Verner Panton, a design revolutionary, once said, "You sit more comfortably on colours you like." A statement that seems to disregard logic, and focus strictly on the intangible relationships which dictate preferences.
So what does this statement say about design, and more importantly, how can YOU apply this to your online marketing strategies?
The answer is an investment in user experience: understanding how design can impact cognitive science and drive decisions. Here are a few stories around Panton's designs and the insights they lend in creating successful online user experiences today.
Why invest in UX?
Panton worked during a wonderfully whimsy time for furniture design, helping to shaping the late 1950's Pop movement by making waves with his neon swimming pool design. Panton's focus on design that provides function and evokes emotion can be seen across his eccentric pieces and even in current day design practices.
User experience is largely a subjective field, making it difficult to directly correlate qualitative metrics to various UX efforts and initiatives. For online efforts, attribution may prove difficult as it deals with users' emotions, an increase in conversions and drop in bounce rates are signs in line with the intentions of enhanced user experience.
Analysis by the Design Management Institute shows how design-driven companies outperformed others by 228% through efforts like creating streamlined user experiences. Design-driven companies have effectively sold more product and made more profit, by providing unique experiences, at each touch point of their relationship with customers. Facilitating a stakeholder workshop can effectively gather requirements while increasing alignment among stakeholders.
How do you validate UX design?
Panton's Cone chair was a piece he created for his parents' restaurant. The Cone chair was so admired by a restaurant customer they offered to put it into production. Post-production the Cone chair was briefly on display in a Fifth Avenue shop in New York, where it was removed due to the large crowds it attracted.
User experience is centered on perception. With the proliferation of user interfaces it is of the utmost importance to focus on the individual user's experience, while considering the collective experiences of the target audience.
In order to validate your user's/users' experience concepts, it is important to take a systematic approach. The following Validation stack, by Cennyd Bowles, shows the close relationship between design theory, user research, and evidence; together, these effectively validate UX concepts.
The validation stack requires you to provide recommendations that build off of one another and are driven by data. Backing up your argument with early buy-in from stakeholders and iterative user testing can both improve your argument for UX and strengthen your concepts.
Ways to improve UX
Panton's S chair, a single legless piece of cantilevered plastic, graced VOGUE in 1995 with Kate Moss sitting naked atop it. The chair remains an icon of pop movement design, and is rumored to have been inspired by a pile of plastic buckets.
The design was made to maintain consistency, with the choice of one seamless material, and functionality, with its smooth stacking ability.
UX design calls for both consistency and functionality in order to limit distractions and guide users' decisions.
- Usability: Increase ease of use
Examine the full user path by watching them go through the site and conversion funnel. Asking the user how they think about or through the site and its use to them.
(Tool to use: UserTesting.com)
- Informational design: Create visual hierarchy
Use data to drive design decisions. Track common on-site behaviors to adjust site layout or page layout.
(Tool to use: Simple Mouse tracking) - Content strategy: Incorporate personality
Track your brand's tone of voice across all platforms.
(Tools to use are discussed in Distilled's Content Guide)
An array of potential users should be observed over time, as users' experiences and influences continually affect their decision-making process.
How does brand communication improve UX?
Panton's Living Tower is an impressive 2-meter high structure with unique cut-outs, designed to encourage communication. The oddly amoeba-esque cut outs in the furniture encouraged people to sit in seemingly un-conventional positions, while prompting conversation.
User experience efforts can be amplified by creating a space and prompt for conversation. Brands engaging with users on social and feedback channels should have the goal to meet their target market where they are or host a conversation their user/audience would like to have. Before building or creating a social strategy for a brand it is important to ask the following questions...
- How is the social platform aligned to the brand?
- Why would users choose to engage in a dialogue with a brand on this platform?
- What value-add could the social platform provide for users?
- When would it be most helpful for a user to communicate with the brand?
Researching the types of discussions users are already prompting, about your competitors or industry, can help to uncover potential opportunities for social media strategy and content creation. Then measure social channels' impact through network referrals, conversions, and landing page visit analytics.
Why user-centered design for user experience?
Panton studied under Arne Jacobsen, who worked with him to create the Ant chair. The chair was commissioned specifically for a large Danish pharmaceutical company‘s cafeteria. The chair base was designed to be comfortable, lightweight and stackable. The choice to use only three legs was in an attempt to minimize hitting furniture against people's legs or other furniture, during their lunch hour.
User experience efforts should be grounded in similar methodologies,
giving users additional functionality without compromising on a seamless experience. Striking a balance of trust, motivation and functionality can ultimately drive a greater user experience. Working with and learning from users' patterns, through both qualitative and quantitative testing and tracking.
How have you incorporated UX elements, principles, and methodologies into your online marketing strategies? Looking forward to hearing from the Moz community!
Here's a resource for those of you who'd like to read more about Panton's views on individual colors and color psychology.
Great post, especially the way you connect the dots, like a true teacher!
I was taken mostly by the Panton's S chair, cause I could never understand the "true meaning" as to why did our former creative director would select out of all the chairs in the world, the Panton's S. Maybe it now all makes sense... Consistency and functionality!
Thanks for sharing
I'm a big fan of Jakob Nielsen's design and UX theories. Back a few years ago we were used a service called gutcheckit.com (similar to usertesting.com) to interview users in our target demographic about changes we were marking to our website.
Through these interviews we found out that the most popular page on our site led the user to a page they weren't necessarily expecting--we were pushing them to a conversion page but they wanted more info for their logical flow. I ended up leaving the company before the change was made but the interviews we did uncovered something totally unexpected about our UX.
Thanks for the comment, Shawn! I have really enjoy Jakob Nielsen's thoughts on usability and UI too. I'll be reading his, "Design of Everyday Things,' when I can grab a spare moment.
Very interesting note on user flow. I can imagine the user behavior would vary depend on the product/service being offered. I'd love to see/hear more about how brands fulfill users needs for immediate gratification while assisting their needinformed purchase decisions.
Yeah, it was scary to think of directing them away from our lead gen form, which is probably why nothing changed despite the users' feedback:)
Maria, I love how you broadly discuss these concepts and then funnel these ideas into how they affect online UX. I may have to use Panton for UX analogies in my upcoming piece on holistic SEO. If I do, I'll give you credit! :)
Question: What do your discussions & recommendations to clients about UX & design look like--broadly speaking--as in an agency setting (i.e. Distilled), you can only dive so deep before you have to trust in the client's ability to do their own homework and implement intelligently?
Thanks for your comment - I look forward to your write-up! Feel free to reference my metaphor/mild obsession with good furniture design ; )
You bring up an excellent point - Kristina Kledzik and I have recently taken an interest in UX, and see it directly applicable to our current and future clients. I think that there is an interesting overlap between CRO and UX. We like to provide actionable recommendations to clients, that effect change, with the end goal usually to drive user decisions. I think the upfront research, to really undersatnd the target market of our clients', helps to better suggest UX improvements that drive conversions. And who wouldn't want that?!
Thanks for the response! Do you have any go-to resources for understanding different target markets? Obviously, ideal design elements change drastically between groups like old & young or tech-savvy & tech-dummy. No worries if there isn't. I'm just obsessed with finding centralized information so I don't have to scour as much.
An overlap between CRO & UX? Ya don't say! :-P Haha. Some websites I work with look like they came straight from the 90s, so I'm working on my pitch to get them to buy into the idea of a redesign. It can be like pulling teeth.
UX is practically ignored in this space, and demonstrating examples like this can demonstrate the power of good user design that can lead to conversions, as long as we take the time to properly develop it. In time, I can see some top shelf vendors offering this along with their other marketing services. Question is, will the public deem it necessary in order to see ROI?
Useful overview; I think it's important to address content and social as part of the UX and not over-focus on design elements. Also, that cone chair looks just like a google map pin from the front - weird!
I think you win for best comment! Looks like Panton was officially the first to drop a map pin : )
It just shows how ahead of his time Panton was - 1958 and he already had flat design sussed. :)
UX is really the thing that we should focus on more. Great UX is 10 times better value than investing in promoting content. Having a simple product or service and serve it in the best way for a potential customer/client, should be the primary goal :-)
I love this post! It confirms my thoughts, namely: customer experience is more important as people think. A customer comfortable (with the colors of a brand) is a loyal customer.
Love your post! You basically incorporated three of my favorite subjects of all time in one post. Art History, Mid-Century Modern anything, and Design. Nice work.
Interesting read but not a lot of meat, but perhaps that wasn't the goal. And sitting on colors you like isn't intangible or illogical, but easily tied to customer insight and psychology, and in my opinion, is at the heart of user/customer/guest experience, and is definitely measurable and predictable (to some degree on the latter).
The communication of brand, asking questions of 'why would you want to talk to customers here, or will you or they expect it (along those lines)', and need to understand the user's behavior/interaction with the UI/site/item, I agree with and am glad you mentioned that as important. But not the methodology of extracting data from user's for the user experience, nor some reader comments that implied that old 90s designs are bad. A good design is a good design (as this article already implied by using very old chair designs). The same can be said of digital designs, and simply following the trend setters in web/UI/UX design is asking for trouble and ridicule (and leads to a web where every site begins to look like every other site...except for the trendsetters); and one of my pet peeves with designers, if you can't tell. :)
Understanding your users, their expectations (visual, audio, kinetic), their comforts (and how to push that a little to create excitement and intrigue), and so on is much more important for creating more 'intuitive' (relatively speaking) and 'engaging' (interest+intrinsic motivation) and ultimately 'influencing' experiences.
The investment in user experience is now higher and more important than ever. User experience is a powerful tool that can do far more for your online marketing program than you might imagine. Knowing how your users experience your programs, how they interact with your online marketing, and how they respond to it can truly help you tailor your technique to your users to get the most out of your marketing.Though it was once thought that user experience was defined by the advertising method itself, it is now apparent that your user experience can now make a real difference in the overall success of your online marketing campaign. Knowing what your users want and how they interact with your advertising campaign can make a huge difference.
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. - Steve Jobs.
Solid post, thanks. Its amazing how something as basic and ancient as a chair or a swimming pool can still be redesigned with the user in mind, to produce something new that maintains its purpose while becoming even more functional and useful.
This article is awesome! I work in the marketing department at my job but I'm currently enrolled in a UX grad program, and although I often see the two align, this metaphor really helps me understand the crossroads (and is perfect to share with my team).
Thanks so much for the great piece!!
Hi Maria,
It was very interesting to read the article because of the way you have connected chair designs to user experience. It was a good way to make facts more understandable as the example was a real world activity that we undertake all the time.
There is always a fight between the designers and the developers on the issues related to user experience wherein developers tend to push more efforts towards great functionality even though if it cuts efforts from designing of the software or website. However, I believe it is equally important to have good, easy to use, simple tools which solve your problem.
Associating emotions with memory helps get loyal customer building. There is a whole branch of psychologists studying the facts about the brain that will help us design better websites.
Thanks for the nice read.
"giving users additional functionality without compromising on a seamless experience"
All said. Thanks a lot for your refreshing post
Amazing
Impressive insight into UX Signal but don't you think webmaster would like to update it or make changes after a regular frequency according to users behavior on Site. You can't be satisfied with one design for a long period of time. That is what I assume. However, points were awesome along with specified tools for various purposes.
You want to provide users with a consistent experience each time they visit your website. In general, continual improvement is encouraged; however, when it comes to UX, you want users to feel comfortable on your website, and if the UX is different every time they come to your website, well, they probably will stop coming because it's too stressful to relearn how to navigate your website.
This may be an out of context example but ESPN does this with their "bottom line". It still goes very well with their brand, but every single time they release one... it is an improvement on the prior