“It was terrible. I felt personally insulted by the ineptitude of their design. I have never wasted so much of my life on a simple task, suffering through such a misguided, haphazard, and unintuitive interface. I have been a loyal customer ever since.”
– product review by nobody, anywhere, ever
A solid user experience (UX) design is a winning strategy to reel in repeat business. People like interacting with things that make them happy. Go figure.
On a more serious note, UX design factors in multiple important steps in the buyer’s journey. Drawing from brand messaging, interactivity, and psychological feedback, expertly-crafted UX design makes your customers come back for more.
Competent UX design only happens when you have a thorough understanding of your users. This is an understanding that extends from their tastes and opinions to patterns of eye movements measured in milliseconds.
In order to create an experience that caters to your target market, you have to know who constitutes that market. You want your users feeling comfortable and familiar while engaged with your brand. Understanding what they want is key. You need to communicate that your product is made for them. Quality UX fosters a sense of being at home with your product. And, your users will want to come back for more of that feeling.
If you’re not providing means for users to provide reviews and referrals, you’re doing it wrong. Social engagement is a major element of any quality modern UX. According to CMI, 70% of consumers place peer recommendation and reviews above professionally-written content, and 61% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase.
We’re talking about retention here. That’s where social engagement is the gift that keeps on giving. The process of vouching for a product ties users to your brand. The effort they have placed in their engagement connects them to their experience.
Facebook has come under fire for a variety of different controversies over the years. The jury is still out on the social media giant’s social utility. What is not even close to a question is the (ethically suspect) quality of their innovations in UX design. In fact, the design elements of the social media network UX are so effective that former Facebook exec Chamath Palihapitiya has publicly expressed guilt over his part in creating “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops” that exploit users, and early Facebook investor Roger McNamee has expressed similar concerns over “aggressive brain hacking” in his former pet project.
Bottom line: quality UX is dangerously effective at reeling your customers back in for more. Don’t ignore it.