The User Experience Mentality: New Careers Emerging

Investing in UX is the move.

Over the last couple years, many big-name companies have made the decision to invest significant amounts of funds in user experience design, as a part of their business strategies. UX firms and agencies are becoming more prevalent in the market, and the average salary for a UX designer continues to surpass the national average one. Big corporations like Amazon and Audi have learned the true value of building a user experience for their markets in past years. 

Since UX is a problem/solution based discipline, it helps companies market themselves more effectively and connect with their costumers easier. Companies want to satisfy consumers and not only does UX achieve this, but it also solves their problems. UX is crucial to building a strong bond between a user and a brand. When consumers buy a product, they expect to get what they pay for—but when they get a full experience out of it, they are more likely to become loyal to that supplier. When you enjoy using a product, you will most likely keep coming back to it in the future—even more when a new product (or experience) is made available.

User Experience design is also valuable to companies because it has proven to save them a lot of money on the long run. It is meant to improve the customer satisfaction—increasing sales, and decrease customer support costs. One study indicated that for every £1 spent on UX the average return turns out to be £100. Another study has “estimated that fixing issues after development can be up to 100 times more expensive than fixing them during design.” The same study showed that programmers usually spend half their time getting paid for a project, solving issues that could’ve easily been avoided from the design phase of development. UX design forces companies to plan a full experience ahead of time, and to test it before making it happen. Project failures will cost any company a lot of money, but a redesign job will always be more expensive. 

UX is an essential tool to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

User experience design is more than just a discipline. UX is a mentality that any person in the corporate world should be familiar with in order to succeed in the modern world. Companies around the world are already catering unforgettable experiences to their users, narrowing down the opportunities for their competitors. 

User experience design is more than just the prototype behind a product or a platform. UX is a system of user retention every company should have in their business plan. Making life easier for consumers is just a part of it. Giving people an experience they will fall in love with encapsulates the concept of what UX design is.

The User Experience Mentality: The New Social Experience

Updates we hate, love, and learn to love.

Don’t you hate it when Snapchat releases a new update and everything you knew about the app is located in a different place? User Experience innovation is a trial and error process. Sometimes app updates work effectively and though we hate them at first, we accommodate with time and learn to love them. Sometimes app updates don’t work, and everyone reacts negatively to them until they become discontinued and never to be seen again. 

Months before you chose to update your selfie-exchange platform on the App Store, software engineers were probably playing around with the placement of buttons on different parts of the screen, and moving entire segments of the app to different pages. More than just moving stuff around, they were doing lots of user testing. User experience (UX) designers focus on making changes that will make processes easier for the user and achieve objectives for the platform more efficiently. With every change they make, they test the user reactions with a wide range of subjects. They will carefully observe and note things like eye movement, finger navigation, and the timing being the user’s decision making while operating the platform. 

You may not remember it, but the appearance of Facebook’s platform has changed exponentially since it became popular in 2006. This article might help refresh your memory. Though many changes have been made in the past years, it is unlikely you faced a moment were you required lessons on how to use the new updates. If this would’ve been the case, you probably would’ve considered these “lessons” to be unworthy of your time, and Facebook would’ve died off within a year. With every change made to the platform and interface, UX designers were also focusing on making the changes easy to spot and get used to. If there is one thing users hate more than having to think, it is having to learn. UX designers can’t just build an entirely new experience from scratch, and launch it expecting people to react positively off the bat. 

Do you remember a time when you were mad about the “wall” on your Facebook profile being gone? If you said yes, odds are you’re an extremely meticulous person. If I said so myself, you probably don’t even remember it disappearing, because it was replaced by the “timeline”—which made more sense conceptually. The timeline concept was easy to get used to because it worked similar to the way the wall did. The placement of the timeline on your profile page was kept fairly the same to the wall. The timeline wasn’t just a name change for the wall. It introduced easier ways to interact with it. There were more noticeable indicators telling you to write what was on your mind, and the sections for each post became more defined. The idea of a timeline made more sense to us because Facebook was transitioning from being a “wall” where people posted things, to a full recollection of everyone’s treasured life events. 

A new way to interact.

I’m sad to say this, but the social experience for humans has changed in the past decades, and will never be the same ever again. Gen X’s were probably the last generation to ever experience social interactions in the most pure, and humanly form possible. With the introduction of social media platforms, corporations have had the freedom to feed biased information to us; distorting our overall perception of life and the people around us. Moreover, social media has encouraged us to put up an image with the way we lead our lives. These things may sound scary, but at least we can rest assured knowing everything was carefully planned—by engineers who did careful user-testing and just wanted to make our lives easier.

The User Experience Mentality: Has the Human Experience Peaked Yet?

Human life on earth has been made exponentially easier since the industrial revolution. We built machines that get us from point A to point B, made our household experience as enjoyable as possible, and smoothened out the process of exchanging goods and services. In a globalized planet, communication with anyone in the world is virtually an instant process; and getting any product delivered to our doorstep in a matter of hours is not far from common. With an overall easier human experience, life on planet earth today moves faster than ever before.

Not only have we been focusing on making life easier, but also more enjoyable—for anyone who can afford it at least. Though we’ve been inventing new concepts and improving old ones for nearly two centuries, the human race will never stop demanding innovation. There are four industrial revolutions that have shaped the modern society we know today:

  • First Industrial Revolution – Mechanical Production: This is when we first learned that heating water creates steam, and steam can power anything. With the introduction of the steam engine, we were able to speed all sorts of manufacturing and transportation.
  • Second Industrial Revolution – Science and Mass Production: Once we were moving fast on the tracks, information and knowledge also began to speed up. With every new invention, came a stronger demand for innovation. Gasoline engines proved to be stronger, and airplane travel more efficient. The mass production of crops demanded chemical fertilizers, and factories demanded more efficient ways of manufacturing. The sky was the limit for scientists and innovators at this time.
  • Third Industrial Revolution – The Digital Revolution: After the 1950’s, we realized some processes were too complex and repetitive for the typical man laborer; and we began to demand something more automatized. Analog procedures turned into digital technologies, and global communication became more accessible. The introduction of personal computers, the internet, and smart devices influenced every single industry; and made human beings perceive the world around them differently.
  • Fourth Industrial Revolution – Happening Now: Yes, We are living in the fourth industrial revolution right now. Things people could only dream of decades ago are now being turning into realities. Robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual realities and genetic sequencing are only a few things relevant to the conversation science having right now. 

These four industrial revolutions have impacted (and still are) the societies work and operate. With new transformations to our lives, new phenomenas have developed. Life for mankind gained more value than just the sustainability aspect of it. Producing food to survive became a less urgent concern, and life on the city became a more appealing aspiration. Traveling went from being a necessity, to a privilege, to an essence of life. We aren’t impressed as easily anymore, and we demand things to be smoother, crisper, and easier. 

Living in the fourth industrial revolution, we demand life to be so easier and smoother. We’ve become so comfortable relying on technology, we want it to the most for us. We don’t want to be forced to think about the hassles and complications behind life. Building user experiences is the essence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Scientists and inventors are now focusing on building an easier and more enjoyable human experience for everyone. 

Source: Trailhead

The User Experience Mentality: Building Experiences

It’s not about meeting the user’s expectations, it’s about developing their experiences.

Throughout his book The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman elaborates on his never-ending rivalry with doors. “I push doors that are meant to be pulled, pull doors that should be pushed, and walk into doors that neither pull nor push, but slide.” His hate for doors has become so established if you Google “Norman Doors” right now, you are sure to find the definition of a “poorly designed door” that confuses or gives a wrong idea to any determined user. How can a man with graduate degrees in both engineering and psychology have such a hard time interacting with something so simple as a door? Though you may ask yourself this question, I know for a fact that part of you is able to relate to this man’s prejudice towards doors. We walk through doors everyday with one expectation in mind: getting from side A to side B. Rarely do we ever think about the interactions we have with doors on a regular basis, until they give us a hard time and refuse to let us through. Forcing you to try opening again may not make you hate a door, but it certainly makes you aware of the troublesome experience you are having with it. 

A user experience revolutionary: The One who Actually got it Right.

Let’s switch into something a little more complex than doors that push or pull. Consider the device allowing you to read this article right now. You may not be familiar with the computing processes that allow you to see text on a screen, but you are most likely confident about having control over the device itself. It wasn’t too long ago when our human race became acquainted to computing devices so complex. Though computers have been around for nearly a century, human/computer interaction for the general public has only been a reality for roughly over three decades. 

Think about the time when computers were solely considered work tools for specialists and luxuries for the educated. Times were simpler, and most people didn’t feel the need to learn how to operate such complex devices. “User-friendly” computers slowly began to emerge in the 1970’s, and Sony was one of the few companies to offer them. In order to interact with one of these computers, users had to experience some sort of learning curve—which seemed intimidating to most people at the time. 

Complex computers didn’t become appealing to the general public until Steve Jobs publicly demonstrated the simplicity of the first Macintosh in 1984. In this year, merely 8 percent of American households had access to a computer (CPS). Jobs wasn’t just a technological visionary; he was an artist who truly understood the beauty of simplicity. 

“It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple, to truly understand the underlying challenges and come up with elegant solutions” 

—

 Steve Jobs, 1977

Humans interact with things easier when they appeal to our simple nature. The Macintosh Operating System was designed under the vision of giving a simple, yet sophisticated device the opportunity to interact smoothly with virtually any user. Most people had no expectations to own or operate a computer during this time. They were introduced to an interaction experience that appeared to be so simple, they quickly became eager to become acquainted with a computer. 

Today, Americans interact with computers and smart devices almost just as much as they do with doors. Over 78 percent of American households had access to a computer in 2015, and that number keeps growing (U.S. Census Bureau). Unlike Norman Doors, computers have given us interactions so simple and natural, we’ve allowed them to become part of our lives. Over the years, different operating systems have strived make interactions feel more natural, and help users solve problems they probably weren’t aware of. 

The User Experience Mentality: An Introduction

User Scenario: 

You are sitting on your personal throne, enjoying some minutes of the day on your own. It’s only 3 p.m. and you already regret the decisions made at noon. As you scroll through generic memes about politics and videos that claim to save the turtles by eliminating plastic straws; you wonder why you chose that specific taco joint. For a hot second, you are able to remember how much you enjoyed chowing down those fajita tacos like there was no tomorrow. Whatever happened to the promise you made about never returning to that place again? Why did you do it? There’s a billion other restaurants to choose from, and you had to choose that specific one. Ugh. Oh, wait…now you remember the reasoning behind your choice. The salsa bar in that place is amazing. It has all the right kinds of sauces for any kind of taco you could possibly think of. You don’t hate yourself so much anymore. Having the right sauce is crucial for a quality food experience, right? And you could almost swear the sauce you had for lunch was crafted and prepared just for you. It’s as if the cooks knew exactly what your taste buds wanted. 

Your thoughts are abruptly cut off by a loud bang on the door, and you quickly reach out for some toilet paper. Aagghh! Reaching for paper is taking way longer than it should because you can’t find where the roll ends. You realize the toilet paper roll was installed backwards. The whole world is about to end.

Redefining the interactions in the world around us.

Let’s dissect the user scenario from a user/experience perspective:

While you scroll though your feed, you are interacting with a social media platform. The swipe gesture of your thumb is a seamless interaction—it happens naturally without you thinking about it. We are so used to swiping through feeds, we often do it without even thinking about what we’re actually going through. Our mind chooses to open feeds and apps without having any expectations—hoping to be rewarded by something that might catch our interest, which makes swiping addictive.

You chose to get lunch at a specific taco joint, even when your expectations for it weren’t entirely positive. Your mind chose to ignore all the negative implications of going to that restaurant at the time you were hungry. All you could think about were the positive experiences that could be gained from going there, and your reasoning was based on previous interactions stored in your memory. When you go to a restaurant, your experience will always be more memorable when you go through more positive interactions. A friendly waiter, getting your cup refilled constantly, receiving enough napkins or simply having the freedom to choose your own salsa, are all interactions that can make the user’s experience feel natural and friendly—hence creating a positive reaction in their mind. Positive interactions won’t necessarily make your food taste better, but they will create a sense of comfort that might make you want to visit the restaurant again.

The sauce of your choice felt like it was created specifically for you, but the cooks don’t even know you exist. Crafting things that feel like they were meant to interact with the user is one of the ultimate goals for a user experience mentality. A web designer who wants to develop a strong user experience, will find ways to make a sauce that will cater to the site’s specific market. They will do things like: 

  • Build a seamless navigation system for the user
  • Make the right buttons visible at the right times
  • Feed different amounts of information that can be digested easily
  • Build algorithms that will meet the user’s objectives 
  • Help the user get to the right place fast
  • Suggest links to the user that they didn’t know they needed
  • Give the user feedback (i.e. hovering over an image triggers an animation)
  • Lets the user know where they are on the website at all times

All these things will make a user feel like the website was built specifically for them—and they will naturally trust the content of the site. Generic websites that don’t focus on user experience often feel like a strange, foreign place—if nothing catches the user’s attention they will leave quickly. Like the Macintosh Operating System, sites that are easy to operate trigger curiosity within the users and draw them explore the site without feeling intimidated.

You can blame the janitor all you want for installing the toilet paper wrong, but in reality most toilet paper dispensers aren’t very user friendly at all. If anyone should apologize, it should be the dispenser manufacturers. Installing rolls is a repetitive task for maintenance workers. The lack of indicators can cause confusion and make any worker forget there’s a right way to install a roll.

User experience design is all around us more than we know. Something as simple as a toggle light switch has to be installed the proper way in order for us to operate it easily. When the toggle is faced up, we naturally expect the light to be on, and when it is faced down we expect the opposite. When the toggle is installed the other way around, it can generate a small confusion for us, forcing us to try getting the job twice. 

 

Source: The Design of Everyday Things 

The Doritos Commercials

One of the best commercial making brands, I believe, is Doritos. They always bring a funny idea or story to the table and this is very effective in the ad industry. Every year during the Superbowl, Doritos usually releases their newest commercial. Typically each commercial is more funny than the last. When I watch the Superbowl, I typically look forward to the Doritos commercial the most. One of their more recent commercials is my favorite. It shows a mother and a father getting an ultrasound done. The father begins eating Doritos and we see the baby start reaching for the chips on the ultrasound image. He moves the chips around and the baby still follows the chip on screen. The ending of the commercial makes the commercial the best. Watch it to find out what happens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYLoknty4pI

These commercials are great at creating the valuable virality that ad agencies are going for. All of the commercials are easily recognizable and memorable for the audience. Everyone that I talk to knows these commercials and they are a fan favorite. The creators of these ads are very smart and they know what they are doing. I look forward to seeing more of these Doritos ads in the years to come. If you are interested in watching more of their ads, I will post some links to a few of my favorites below. I think that you will find them all funny and memorable. Try to keep in mind what viral virality is and how it helps an ad when watching these videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObXL0hbOZFU

International Women’s Day, Looking Back to the Past

During International Women’s Day several brands will take the opportunity to address import issues of women’s equality, and the important strides women are taking everyday. While many brands look into the future we saw Budweiser look to the past.

In an industry that is historically plagued with sexism, Budweiser is making strides to turn this perception around. While many brands are able to look to the future, it was time for Budweiser to address the past. This isn’t any easy step for a brand to take; however, to build trust with their audience this is a logical step.

We have seen brands like Gillette take a stance in their advertising, and have it backfire. While Gillette crafted a strong message in their “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be” advertisement, it had people wondering if Gillette should have been the company to take the stance. This reaction was the result of Gillette previously objectifying women, and the choice not to address it head on. This decision hurt the credibility of the brand.

Budweiser launched their new advertisement which aimed to give a modern twist to previously sexist advertisements. They placed their old advertisements next to the revamped advertisements to give a harsh juxtaposition in how they depict women. By making the comparison side by side, Budweiser chose to build credibility with their audience by showing that they hold themselves accountable.

Times change and with them so should advertising. Not only are they taking this opportunity to accurately portray women, but they are seeking to actively portray empowerment. How Budweiser follows up this advertisement will be interesting to see, since they have set a new standard for themselves.

Wayfair, You Know Just What I Need… On Social Media

Over these past few weeks I have talked about many different impactful and notable social media campaigns that took the internet by storm. From Dove’s many mistakes to Ihop becoming Ihob. Today, I want to take another approach and talk about Wayfair’s Instagram. While you probably never thought there was anything special about it, the truth is, in 2017 and 2018 Wayfair has been leaving their mark on social media. Namely, Instagram. First lets touch on their Facebook. In 2017, their Facebook reach increased by 409% year over year. This is because Wayfair created videos to get their point across and to grab viewers attention. As we learned in this class, videos are a great way to boost engagement and gather views. It seemed to work phenomenally for them. On Instagram, Wayfair implemented use of Instagrams new feature which allows you to post links directly on your photo to the merchandise itself. When you tap the photo, names and prices of each merchandise pop up. When you click on one, it takes you directly to the link where you can purchase it on the company’s website. On Instagram, Wayfair increased their audience by 114% year over year. Wayfair and their “shop the look” approach seems to be working for them. It is important to never forget the many ways social media lets you connect with people besides merely posting. Stories, using the shop the look tool, and live videos all come into play. Wayfair knows that showing off their products by enabling the viewer to go directly to their website from the post. Customers can buy right from Wayfair’s photos and that is how you use social media to your advantage.

Split-Second Advertising

Neurons Inc. completed a research study for the Mobile Marketing Association to evaluate consumer’s reaction times to advertisements. Their research found that “consumers took 400 milliseconds to see and react emotionally to 67% of mobile ads tested.” (Ives, 2019) All of the brands had equal opportunities to be seen, however it was the big brands that evoked an emotional response. The majority of reactions occurred within the first second for still advertisements and 2 seconds for videos.

First impressions are just as important in mobile marketing as they are in real life. Since the majority of reactions occur within the first seconds, creating advertisements that focus on creating a strong first impression can greatly affect the ad’s viewing ratings. Viewability is a major player in where brand’s choose to buy spots for their advertisements. This makes sense due to the purpose of the advertisements being to engage a brand’s target audience.

With this information, it will not be surprising to see big brands begin shifting away from the longer advertisements that are common to find online and begin choosing to focus on shorter advertisements that last closer to 15 seconds. Since these brands are being successful in evoking responses at such a quick pace, I believe this would be a better usage of marketing resources. However, this is only referring to bigger brands. The research in this article suggests that small brands that are not as easily recognized will not have quite the same benefits as larger brands. Meaning that continuing with longer advertisements will probably be the best way for smaller brands to use their marketing dollars.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mobile-ads-do-more-work-in-one-second-than-you-might-think-11551870001?

LinkedOut

I have wrote a lot of advertising trends that are the future or trends that I like. I have to write something that I actually dislike. I know anybody could write about an advertising annoyance but this one will be different. This is about something that is actually misleading to people that use the product and can be very frustrating. It is something that actually hurts the brand.

Any person who has LinkedIn has most likely experienced this annoyance. I will get to what this issue is in a second but first I want LinkedIn is for people who are trying to grow their connections and help out their business profile. It is a very serious form of social media. It is a very useful outlet for people to try and become something of themselves professionally. So one thing that has become very frustrating and misleading is when I get a notification that someone has messaged me but ends up being from LinkedIn. I believe it is someone who is contacting me about a potential job but sadly it is a LinkedIn employee letting me know about a limited time offer to upgrade to join LinkedIn Premium. I get these messages a couple times a week and it has become very frustrating. I am not the only one who feels this way either. According to many other blogs I have read, these people also hate this annoying constant messaging from LinkedIn about LinkedIn. LinkedIn hurts itself because people are stubborn and don’t like to be annoyed. When stubborn people get frustrated it becomes a war. Stubborn people will refuse to buy LinkedIn Premium now just because of the never ending messages from LinkedIn. Many people want it to end, and hopefully it is not a strategy for the future.