User centred design (UCD) and marketing have previously been siloed practices with very few examples of projects where the two have worked together successfully.
Having started my career working with content in marketing, I know how little user needs featured in my discussions about how to reach them and convince them to engage.
It was more “How do we make customers do this?” than “What do they need to do this?”
Usually, we were focusing too much on what it took to get the user somewhere and not enough on their experience once they got there.
Which worked for the most part, when our audiences were new to marketing methods and weren’t actively disengaging from our constant pushing.
But users eventually become fatigued with continuous messages, mainly brought on by the constant barrage of social media messaging.
They’re also more aware of good design and more likely to take steps to switch off from bad experiences.
With this in mind, UCD is becoming an invaluable resource – and one which many marketers aren’t taking full advantage.
What’s the difference between UCD and marketing?
This is a question we get asked a lot, especially in organisations which have content writers in marketing teams and aren’t sure they also need content designers.
Here’s my best attempt to explain the distinction.
First, marketing tends to focus on the needs of the business. It typically comprises sales-led communication about new or best-selling products, telling the brand story, or trying to form or change perceptions of the product or service.
UCD, on the other hand, focuses on the needs of the user – on the people using the product, service, website or app.
UCD aims to improve the user experience by giving them the information they need when they need it.
It puts the needs of the user first to make using digital products and services easier.
It focuses on the user’s goals rather than the goals of the business.
It considers the mental and physical factors that may contribute to the user experience.
These are some of the areas that I didn’t think about too much when I worked in marketing because they didn’t seem important.
I was being asked to push the messages the business wanted people to hear, and our strategies were created to support growth in target areas.
But UCD also considers why the product or service exists and why it’s important that everyone can successfully access it.
And that’s what marketers and businesses want too, isn’t it? For as many people as possible to access their products and services.
For it to be as easy as possible for them to make decisions.
And for them to continue their journeys to find more content, products or services.
In other words, user centred design meets business needs too. It can help marketers bridge the gap between what the business wants and what the user wants.
Good experiences lead to more people visiting your website or using your product, which means more brand exposure and more traffic or footfall.
And then if those visits are positive ones, that creates more brand loyalty, more positive reviews, and the kind of marketing every marketer hopes for – word of mouth recommendations and positive endorsements through user-generated content.
Put very simply, more positive experiences equal more money.
Plus, in a world of social media and constant communication, you have to consider that both bad and good experiences can be shared instantly with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of other people.
So, a badly designed service or product can be instantly exposed.
Who remembers Google Glass? A great example of how quickly word spread about bad design, resulting in the product being pulled from the market.
How we can practice user-centred marketing
A good place to start is to stop viewing user-centred design and marketing as divided and separate. They should be working together.
By approaching a marketing strategy like a UCD project, with research, testing, feedback, iterations and even using Agile methodologies, marketers can improve user experiences.
And better experiences will result in better brand perception, increased revenue and greater brand loyalty.
These are all key objectives for marketing teams.
To do this, marketing teams need to include user researchers, interaction designers, product designers, service designers and content designers in building digital experiences for their users.
Content designers and user researchers should be involved in creating brand style guides.
Accessibility guidelines should be followed when choosing brand colours and components.
And service designers should be included in the creation of blueprints for new services, setting out the journeys users will take to a successful purchase.
Mirroring this, user-centred design teams need to educate and raise awareness of user-centric design and advocate for it being included in wider spaces – not just for services and products.
There are clear roles for both UCD and marketing within organisations and businesses.
Just because you have a copywriter, it doesn’t mean that you have content design covered. And having a graphic designer on the team doesn’t cover product design.
By having both, you can strike that balance between portraying the image your brand wants users to see and how the user actually feels about your brand.
Improve the user experience and you’ll reach your marketing goals as a byproduct.
