Creating Products that are (Measurably) Great
We usually recommend a User Experience design process that involves ongoing user testing. We very much believe that we ought to involve users in the design process every step of the way.
Our aim is to prove that we’re designing a great interface by objectively measuring its performance. Not just “wow, the app looks great,” but actual user performance data (fewer clicks, fewer seconds required to complete a task, etc.) that indicates, objectively, that we’re moving in the right direction - that we have significantly improved the user experience for customers.
A Note About Initial UX Thoughts and Observations
Sometimes we are asked by clients to provide some initial thoughts, observations, and feedback regarding the user experience of their existing web site, web application, or mobile app.
In the spirit of imparting a sense of how we think and how we work, we're happy to do so. But, we always caveat our comments by saying that normally, we would first want to spend some time:
- With you, the client, better understanding the situation, what users have told you about what they like and don’t like, what you think is working / not working, what is the business trying to accomplish, etc.
- With users, listening to what they have to say about the application, what they like, what they dislike, how it fits into their life, how they think it can be improved, etc.
- Looking at competing / similar / adjacent applications. What can we learn from the similar products that have been designed, built, released, and refined many times over many years? What do we think about them? What do these products tell us about what we want and what we don’t want? What do users tell us about these products? How do these similar products actually perform when presented to users?
While we are user experience design professionals who can apply web and mobile design best practices and also have strong intuitions (due to our experience designing dozens of products over the years) around how to improve usability, we believe that domain expertise (e.g. knowing the business inside-and-out) and listening carefully to users is critical to designing a great tool to make the user’s life easier.
Creating Landing Pages That Work: Auto Insurance
How do you create landing pages that work? Pages that ensnare users into your process of filling out a form, getting more information, getting a quote, etc.?
We believe that the auto insurance industry, in particular, offers many useful examples around how to create high-performing and persuasive website landing pages.
Let's take a look.
If you go to Google and search for "get car insurance," you'll see something like this:
Notice that most of the screen is covered in advertisements:
In fact, 10 of the results are advertisements, and only 4 are "organic" (e.g. not directly paid for) results. And this is just online!
Here in the US, we are constantly bombarded (online, on television, in print, via direct mail) with advertisements from Allstate, GEICO, Nationwide, Progressive, and other leaders in the auto insurance industry.
One would have to assume that:
- They’re spending incredible amounts of money advertising their products.
- The space is massively competitive. We learned, anecdotally, that some auto insurance companies are paying up to $150 USD per click for Google Adwords online advertising, for example (that’s just for a raw lead - not a person that has converted to being a customer!).
- They’ve worked very hard to optimize their landing pages and their funnels (e.g. convincing and ensnaring folks to “get a quote”) to maximize conversion rates.
Now, back to those Google Search results. When you click on one of those ads, you'll see a page that looks like this:
Or this:
Or this:
Or, if you're on mobile, something like this:
We believe that there’s a lot to learn here:
- How to create a persuasive and effective landing page, using typography, photographs, social proof, and other mechanisms to elicit a certain response and encourage certain behavior.
- How to get folks started in the process.
- How to easily enable folks to resume from where they left off (if they do indeed leave).
- How not to distract folks with other content and information that might unintentionally encourage them to fall out of the funnel.
- How to ask questions in a way that is not overwhelming or intimidating (e.g. perhaps in an iterative, one-step-at-a-time fashion).
UX Designer
Looking for a UX Designer?
Iteration Group is a "boutique" firm that works with a small number of clients, helping them with expert UI / UX Design and App Development for web and mobile.
We work closely with large consumer and enterprise brands to help them nail their product vision, distill their rough product ideas into concrete product designs, create wireframes, create final designs, build prototypes, build-out their products, and more.
Our clients are in Financial Services, E-commerce, Healthcare, Education, Ad Tech, Loyalty, Food Service, Entertainment, and other industries.
Iteration Group's Jaime Levy Releases "UX Strategy" Book, Published by O'Reilly
We're proud and excited to announce that Jaime Levy, Iteration Group team member and Engagement Manager on client projects, recently released her book UX Strategy: How to Devise Innovative Digital Products that People Want. This guide breaks down the complexities of UX Strategy into lightweight techniques and tools that can be employed on any web, mobile, or desktop software project.
Throughout her career, Jaime has taken a hands-on role consulting in the areas of research, product definition, and interaction design for large consumer and e-commerce web projects at AOL, Honda, Target, Disney, ABC, and other industry leaders. In addition to working on client projects, she served as a Professor of User Experience Design at NYU, Art Institute of California, UCLA, and USC, where she is currently teaching a graduate level course (part-time) titled “User Experience Design and Strategy.”
Jaime has recently held multiple book launches and presentations across the country including New York City (as seen above) and Santa Monica, CA. Over the next few months, she will be speaking at multiple conferences and events to share her knowledge as a world-class expert in User Experience Strategy. Grab a copy of her book today on Amazon.com.