartphones, or tablets, negative space is key to the usability and visual appeal of the user experience. Which elements are drawing the user’s eye? Are their items on the page that are partially obscured or easily ignorable? These are the kind of questions you need to ask when thinking about your use of white space.

There are two types of white spaces:

  1. Macro-space: this refers to the empty space between the main elements of the web page or app interface and the space around each element.
  2. Micro-space: this refers to the small gaps within each element, such as line spacing in the text, and the gaps between images, graphics, and logos.

                                              

       

Both types of white space can help draw the eye, improve the readability of the content, and direct users to the critical elements on the page.

The Importance of White Space in UX Design

It can be tempting to cram as much information as possible onto the page or screen. Indeed. Many designers will be afraid of losing their user’s attention. As a result, they may overcompensate by making their pages cluttered, and they will neglect the value of whitespace. Users do not need to see everything all at once. White space can create a degree of separation between content and ensure that the page or interface is visually balanced. White space is all about the area between design elements.

Even though it is called white space, it does not have to be white. White space can be any color, pattern, background image, or texture as long as it is distinct from the foreground content. The three vital elements to consider when designing negative space are Legibility (Can the user read the content?), Focus (Does the white space guide the user through the content?), and Tone (Does the white space contribute to the tone of the overall design?).

Let’s look at some of the advantages of white space, which will help illustrate the important role in UX design.

Key Advantages:

  • Improves legibility

When white space is used effectively, it ensures that all elements on the page are easy to read and understand. Micro-spacing is particularly important to legibility. Macro-spacing can also separate paragraphs, headings, and key graphics.

  • Connects multiple visual elements

White space allows you to create a balance of content throughout the page and connect various visual elements. With white space, you lead the reader’s eye from one place to another and make the whole reading process feel natural and linear.

  • Ensures the page is clean and uncluttered

White space helps the page feel clean and prevents the user from getting distracted. It is key to balance information, style, and freedom to ensure the page feels purposeful and aesthetically pleasing.

  • Add style to the page

White space can help create a tone and establish your brand’s style. Designers have been using negative space to create atmosphere and emphasize visual elements for years, and this same ethos can also apply in the digital realm.

  • Directs user attention to the main elements

Where do you want to direct the user’s attention? White space can help UX designers create a coherent user experience that guides readers from one main visual element to the next. In general, the more space you have around an item, the more attention it can attract. With this technique, designers can encourage users to focus on clickable items, important features, and logos.

Making the Most of Your White Space

White space is key to enhancing your online content. By paying attention to exactly how much white space is used and where it is used, you will be able to design a user experience that is engaging and visually appealing. Every UX design decision, including those related to white space, should be informed by a purpose and a willingness to make something that engages and grows your user base.

To learn more about using space in digital design, feel free to contact our UX experts at Radiant digital.

by Abhishek Bokka

The UX of Notifications

Notifications usually evoke mixed reactions from users. They can be beneficial at times, but they can be a nuisance at other times. All notifications serve the purpose of informing the user. They are powerful tools that notify users about app crashes, new messages, new features, and possible updates. They are a great way to re-engage users who have forgotten about your app from a marketing perspective. From a design perspective, notifications are a key distinguishing element that helps to create an engaging user experience (UX). Let’s take a brief look at how notifications work, the common types of notifications, and their role in creating a compelling UX.

What are notifications?

 

Notifications are very easy to understand. Notification is simply the act of bringing something to the user’s attention. In the digital world, notification is the easiest way for an app or interface to notify the user about something or relay a message without opening the app. The primary example of a notification is an email alert. Most people receive emails every day. If you have your notifications turned on, a flash message will appear on your smartphone, tablet, or computer screen when you receive an email.

At this point, the user has several options. First, they can open the app directly by interacting with the notification. Equally, they can dismiss the notification by sliding it away or clicking a dismiss button. The notification gives the user a brief, to-the-point understanding of the matter without opening the application itself.

Types of notifications

 

Below we’ve highlighted a few of the most common types of notifications.

  • User-generated notifications are targeted towards particular people, and another user informs their content. For example, WhatsApp messaging.
  • Context-generated notifications are created by an application after receiving permission from the user—for example, a Google Alert.
  • An app creates System-generated notifications based on specific needs, ranging from re-engagement notifications to spam.
  • Push notifications are clickable pop-up notifications that aim to update new features, performance changes, and recommendations.
  • Notifications that require action from the user.
  • Passive notifications are merely informational alerts that require no user action.

There is a time and place for all of these notifications. In addition, most apps will enable or disable certain notifications to provide the right experience.

What makes a good notification?

There are a few key elements that make a notification effective. In general, a notification works best when it is:

  • Non-interfering: A notification is more often than not an act of interruption. To master the UX of notifications, you have to create reports that are as unobtrusive and non-interfering as possible.
    For example, a notification for an app shouldn’t pause or disrupt the user’s experience of another app. For instance, nobody wants to be watching a TV show on Netflix and have that experience interrupted with continuous pop-up notifications from their fitness app. It is all about timing and context. User research and artificial intelligence are great ways to understand when user’s want notifications and when they find them annoying. Then you can use this data to inform your design and optimize your notifications to make them as unobtrusive as possible.
  • Contextual: out-of-context notifications help no one. They will confuse and possibly annoy users, and the notification will probably not serve its purpose of drawing people to your app. Good notifications are deployed in the proper context and at the right time.
  • Small in size:  It is essential to make a notification big enough to read but small enough to allow users to continue using their screen visually. The best notifications are relatively small in size and never cover other essential information on the screen. Usually, notifications appear at the top of devices in a standard rectangular form that makes them easy to interact with or dismiss.
  • Used to serve warnings: Some of the most effective examples of notifications are warnings to do with traffic, weather, and health. Notifications are a quick and easy way to communicate essential and possibly life-saving information.

For example, a flashing light on your car dashboard to tell you something’s wrong with the car or a severe storm warning that pops up on your phone and gives you time to look for shelter are both examples of effective and necessary notifications.

The success of these notifications, and many other notifications, depends on timing and how concisely they convey the correct information.

To learn more about the utility of notifications and how you can take your digital transformation to the next level, get in contact with our UX experts at Radiant Digital.

by Alka Singh

Multi-Device Experience: Design for all Channels

In 2021 there were 4.66 billion active internet users. Almost everyone in the world has access to the internet, and it has become an essential part of everyday life for billions. Today you can access the internet in various ways through smartphones, PCs, TVs, tablets, and many more devices; as a result, companies are presented with the challenge of designing their user experience for all sorts of channels. A brand is considered a whole entity by customers, and they want to receive a unified experience. But how is this accomplished? And what are the critical elements of a cross-channel experience?

This blog will take a brief look at the multi-device experience and how designers can create for all channels.

Multi-Channel Experience

The crux of the multi-channel experience is about allowing users to engage via various channels and provide a unified experience.  48% of households have multiple personal computers, 43% own a tablet or e-book, and around 85% of adults own smartphones. So it is essential to allow users to switch from one device to another and still be able to interact with your product or service in a way that is an enjoyable and consistent matter where or how the users reach the design, there should be a cohesive user experience with seamless data transfer across channels. So what elements should we focus on when creating a cross-channel experience? Let’s take a closer look.

Elements of a Usable Cross Channel Experience

  • Consistency

First and foremost, we need to focus on consistency. Don’t surprise the customer by providing an inconsistent experience across each channel. Instead, place the customer at the center of the design process and create a unified experience that addresses their needs on each device. Some functional and visual optimization will have to be altered to ensure a high-class product, but elements such as navigation and content should generally remain consistent.

  • Availability

The omnichannel experience should be available across all touchpoints. Companies should allow their users to decide when and how to access their services. This means removing limits and ensuring maximum freedom with each channel.

  • Seamless Integration

Can a user start a task on one channel and complete it via another? This is called seamless integration. There should be a real-time data sync between all channels, enabling a seamless user experience.

  • Context Optimisation

You don’t need to deliver everything all the time. A context-driven perspective will help to improve the customer experience. For example, different devices may be better suited for other sorts of activities. Therefore, consistency across channels contexts will help customers get the most out of each experience.

 

Building a Cross-Channel Experience Strategy

The elements we need to focus on are clear. Now we should consider the actual steps designers can take to ensure they are incorporating these elements and building an actual cross-channel experience.

  • Common Goals: Before you implement anything, it is essential to align your team goals and metrics with its overall business goals. This will help designers measure performance, and it will simplify strategic decisions.
  • Map Customer Journey: Understand your users and customers. Draw a customer journey map to find out how they interact with your product or service. Which touchpoints are most popular?
  • Provide Value in Exchange for Data: If you ask for your users’ data, make sure you provide value in return. Know exactly what kind of data you’re collecting and understand how that information can improve the user experience.
  • Check for Redundancies: Look out for interruptions or disturbances in the user journey. Recheck the journey map and ensure a seamless data flow across all channels.
  • Measure, Analyse and Optimise: Collect data on standard metrics and understand whether the user experience you are delivering is living up to your expectations. Are your goals being met? Then you can continue to use the data to improve your existing strategies.
  • Communicate the Results: The final step is to communicate your results. Let your team and other teams know the results of your analysis and any other findings. Transparency across the organization will help you work towards common goals and refine your cross-channel user experience.

Design for all Channels

Creating a unified experience across all channels is an exciting challenge for brands. In today’s world, users have certain expectations.  Omni-channel synchronicity is important to users that interact with your product or service on various devices and via different channels. Building a cross-channel experience that incorporates all your product or service elements will be vital to expanding your user base and maintaining your success for years to come.

So, how do you design for all channels and deliver a consistently excellent UX? To learn more, get in contact with our UI and UX experts at Radiant Digital.

by Karthik Kannan

The Role of DXPs in Creating the Next Generation of Customer Experiences

Digital experience platforms (DXP) have become increasingly popular in recent years because they enable companies to optimize their digital transformation and address the growing needs of their customers. So, how do modern businesses ensure that they are making the most of their DXPs? And how can they use DXPs to create enduring and engaging customer experiences? Let’s take a look.

Customer Expectations

How can companies continue to meet customer expectations in an ever-evolving and changing technological landscape? In recent years, Salesforce research found that 76% of customers today expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. One of the best ways to understand customer expectations is to conduct thorough user research and collect as much relevant data as possible to manage customer expectations; businesses must limit bad experiences with their brand. In their future CX report, PwC surveyed 15,000 consumers and found that 1 in 3 customers will leave a brand they love after one bad experience. At the same time, 92% would completely abandon a company after a couple of negative interactions.

The next generation of customer experiences must consider customer expectations and understand how easy it is for customers to grow dissatisfied and switch to a competitor. Then they must provide deeply customized experiences unique personal moments and show that the customer is at the center of their whole enterprise.

A Human-Centric Approach

It is important that the next generation of DXPs have a human-centric approach. Often DXPs are a web of many different technologies, strategies, and workflows, but it is vital that the needs of the customer are at the center of the whole process. To achieve a successfully human-centric approach, there are four main elements to consider:

  • Multi experience

Most customers expect a seamless experience across digital and physical worlds in the current market.  When they order an item on the computer, they wish to receive a notification via email on their smartphone that lets them know that the thing is now ready for collection. Admittedly, this isn’t too complicated, but it has quickly become a basic customer expectation. To enhance their multi-experience offering, modern businesses have to focus on “last-mile” delivery and ensure that both physical and digital interactions are optimized.

  • User experience

Is your user experience as engaging and rewarding as possible? Businesses can take advantage of new technologies to transform the experiences they can offer on smartphones, tablets, and computers. For example, many apps use facial recognition or thumbprints to reduce hassle during payment or verifications processes. This technology would have seemed futuristic a decade ago but is now very much integral to the user experience of many apps and businesses on the market.

User experience will depend on the tone of your brand, what your website or app has to offer and how a user can navigate your customer experience. Everything should be connected, and every detail should be tailored to ensure that the user experience is accessible to a varied demographic.

  • Customer experience

 A human-centric approach to customer experience means finding a way to create intelligent and intuitive customer journeys. Using data you have already collected, you can predict your customers’ actions and create an experience that aligns with their ambitions. This is the chance for businesses to create hyper-personalized experiences that are unique and highly individualized. Data is the key here. DXPs work best when they are informed by insightful, targeted data that reveals interesting information about the user base.

  • Employee experience

The final pillar to creating a human-centric experience via a DXP is to have employees passionate about your business and motivated to help your enterprise succeed. One of the keys to making the most of your DXP is to create an employee experience that is adapted to the new world of work and accessible to a variety of professionals from a range of disciplines. Digital onboarding experiences are pretty standard today, and it helps to have these in place if you want to start employing the best and brightest.

The Next Generation of Customer Experiences

The next generation for customer experiences will be more authentic, connected, and complete. The technological innovations that occur every year are helping to give developers, designers, and creative business people the tools they need to make more human-centric customer experiences. The modern customer expects more. The primary role of digital experience platforms in creating the next generation of customer experiences will be to go above and beyond customer expectations to deliver truly exceptional products and services.

To learn more about the role digital experience platforms can play in creating customer experiences, get in touch with our UX experts.

by Harshad Wagh