Clarifying the Meaning of User Experience

The other day I received a question in email regarding my post on Monday about UPumpItUp, a program from Crystal Light that aims to help people challenge themselves to improve their lives in small but smart ways. While I liked the overall idea of the program, I criticized it for poor user experience - things such as slow-loading video, lack of RSS feeds, and issues around access to the information. Based on this comment, I got a question that went a little something like this:

I don’t get why not having RSS feeds and why poor user experience translate into bad marketing with meaning….”

It’s a great question, and gets to the benefit of this blog: I can get real reader reactions to my rantings. Questions like this help challenge our thinking - and challenge leads to improvement.

Anyway, back to the question - and answer…

Overall, I believe that there are two ways that marketers must ensure that there is meaning in their marketing. First, at the Strategic Level, where we understand broader consumer needs and interests, and create an idea that is meaningful to the audience while supporting marketing objectives. The program often can be tested with consumers before launch as a written concept with maybe a visual or two.

In the UPumpItUp case, I think Crystal Light nailed this Strategic Level. My guess is that the brand knows that Crystal Light is often the drink of choice for women who wish to be healthier - say, choosing a Crystal Light in a water bottle instead of a Coke or Pepsi. These women likely want to make smart choices elsewhere in their lives, and a tool like UPumpItUp fits here. Further, the idea of tools and social encouragement to take on a better life habit seems meaningful, and is fairly unique in the marketplace.

Next comes the second level, the Executional Level, where the marketer must make sure to nail the details of the program itself. This is what the consumer actually experiences by engaging in the marketing. It’s what they think about when they first discover the site, program, or ad; and it’s how they feel as they return to it again and again. This is where the idea or concept is brought to life in final form. In the digital space, we must design and test for the user experience of the site or program. We use tools such as persona and scenario design to understand what visitors’ mind-sets and goals will be. We take the final program through rounds of user testing to ensure we are meeting their expectations, and we might even do a beta version before launch to work out the last bugs.

Here is where I think UPumpItUp falls down. This is pretty common for two reasons: (1) User Experience is a fairly new (or nonexistent) discipline in many agencies, and sometimes the traditional design/creative team trumps UX in the organization; and (2) most marketers are just getting up-to-speed on digital overall, and they haven’t learned what UX is and how to ensure their agencies are using it.

For another example, see the Triaminic.com website, below (props to our Experience Planning group for the find). What do you think?

Some of the issues I see are that the navigation is extremely irregular. Where do I go first? If consumers have to search for what they want for more than a second or two they will move on - and leave with a negative perception of the brand. In the extreme case here, the core navigation is actually hidden under a sign that says: “Look under here to see the whole site!” Imagine a mother at 3 a.m. logging on to see what dose level of Triaminic she can give her sick child. She’s not up for a website scavenger hunt.

I could go on and on about the importance of User Experience (even though I’m still learning it myself - thanks, Challis). But suffice it to say that if you want to see your meaningful marketing idea translate into a final product that wins with consumers, you’ve got to take the time to build UX into your process and budgets.