Designing for the gaps
All too often when web designers get a brief they are thinking about the pay off – the Call to Action – what are we driving users towards?
This is usually driven by the fact we are concentrating on basic metrics. Conversion = clicks on the Buy Now button or Enquiry Form.
It is still important. At the most basic level the ‘conversion’ point is still when your customer hands over their money or gives you an email. But it all seems a little old school to me (and to the growing hoard of service designers (the next generation of user experience). Selling the ‘what’ is relatively easy. Buy our widget because you want one and we have one for sale. But selling the ‘why’ is just as powerful. It is the experience in “user experience” and is the fundamental difference between UX and usability.
Usability allow your customer to get from A to B. It facilitates their journey so they don’t get lost or can easily find their way back if they do.
User Experience (at least a good one) allows them to enjoy that journey. To delight in the experience, appreciate the content and understand the interface. Designing experiences to remove the frustration or roadblocks that are not necessarily associated with usability. This is designing for the gaps.
In a competitive market space users are judging you just as much on the experience of buying your product as much as the product itself.
What is happening in the gaps between when they arrive and hit their first ‘mark’? The space between when they find out who you are and what you do. To understand the customer journey means you can start to understand what you could be filling these gaps with – content, live chat, a phone number, a snippet of information. Something that will help them make a decision or make them feel they are making the right decision rather than simply allow them to progress.
Take Uber for example. By connecting cab drivers with their customers they have taken out the stress of a typical cab booking process. The old way could involve the phone, being on hold, a poorly designed booking form, long reservation numbers, people stealing your booking, cabs not showing up etc etc. The process of Uber is not necessarily different from a customer intent perspective – the customer still wants to go from A – B. But now they can book, see where their cab is, who is driving, when it will arrive and pay without handing over any actual cash. They can rate their driver, giving them confidence of the service level and providing consistency.
Uber is more expensive, but people are willing to pay for the experience.
Designing small but important experiences in between the big ones - it is relatively easy, you just need to spend some time thinking outside the ‘payoff’ and more about your customer.
