Who we ultimately work for (we’re all In this together)

“From the store windows, the store touchpoints, the website, social media or a magazine – it has to be one pure customer experience, not just to gain market share but to gain mind share.”

-Angela Ahrendts, CEO Burberry

The process of making a website or application is tricky, and not only in regards to design and development. Often just as challenging—and seemingly overlooked—is the process of properly identifying who you’re building for.

When we work on a client project, we’re not really working for the client. We’re working for client’s customers or audience. We’re ultimately working to ensure the experience your customer has with you is a positive one that reinforces your brand’s validity, encourages use, and ultimately shows you a return on your investment with the project.

How do you manage a seamless experience across an always changing and increasing number of content channels, though?

Honestly, you can’t.

But, what you can do is influence your users’ experience by being very intentional about where and how you deliver your brand and content, doing so in a way that is consistent across platforms. When we do this, it’s what we call “designing the experience.”

This is how we do it.

Identify Your Audience.

You may already know your audience, or you may need help determining who they are. If you do know, it can be worth it to do the research anyway. The goal is to focus the project’s direction by identifying the audience: your customers, current and/or potential.

Gaining a better understanding of your customers can be accomplished through the process of user and A/B testing, market research, and other early-stage research methods.

It’s very possible that you already have a good understanding of who your audience is, but it’s equally important to know your audience’s why and how. Why will your audience be interested in what you’re doing? How will that affect the way they view your brand? How do you keep your audience returning and engaging?

Gain Perspective.

Now that you understand your audience, you need to know who within your audience you’re designing for.

During the discovery phase of any project, it’s important to keep in mind how the design, functionality, and content will affect your customer. This often means putting aside personal preferences, putting away egos, and establishing a cohesive direction between the client and the agency. That requires clear direction and communication from the client, and a sense of trust that the agency has the (client’s) customer’s best interests in mind.

It’s the agency’s job to combine that with a clear understanding of what will work best from an industry perspective and ultimately enrich the customer’s overall experience.

Just because you want to create an app doesn’t mean that your customers are going to install and use it even once, let alone on a regular basis.

Or visit that website.

Or ingest that content, evoking the desired response.

Understanding the why behind your customer’s need (implied or apparent) will ultimately be a gauge for design decisions along the way.

Set Measurable Goals.

We see it all the time: client wants a project completed, comes to an agency. Agency creates the project, hopefully to the client’s liking. End of story… right?

Not here, at least.

It’s important, especially early on, that the client and agency sit down and set measurable goals for what they want to accomplish with their project. Hardly ever is just launching the site or application the measure of success—nor should it be. 

Setting measurable project goals does a few things.

First, it gives the client a baseline to measure a project’s success against once it’s completed.

Second, it provides a foundation upon which they could build in the future if a change in direction is required.

Third, it gives the agency a framework to work within to provide a solution.

After all, an equation can’t be solved without first having a problem, right?

Walk, Don’t Run.

This next point might seem a little blunt, but it’s important.  Because we care. Really.

Don’t be too anxious to jump right into design and production, at least initially.  

It’s pretty normal, and honestly expected, that a client will come to the table with what they feel to be a pretty solid understanding of exactly what needs to be done and created, but without taking preliminary steps of discovery and planning. The thing is, discovery and planning can make the difference for a successful project.

Even if it’s not within your project budget to account for variations of the steps listed above, it’s good to be at least open to sitting down and having an honest conversation about the project. Give your agency a chance to really make the project work for your customers. In doing so, you may find that your good idea really has the potential to be great.

In the end, we’re all on the same team, playing for the same goal: hitting a home run for your customers by providing the most seamless possible experience that enforces your brand’s integrity and messaging, leading to engagement, sales and growth.

It’s the Elexicon way.