UX & USER JOURNEYS 1
CONTENTS 01. Introduction 02. The User Journey 03. User Experience on Mobile 04. User Experience & Content 05. Optimising UX: Tips and Tricks 06. User Experience at Aurora
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INTRODUCTION Knowing your user may sound like an overused phrase in marketing, but when it comes to user experience and user journeys it can’t be said enough. UX goes beyond just the way a user interacts with a web site, UX is a broad discipline digging deeper into the needs of users and providing a better experience for them in all aspects. Just as important is the user journey – how does a visitor navigate through your website? How is the visitor guided towards your service or product? What makes the visitor want to see more about your service or product? By having clear and structured architecture plans, you can guide visitors to the pages you want them to see.
on your service or product they need to understand what they’re looking at. From web design to content creation – everything the user interacts with falls under user experience; which is why it’s best to choose a marketing house that knows UX and integrates it within marketing strategies, making the most out of your web site or content. User experience takes planning and expertise, as the architecture of a site should be planned well before the design or development commences so that the journey is clear from the get go. User journeys are not something that can be figured out afterwards – and last minute or lack of user journey planning can leave a site messy and confusing for users, essentially throwing away potential leads for your business.
If you want your visitors to enjoy their interaction with your brand and become customers, it is time to start focusing on UX and User Journeys. Everything you do should be done with the user – the potential lead – in mind. User confusion is through the failure of design, and for your visitors to want to spend money
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KNOW THE STATS BY
2025
Customer Experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.
60%
Of Consumers feel more positive about a brand after consuming content from it.
77%
Of mobile searches happen at home or work, even when there’s a PC nearby and available.
73%
Of users say video content persuades them to buy a product or service.
61%
Of users said that if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a site, they would quickly move on.
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Brands with exceptional UX are the brands that win repeat visits, loyal customers and returning leads. UX benefits the user, and benefits your brand – and ends up bringing in better ROI.
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THE USER JOURNEY The first steps to creating a great user experience is clarifying the user journey before you begin anything else. Planning out how the user will come to the call to action on your site allows the web site to be built with the user as the main point of focus – and with the site existing to bring in new custom and delight the current customers, the user should be the focus. A clear journey from the landing page and/or home page to the call to action is necessary if you want any visitors to come across your product or service and not just be a fleeting momentary visit. Web sites should never be confusing. A confusing website is an off-putting website.
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CONSIDERATION ACQUISITION SERVICE
A USER JOURNEY EXAMPLE
AWARENESS
STAGES
USER STEPS Identifying the need for a new product or service
Searching on google for their needs
Visiting a landing page
Browsing the company website
Getting in contact with chosen company
Signing up for information or call back
The user wants to review or leave feedback
Cusomer wants to return an item
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TOUCH POINTS Google Ad Search Results Visiting Blogs Web Banner Landing Page FAQs Mobile or Web App E-shop & Website Registering Contact Form Booking Page Google Maps Newsletter Follow up email T&Cs Loging in
SITE ARCHITECTURE To go through this process, it’s important to start by distinguishing the architecture goals of the site. By establishing a site structure and outlining all the routes that a user will take, UX specialists will make sure that users are seeing your call to action and clicking those buttons. Using flow charts and site mapping mean knowing exactly how users will interact with the content or the web site. Having strong architecture means having strong call to actions: in turn, closing more leads.
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ANALYTICS Once the site is designed and developed, it’s important not to forget about UX because you’ve planned the user journeys. This is where analytics come in – but not just your usual google analytics. When it comes to UX, analytics can go far deeper into how visitors behave when they interact with your site or your content. This means A/B testing to see
what variants users respond to most positively, heat mapping clicks on the site to see that users can follow the planned user journey, and even eye tracking to see where the users are drawn to on the pages. Knowing this ensures that the architecture is successful in drawing users through the site to the call to action of your business.
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UX ON MOBILE Even with the best page architecture you could be missing potential leads if the site isn’t mobile responsive. 52% of users said that bad mobile experiences make them less likely to interact, so if the site doesn’t give full functionality on mobile a lot of people won’t be seeing the right pages, and not following the right journey. We know that by simply ensuring that sites are mobile responsive, a lot of unnecessary user confusion can be avoided, and in 2020 all sites should be mobile responsive.
For the user to experience your web site and its contents properly, they need to be accessible and developed with at least three break points to adjust to different screen sizes. Remember to consider fonts and how they look across screen sizes, and always have the body text and headlines responsive. You don’t want lost text when a user opens the site on different platforms.
52%
Of users said that bad mobile experiences make them less likely to interact.
33%
Of all potential sales fail when a business’ website is not mobile optimised.
40%
Of people will search for an alternate site if the first result isn’t mobile optimised.
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UX & CONTENT Beyond the site itself and its functionality is the content. Content marketing is designed specifically to provide a service beyond your own product, so it comes naturally that this is an integral part of user experience. It’s key to how a user interacts with your brand. Visitors will be
reading, watching, or listening to your content and it’s important to make sure all the content created for your site is formatted correctly for digital. 79% of users will leave a page and search for another to complete a task if the content is not properly optimised.
79%
Of users will leave a page and search for another to complete a task if the content is not properly optimised.
70%
Of consumers learn about a company through blogs rather than ads, and how users interact with your content is just as important as how they interact with your main site.
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IMPORTANT THINGS TO CONSIDER
FINDABLE
DESIREABLE
ACCESSIBLE
Your content should be
Will anybody want to
The content should not only
in easy to reach places –
read your content? This
be easy to find but easy to
think about the user journey
should be considered
consume. Overly complicated
for each piece of content.
throughout content creation.
content can hinder accessibility.
VALUABLE
CREDIBLE
USABLE
Content should hold a purpose
Having credible writers and/or
High quality and good style
beyond the value of your own
sources will validate what you
in the right form means
product or service – what does
are saying. You want to be
a great usable piece of
your content offer your users?
held as an expert in your field.
content.
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OPTIMISING UX: TIPS & TRICKS We’ve established that user experience covers everything that a visitor interacts with: there are numerous things you can do on top of having great content and a mobile responsive site.
Micro-interactions Micro-interactions can be forgotten without the help of a professional marketing house, whereas at Aurora we remember the little things. From the response a user sees if a field input is invalid to the pull to refresh UI pattern, micro-interactions make it easier and more personal for the user to make their way through your site. This is great for both the general user experience and for guiding the user through their journey to the call to action – where leads are closed.
HOVER
CLICK
Localisation Another way to grow personalisation on a website is localisation. Localising the user experience creates a greater connection with prospects, and can allow slight differences depending on location to appeal to local tastes and cultures – increasing conversion rates across the board. This can be as simple as having the site available in different languages, and appropriate pricing lists in the correct localised currency.
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Live Chat For further help and guidance available to your users, you could improve UX by including a live chat. When customers or visitors need more information, or need to fix a problem, they require assistance and using a contact form or email can put them off and cause them to leave your site and look for another. Getting quick answers is a way to keep them on your site and offers a personal micro-interaction that leaves users feeling supported and satisfied by your brand. Having a live chat function can boost your sales by up to 30% and increase customer retention. Live chat can also benefit your business by giving you an insight into what your customers are asking about – if there are multiple questions regarding how to find something, you would know that it’s not clear enough on the site. You can also survey people who have used the service – so not only does live chat create a personal relationship with customers, it also acts as customer research.
Boost your sales by up to 30% with a live chat function
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Gamification There are innovating ways to keep a visitor happy and engaged on your site – and a growing trend is to use gamification. By bringing elements of game mechanisms to your brand, customers are encouraged to interact more with your site – and the more interaction, the better. Using badges or stickers can drive motivations for users to come back, and can be used for daily visit or point building awards, and act as brand achievements. The clearest link between gamification and UX directly is that of the journey: any well-designed site will have a strong user journey as we outlined earlier, similarly to a game. This can be taken one step further by using scaffolding, the process of gradually introducing features, in a way teaching the user about your product or service step by step.
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UX AT AURORA The best way to ensure great UX and a clear user journey is by using a digital agency that knows UX like the back of their hand. Aurora are a full service digital agency that can fulfil all your brands marketing needs while also focusing on the user experience. For the best results UX should not be kept separate to the creative process, and instead be weaved within the overall process. At Aurora we pride ourselves in our work; providing excellent user experience for all our clients.
Our designers will work with you every step of the way to plan out site structure to ensure clear user journeys, and our developers will make sure that your site is mobile responsive and works well on every platform.
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Creative Projects
Managed Marketing
Design is more than just websites, apps, social
Being full service means we can offer a wide
media and making things look pretty. Design is
range of support and solutions, all of which
about creating an experience that stands out,
are created and implemented in-house. Our
engages users and creates a real value for your
highly skilled team possess a heritage in
brand; it is the first stage of the buying process
marketing and data, along with raw passion
after all and arguably the most important.
for innovative design and intelligence driven
At Aurora our aesthetically pleasing and
results, meaning that we know and understand
Attract the Right Audience
immersive design, paired together with our innovative UX and development abilities, ensures that the creative work produced really maximises the impact of your company.
Create Engaging Experiences
our partners’ needs that little bit better. We will work with your logistics company to create content that is customer friendly, engaging and professional so that your customers feel comfortable and confident in the service you provide for them and will return to your business again and again.
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We have worked for big name companies all over the world, providing all their marketing needs, gaining their trust in our company and our work.
WHAT CAN ARUROA DO FOR YOU? At Aurora we see the world as an evolving digital sphere and understand the need for advancing digital, development and marketing experiences. We are a full-service solution where you can find all your digital and marketing services in one place. This means as one point of contact, one set price and one consistent quality. We’ll get to know every aspect of your company, meaning we can see the full picture and we know when and where your company needs improvements. See what we have to offer now!
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Suite 5, Pine Court 36 Gervis Road Bournemouth BH1 3DH 01202 087750 35-41 Folgate Street London E1 6BX 0207 754 5903 info@aurorademand.com www.aurorademand.com
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