Boost Engagement with Experiential Design Strategies
Design is connected to us by virtue of our emotions. Emotions personified things or patterns. Giving physical manifestations to experiences like love, joy, hate, anger, and frustration. This means that when we think about what makes us sad, happy, or excited--we are actually thinking about how much it affects us emotionally.
When we think of our feelings, we are thinking of our experiences. And given what a core part of our identity is experience. It is natural that we manifest it in the world around us in form of design. Thus comes, experience design, as the name suggests is to design for experience.
Experience design in the context of the business pays attention to these touchpoints that can give a brand an edge over its competitors. Experience design as the name suggests is to design for experience. Experience that people have when they engage with the brand, its products, and its services. It focuses on understanding the human psyche as deeply as possible and aims at understanding how they feel as they interact with the brand.
The idea is that your users aren't passive but active participants in your processes. It is not just about designing products, services, and processes. It is also about designing the way you want your customers to interact with your brand. With digital transformation accelerating and data load getting bigger, it is no wonder, experiential design is the new buzzword in town.
Technology is constantly advancing. We are experiencing incredible growth in artificial intelligence, payments, eCommerce, audio UX, accessibility, virtual care, and immersive experiences.
All these strategies and operations are formed with the aim to make it as easy as possible for the customers to do what they wish to achieve whether that's finding information, buying products, getting services, or help. The concept of experience design is taking hold, going beyond just designing and planning for customer experience.
Listed below, are a few key areas of focus that will expand the experiential design spectrum and affect the experiential design strategies for brands in the coming years.
GAMIFICATION
One of the most affected sectors will be Gamification. It is when brands use game mechanics like levels, rewards and sometimes games themselves to motivate users to complete certain tasks. Currently, this could be done using games to persuade people to fill out surveys or encourage people to engage when a brand wants to generate awareness and build a long-lasting impression on customers.
The key here is creating an experience that feels familiar. The primary purpose of gamification is to engage users. It is designed to get people excited about the product and persuade them to use it more often. This helps the brand build better relationships with users and makes them feel that they are getting value from interacting with your brand.
It is new and, on its way, to becoming mainstream. But overusing it might also alienate them by making them feel they are being forced into something that they don't want to do. Hence, is it important to understand when and how it is used. The secret is to find out what motivates the customers and find out how gamification can help bridge the gap between the brand and its customers.
ACCESSIBILITY
More and more brands are creating products that are diverse and inclusive. Also, brands are seeing how people are paying more attention to accessibility, privacy, and inclusivity. It is only a matter of time before we see a change in how businesses treat their customers.
Currently, users are able to access information in text, audio, or other formats. There will be braille displays so people can access the web better without worrying about navigation and other barriers in the near future. It should come as no surprise that the demand for visual merchandising strategy services is on the rise as well to build the space to everyone's needs.
Accessibility is becoming necessary as people are becoming more aware and wanting to shift towards brands that build their products with accessibility in mind. And AI and VR are going to be seen promoting accessibility aggressively. We are already seeing products being built with mindful practices that could be used by everyone.
Advanced technologies mean that people with different needs would be able to engage fully with society and find more creative ways to participate in it--from corporate to personal. There are predictions that design will evolve to be more inclusive and its spending would go to those entities that understand accessibility and commit to it.
PERSONALISATION
It is expected that personalization will take off in the near future. When a brand focuses on personalization, it can create a more human experience. It means they are being heard and cared for.
Personalization helps match users with the things that matter to them or they might be interested in them. This means each one of the users is getting exactly what they need when they need it. Because of personalization, we can expect the information that reaches us tailored to our needs and interests. Which in return help brands build a great relationship with the customers based on empathy.
Through learning, customer behavior brands can understand what the customer would like and when they would like it. Because some brands can empathize with their customers and build products and services that are dependable and valuable, we go back to them again and again. But it is about to stretch even further.
Humans are not constant with their behavior, well not all the time. One cannot depend on machines, no matter how intelligent they are. We are still far away from that idea. Personalization is not just for pursuing customers to sell, educate, inform, or advise. It is also to learn behavioral data and have conversations that not only add value but joy. Which is going to make all the difference in the long run.
And finally, when all is said and done. We need to understand that the ultimate aim is to make the customer live the retail experience so they keep coming back.
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