Monday, March 21, 2016

Mobile-First eCommerce: What Customers Expect and Value in Mobile Shopping Experiences

By Afshan Kirmani Published: February 22, 2016 “Increasing conversion rates from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets is a key goal of every ecommerce company.” Increasing conversion rates from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets is a key goal of every ecommerce company. In 2015, the shopping-cart abandonment rate reached an all-time high of 70%, and it’s climbing. Since Morgan Stanley’s research suggests that 91% percent of adults use smartphones, why are only 14% of those consumers buying products online using their mobile device? Yes, people tend to browse on their mobile device, then move to their personal computer to shop online. But people tend to do this primarily because of poor usability and the lack of affordance on smaller devices. Shopping-cart abandonment can be reduced on smartphones and tablets. However, many companies struggle with delivering a seamless browse-to-buy experience on mobile devices. Shopping-cart abandonment—the loss of a customer who was going through an ecommerce site’s check-out flow—is widespread. A Forrester study found that 89% of consumers had abandoned a shopping cart at least once. Researchers attributed that high rate of abandonment to user sophistication: as shoppers become more experienced with online shopping, they are more likely to compare brand experiences online.

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The Interview Survey: Getting the Accuracy of Interviewing Thousands of Users

By Dmitri Khanine Published: March 7, 2016 “How do you find out what your market really wants?” People get excited about design—especially the latest innovations from amazing leaders in user experience such as Apple and Google. But these organizations built their cool designs on a solid foundation of user research that let them achieve an intimate understanding of their customers. Every amazing product starts with a great product manager who works hard to achieve a deep understanding of their market. This level of understanding doesn’t come easy. Achieving it takes years of observation and lots of communication. That’s why companies try to hire people who have backgrounds that are similar to those of their customers. Former accountants make great ERP Business Analysts. Former salespeople lead the development of sales automation tools. Nevertheless, most of the time these guys are wrong! There are lots of products that nobody wants to buy.

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The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love

By Donna Lichaw Published: March 21, 2016 This is a sample chapter from Donna Lichaw’s new book The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love. 2016 Rosenfeld Media. Chapter 7: Using Your Story “As for the story, whether the poet takes it ready made or constructs it for himself, he should first sketch its general outline, and then fill in the episodes and amplify in detail.”—Aristotle, Poetics When I first started to teach people how to map out stories for product and service design and development, I gave them the choice: use your story as a loose guide, or plot methodically onto a narrative arc diagram. I don’t like to dictate process, nor do you want to be told exactly how to do your work. That said, I will tell you this—at least while you’re starting out using this technique, map everything. And do so visually. On a squiggly narrative arc. Then as you explore your stories in different mediums and fidelities, expect that story to change. Your story maps are more like guides than skeletons—they are loose paths for how you intend for people to experience something. As such, they can and should evolve as you explore, as you plan, as you build, and as people interact with what you put out into the world.

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Five Best Practices for Becoming a Data-Driven Design Organization, Part 2

By Michelle Bacigalupi Published: March 21, 2016 “Initiating a customer journey–mapping process and having on-going discussions about the customer journey let our organization build an image of the future.” In Part 1 of this three-part series, I shared two best practices for developing a data-driven design organization. I described how initiating a customer journey–mapping process and having on-going discussions about the customer journey let our organization build an image of the future. I also discussed moderated usability testing of early designs, which let us focus on the short term. My instincts told me that I had to demonstrate value immediately, but also needed to lay the foundation for the long term. Building credibility required us to be responsive to current goals and requests, while at the same time projecting where we could discover deeper insights in the service of long-term business aspirations. In other words, I needed to be a kind of seer and make educated assumptions about what kinds of questions would surface answers or information that would be valuable to the business. I had to form questions that the business didn’t yet know to ask.

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Five Best Practices for Becoming a Data-Driven Design Organization, Part 1

By Michelle Bacigalupi Published: February 22, 2016 “A customer experience (CX) design strategy comprises intentional design activities and processes that, when taken together, enable a team to deliver exceptional customer experiences.” A customer experience (CX) design strategy comprises intentional design activities and processes that, when taken together, enable a team to deliver exceptional customer experiences. When you create meaningful products or services, they offer unique value to customers and are distinguishable from those of competitors. I lead a Customer Experience Design team in the Digital Marketing and eCommerce group at the one of the world’s largest Web-conferencing companies. Over the last few years, my team has undertaken several complete overhauls of the Web site and designed the customer experience for a new content-management platform. Upper management dictated extremely aggressive deadlines, and we launched on schedule. One thing that initially seemed to surprise everyone in the company—except our team—was that our in-house CXD team was responsible for executing such ambitious research and design projects in their entirety rather than using agencies.

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Defining Clear Product Requirements | Viewpoints for Design Reviews

By Janet M. Six Published: March 21, 2016 Send your questions to Ask UXmatters and get answers from some of the top professionals in UX. In this edition of Ask UXmatters, the first topic our expert panel discusses is how to elicit clear product requirements from stakeholders. Does the right approach differ for small versus large companies? Do product requirements capture the goals of stakeholders? Do requirements reflect the true needs of users? Do they establish a good understanding of technical constraints? How can you validate the assumptions behind product requirements? What kinds of research should influence the definition of product requirements? How should you balance the needs of users versus the business? Our expert panel also considers some different viewpoints from which we can review design solutions: stakeholders’ business goals, the needs of users in various roles, and the feasibility or ease of implementation. On the other hand, focusing on one particular user’s needs during a design review can yield a greater number of insights. Considering different user-interface layers lets you structure your evaluation of a design solution. Plus, it’s important to consider the effectiveness of design artifacts as well.

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Efficient Responsive Design Process

Infinite Scrolling, Pagination Or “Load More” Buttons? Usability Findings In eCommerce

Legal Guidelines For The Use Of Location Data On The Web

Managing Mobile Performance Optimization

The Marketing < > Analytics Intersect: My Newsletter!

I want you to sign up for something very, very special I'm doing: Writing short stories from the intersection of marketing and analytics. My goal is to get you promoted, you are going to love it. So. Please do sign up. But, first, as you've come to expect from this blog… Context… Should you own […]

The Marketing < > Analytics Intersect: My Newsletter! is a post from: Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik



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Finding Your Sweet Spot – An Extreme Content Focus [Exercise]

You can’t fill content holes in every part of the enterprise and have the best content marketing strategy in the world. You must choose a focus. You must differentiate. Here’s an exercise to help you find your content sweet spot. Continue reading

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Clarifying the Noise: The Content Marketing Spectrum [Exclusive Video]

Content marketing, native advertising, and branded content have productive uses. But how are they related? Do you know which to use? We propose a new model – a spectrum of how to operationalize these content-focused marketing terms. Continue reading

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What Should Marketers Look For in a Content Strategist?

Read this BEFORE you hire a content strategist. Experts from the Intelligent Content Conference share the skills you should consider and the questions you should ask to find the right help and best fit for your brand’s content program. Continue reading

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Content Marketer of the Year Shares How to Find Hidden Content

Fellow content marketer, we’re like junkies, aren’t we? We’re desperate for new stories and angles to tell our company’s tales. How do we get our fix when our go-to sources dry up? Your potential new sources are hidden in plain sight. Continue reading

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9 Website Optimization Mistakes Even Smart Agencies Make

Beware. You could be paying good money for website optimization services from an agency that just learned last month how to run a test. The truth is that conversion rate optimization (CRO) is hard. Here are nine mistakes to avoid. Continue reading

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Is Your Social Media Content as Popular as You Think?

Metrics such as shares and retweets are the easiest obvious to gather, but they may be the most deceptive when evaluating if your content is making a difference. Never confuse social media distribution with content effectiveness.  Continue reading

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Content Distribution Strategies and Tools to Drive Traffic

Challenged by a dismal content promotion strategy? Don’t have a content distribution strategy that goes beyond the usual suspects? Learn several ways to generate fresh traffic to your great content from existing sources. Continue reading

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Demystifying Content Strategy: Key Takeaways From Intelligent Content Conference 2016

We can’t be so busy creating content that we fail to look up. We must clarify the meaning of what we’re doing to create a path worth following. Start with these eight themes that emerged from the Intelligent Content Conference. Continue reading

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Don’t Follow a Funnel, Create Content for an Engine [Research]

Forget the 114-year-old linear model of consumer behavior. Consumers’ growing voices in an always-on digital environment require a new model – the consumer engagement engine. Its creators share how it can help your content marketing. Continue reading

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