Top 10 Digital Product Design Elements Behind Great Customer Experiences

In the last 10 years we have already seen many improvements and designs to provide greater customer experience specially when the customers interact with the companies and their brands in the digital world.

A research report by Gartner provides insights to customer needs:

• 76% of customers expect companies to understand their needs
• $1.6 trillion is lost each year due to poor customer service
• Customers will spend 17% more for a good experience
• Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable

In the era of cutting edge technology, innovations are reaching new heights, companies need to focus on providing progessive designs to interact with their brands online.

There are top 10 design trends that will decide who wins the customers by providing an exceptional experience:

1. Graphic interface with gestures:

   By introducing gesture recognition, the focus is to eliminate UI interaction with buttons. Many companies are testing this feature and it’s in its early stage.

   For example an ecommerce company providing an app where customers don’t have to use buttons to purchase or place and order, a simple drag and drop gesture could add the product to the cart.

2. Zero (Interface) UI:

   The idea of zero UI was first introduced by Any Goodman, former Fjord director. Zero UI is all about sensory experience (gestures, movements, voice, and even thoughts and feelings) to cause a particular response from a device. Smart Artificial Intelligence devices and machine learning are two important parts of zero UI functionality. Its potential can be most beneficial for differently abled people and people with mobility issues.

   There are few experiences that support Zero UI concept-

   Microsoft Kinect– which allows us to change channels with just a greeting.

   Nest thermostats– which learn to anticipate what we want based on our interactions.

   The voice assistants of Amazon, Google and apps that replace our touch interactions with devices

3. Agnostic Interface: 

   According to a Google’s recent study, “90% users use several screens sequentially to perform a task over time”.

   We live in a multi-device environment where multiple applications are accessed on different devices such as wearables, tablets, smartphones, voice devices, televisions or computers etc.Users interact with these devices with different touchpoints and the design and interface become a complex part for the companies to develop.

   For example the consumer was using a browser to access a service on a computer then companies came up with “responsive designs” to give the same on the mobile phone, now came up with “progressive web apps.”

   But with the growth of technologies like Artificial Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality where designs and interface will be in huge demand in the future.

   Companies should conceptualize an agnostic interface as it can reduce latency as use moves across all devices.

   Nest Learning Thermostat is a most relatable example of agnostic interface.

4. Natural Language Processing:

   According to a global estimation, more than 200 million homes now have a smart speaker and are interacting with a voice assistant such as Google, Alexa, Cortana or Siri.

   As per Google 72% of these users claim that they use it in their day to day lives.

   52% of people keep their voice-activated speakers in their living rooms, 25% keep them in their bedrooms, while 22% keep them in their kitchens.

   We are witnessing a voice assistance revolution where homes, vehicles, phones etc are equipped with voice assistants.

   Advances in Artificial Intelligence will allow the tasks that are facilitated from these devices to become more sophisticated with cross-tasks such as sending an email with attachments, opening several applications or executing different actions.

5. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality:

   There is a lot of buzz around the world for AR and VR. It’s being used in almost every field be it, ecommerce, retail, gaming, medicine or drug R&D.

   With the 5G, AR and VR can be utilized with full potential. It’s estimated that the market of AR/VR will grow more and sales are expected to rise to 65.9 million for late 2022.

   Pokemon go, a free Augmented Reality video game, achieved more than 100 million downloads in its first month of launch.

   Disease simulation in drug discovery & assembly of machine parts to eliminate errors  by using Virtual Reality.

   Asian Paint implemented Virtual  Reality for their internal operations.

6. Personalized Customer Experience:

   Personalized experience is not a new thing, we have seen companies doing it to get customers attention and make them feel like priority customers.

   Companies like Sephora, Netflix, Amazon, Starbucks, The Home Depot, Airbnb etc have created such an environment where customers expect more from the brand during digital interactions.

   Personalized customer experience is a deep field where companies study customer needs, preferences, behaviors, choices, demography and socio-economic information.

   Some basic personalized experiences- a bot interaction where it uses your name, emails where you get exclusive deal code/offers, messages from brands to visit their platform soon (based on your last purchased date) etc.

   There is a lot that can be done, companies gather data from various sources and many departments are involved, they can start off  by creating a single source of customer data and bring all the departments together to create a unified personal experience journey for their customers.

7. User Research:

   There are various sources of customer data and one should understand that data is a crucial part in creating an exceptional user experience. Good data insights derive customer needs, choices and preferences.

   Companies use various techniques to target users, such as- usability tests, focus groups etc. It’s time when we need to see customers beyond qualitative research data.

   Digitalization has given many ways to collect quantitative data one such way is IoT enabled devices. Qualitative research and quantitative data help us get better user insights and we make better decisions. But various sources of information bring complexity.

   Machine learning and analytics are the future of user research where user patterns will be observed and predicted. Companies can create unique approaches to pull various departments together to nourish qualitative data with quantitative data.

8. Intelligent digital experience:

   With the use of new technology in the consumer digital world, the focus is on the concept of intelligent experiences or interactions.

   The word intelligence is a key to continuously improving  the customer experience, it refers to the ability to learn from existing user interactions in order to optimize future experiences.

   Customer journey can be improved in terms of personalization, efficiency and simplicity.

   Smart experiences are characterized by:

   1.  Relevant experiences that connect with the motivations and interests of the users
   2. Persuasive experiences that seek conversion: seduce, convince and sell.
   3. Personal experiences that address the behavior and context of each individual person.

   These are experiences that seek to satisfy users and customers but, above all, they aim to generate impact, growth and results.

9. Biometric Application:

   Biometrics are physical or behavioral human characteristics that can be used to digitally identify a user to grant access to systems, devices or data.

   Examples of biometrics-fingerprints, facial patterns, voice or typing cadence.

   According to the Ping Identity Survey “92 percent of enterprises rank biometric authentication as very effective to secure identity data stored on premises, and 86 percent say it is effective for protecting data stored in a public cloud.

   Spiceworks reports that 62% of companies are already using it.

   Biometric application reduces time, and makes the authentication process easier.

   Many banks have implemented biometric authentication on their mobile apps and ATMs.

10. Sustainability In Digitalization:

    The world is dealing with rapid environmental changes and in the digital world also it becomes a priority concern.

    The digital world reflects this concern with new content that communicates the sustainable policies of the companies and even changes how they do business.

    There are many companies that work towards environmental sustainability and openly tell their customers to follow the same in order to save earth.

    Companies can show how much energy their data centers use and how much carbon footprint they generate per year.

    Also, they can show how they recycle and reuse the product to promote zero waste.

    It’s a unique way to build a connection with users and it becomes an emotional touchpoint in the user journey.

Conclusion:

If you are reading this, which means you have paid attention to above discussed top design trends. It’s time for all the creators to consider the customer as a central idea during R&D and delivering new features to provide exceptional customer experience throughout the journey. To know more about crafting the right customer journeys for your customers, get in touch, and we’d love to have a chat.