UX/UI: What Does it Have to do With Marketing?
UX/UI refers to how your user reacts to your brand.
UI refers to your User Interface. It’s how a user and your computer system interact (software and input devices).
UX is shorthand for User Experience. It encompasses a host of online branding and interactivity features that allow users to engage with your brand.
Think of websites you frequent and enjoy perusing. They have a great User Experience. What makes a UX great?
As Marketers, We’ve Noticed a Few Common Traits
- Accessible: Users with disabilities can access and use your site. (Use Section 508 as a guide for site accessibility.)
- Credible: Your content should be trustworthy and accurate.
- Desirable: Your look and feel should make people want to stay on your site and explore.
- Findable: Users and search engines should be able to find and navigate your site.
- Usable: It should be user-friendly and generally easy to use.
- Value-Added: Your content (and your overall UX) shouldn’t just be sales. It should be original, informative, and worthwhile for your users, no matter where they are in their buyer journey.
As you can imagine, UX is interdisciplinary and multifaceted. There are many areas you can focus on in your sales, marketing, content, and web design strategies to the next level.
Focus Areas for Building Your User Experience
- Content: How your content is created, delivered and structured.
- Information Architecture (IA): How information on your site is organized within its overall structure.
- Interaction Design (IxD): Building interactivity into your site.
- Project Management: How you plan any project will influence your user experience. If the user is the focus of your efforts, then any project within your brand will enhance UX.
- Usability: How well can your users achieve meaningful goals on your site (buying a product or service, interacting with your media/content, contacting you, etc.)
- User Interface: Anticipating your users’ needs while working on the nuts and bolts of your site will inevitably improve your UX. And this doesn’t stop when your site goes live. You should always leverage analytics to keep on improving!
- Market Research: If you understand your ideal user, you will know how to build an optimal experience for them.
We love helping people improve their UX/UI. There are so many ways to approach it, and every little bit helps. Don’t let it overwhelm you, though. Prioritize according to your existing goals, and your UX will work for you as much as for your users. Not sure where to start? Ask our pros your questions!
