This process is all too common- Searching for a product or service, land on a website and then call or send an email to have a simple question answered and no response. This is not only frustrating but then a user will become impatient and move on to the next company. Conversations, transactions, and needs are met with a level of efficiency and consumers hold this standard to the way they consume products and utilize services. Chatbots hold more value now than ever and consumers want instant attention for their needs, and chatbots provide immediate satisfaction and answers. “Chatbots can be useful in many aspects of the customer experience, including providing customer service, presenting product recommendations and engaging customers through targeted marketing campaigns. If a customer has an issue with a product, they can connect with a chatbot to explain the situation and the chatbot can input that information to provide a recommendation of how to fix the product.” –Forbes The Breakdown of Chatbots: What Exactly Are They? The use of chatbots vary from answering…
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) best practices start with a general overview of research, keywords, blogs, and content, which can make understanding the full scope of SEO intimating. Gathering research and sifting through data to understand the way consumer searches for a brand is the best place to start. SEO simply is the study of how a user searches for a product or service, on what device, their geographic location and what keywords are they implementing when executing a search. SEO changes very frequently when new technologies are developed, such a voice search, which means it is very important to continue to adapt and implement content and keywords when necessary. “There are a lot of changes happening in the digital world right now, including in the world of search engine optimization. It’s an exciting – if also a little scary – time. It might not be clear what the future will bring exactly, but it’s clear that emerging and older technologies are starting to have a huge impact on SEO – if it’s not already happening,…
Designers and developers work in two different worlds. Design usually focuses on graphics, interface features and placement of menus and overall color schemes. Development specializes in back and front-end work that usually involve code and highly detailed information. Design and development prioritize different objectives in order to accomplish the same mission and overall goal for the brand. When starting a project, it can be tempting to give one more attention than the other, when they both need equal attention to be successful. This cross-functional collaboration creates data driven designs that are impactful for the overall user experience and generate work that is influential and necessary for a brand’s legacy. Best Practices for Design Designing with purpose when creating a website or print material is key. Evoking emotion and engagement between the consumer and brand while articulating the core values of the company is done through data driven design. From visual communications, corporate identity and marketing collateral, creating work that is more than just pretty is critical. Making design decisions based on preference is no longer…
ArtVersion is proud to announce the opening of the Experience Lab in heart of the finical district of Chicago. The ArtVersion Experience Lab is the premier usability testing and UX research space in Chicago featuring state-of-the-art usability testing technology allowing you to gain a better understanding of how users perceive and experience your brand. Our Mission We created this space as a destination for brands to engage in an experience driven, hands on collaboration to create and explore new ideas, innovate and solve UX challenges from all angles. We are excited to present a space for founders, corporate innovators, change makers, and marketing teams an engaging environment to explore, create and build a shared vision for the unified interfaces, customer experiences and brand initiatives. Our Vision The Experience Lab is a collaborative testing environment combining design strategy, user testing, competitive analysis and UX strategies in an intuitive, free-flowing approach, supported by cutting edge technologies inclusive of exploratory rooms, modular user stations, eye tracking and touch screen recorders. Through user experience testing we determine relations between…
Integrating UX design into marketing and brand strategies generate a viable and impactful connection between a brand and consumer. Shifting the focus to the user when developing a conceptual framework for marketing and branding collaboratively connect a brand, user, and customer experience together. Consumer Perspective A consumer has a multitude of options that influence purchasing decisions. Gone are the days of just a few resources and outlets to buy a product, but now an overwhelming number of providers for multiple different products. Take a task like grocery shopping. Today, a consumer is presented with so many options from traditional grocery store trips, online pick-up, meal prepped subscriptions and meal delivery services. By creating a brand that speaks directly to a consumer is what builds relationships that continuously brings them back for that product or service to create brand loyalty in the midst of all these options. “To succeed in today’s hyper-competitive environment, consumer products companies need to employ greater speed and agility to out-maneuver the competition. Because, in a world where consumers are increasingly blurring…
Creating a narrative that a user can connect with is imperative when developing brand materials and overall design. The tonality implemented throughout a website is linked and identified with the brand. Using proper keywords and direction to structure the data so the user can digest the information successfully, is imperative. The goal for a visitor is to land on a website and explore, absorb and convert. When engagement is high, an audience is more likely to return to a brand for their needs. The Impact of Design and Content When a user visits a website, content and navigation should work together to create a positive user experience. There should be a story that is presented to the user from the colors, font selection and layout. Taking the user on a journey that allows them to personally connect, relate and interact with the brand, while also creating intentional pathways to discover and access the information and products they are looking for. Generating content narrative that provides information that is easy to digest and implementing key components…
Every design projects requires a thought out process, particularly in the beginning stages. This isn’t any different for UX design. Whether you are working on an app or web site, you’ll want to create a strong foundation which will lead to an outstanding user experience. Without a strong foundation, you’ll find yourself jumping from one small detail to another. A lot of time, energy, and money will be wasted as a result. So the question is: where do you get started? Start with the Data The first thing you want to do is to run a platform audit if you have a completed product. Focus on how people are behaving on your app or site. Study heat maps, behaviors, abandon rates, entry/exit paths, and conversion data if there is one. By using different analytics tools and using different data points, you’ll start to get a better understanding of what’s happening. If you’re building a new app or site, then you’ll be skipping this process and moving towards the next step. Define the Goal What is…
When it comes to designing a website, digital product, interface, or app, it’s important focus on the UX design as well as the UI design. Often the UI gets more attention because it’s clearly visible to the designer. However, the UI is only one part of the overall user experience (UX) design process. So how do you go about making sure that both designs work together as one? Begin the Design with UI but Understand the Greater Goal At the end of the day the user experience is what gets the user to get value out of the product and continue using it. While designing the product often starts with the UI, it has to be aligned with the greater goal of meeting the UX objective. This may feel like a hindrance to the design of the UI but that’s not true. You have to approach the UI project as a reiterative process. The designer should feel free to create a UI suitable for the product. But at every major checkpoint, he should step back…
As a Fortune 500 company, the decision to rebrand is a big decision. The rebranding will involve changing advertising and marketing campaigns for many channels. It’ll mean that your visual presentation of your brand will need an overhaul (magazines, billboards, catalogs, business cards, web design, general graphic design, etc.). That’s why you need to ensure that you’re making the right decision, well thought out for a long term. So the question is: when do you need to rebrand? 1. When Markets and Industries Change One of the things that large enterprise had to realize was the changing consumer behavior of their customers. Consumers have been moving away from service only and seeking customized service approach. As a result, the companies and brands had to create a more engaging and personalized consumer changes. Many brands are already gaining an advantage over their brand by incorporating these tactics. For example, McDonalds is starting to position their brand as a premium fast food company. They’re adjusting to these market changes and emerging competition visually as well. They’ve started…
UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) are industry tools that are utilized to develop design and product to work closely together to stimulate interaction between a user and a product or service. User-centered design is just a starting point when strategizing one touch point to another. UI and UX equip designers with insights from content to analytics which create a smooth process that is driven by both strategy and user testing that influence overall brand interaction. User Interface User Interface, simply stated, is when a user interacts with a digital product or service. Stemming from user pathways, the UI design features strategically mapped journeys and micro-interactions through information architecture and data visualization. UI designers work to create an impactful interaction with digital products, meet visual expectations, and test well when presented to users. User Experience User Experience is an interactive approach to information architecture and data visualization that create ideal pathways and user journeys. UX requires a level of design detail as to which design will impact user behaviors. The UX approach optimally will result in a…