UX Design For Web & eComM

“UX Design” is a buzzy term these days. More and more companies are discovering the value that design, and specifically UX design, can bring to their products, processes, and bottom line. The design field has evolved to cover so much more than just visual design in brand and advertising.

My roots are in graphic design and layout design, and I’ve spent my career in-house in marketing departments, designing everything from tradeshow booths and printed collateral to homepages and purchase flows. Over time, I’ve come to call what I do “Prospect Experience Design” or “PX Design”. Below, I describe what this means.

UX (User Experience)

“UX is improving how useful, easy, pleasant, marketable, or addictive it is to use a product.”
– Steve Krug

• Serving – creating value for the customer

• Helps the user achieve their goals

• Builds better products

• Helps generate long-term revenue (retention)

• Based in user research

MARKETING

“Marketing is a question of persuading, seducing and attempting to manipulate people into buying products and services.” - Wally Olins

• Selling – creating value for the business

• Helps achieve the goals of the business

• Builds desire and awareness (demand)

• Helps generate short-term revenue (sales)

• Based in market research

UX + Marketing

• UX Designers and Marketers are part-time psychologists

• Both disciplines require a deep understanding of user needs and goals

• Both aim to optimize the user journey

  • Either for the user, or for the business

  • Through content and design

UX Design = making it easy for users to do what they want to do (delight)

PX Design = making it easy for prospects to do what the business wants them to do (convert)

Primary Considerations [of PX]*

Strategy

• Clear messaging and user flows

• Good content

• Smart, measurable CTAs

Usability

• Readable and navigable

• Consistent, familiar patterns

• Accessible and searchable

*as adapted from the 2017 Internet Summit