The critical difference that sets an amateur marketer apart from a branding aficionado is their ability to get into the mind of their consumer. Recently, as I have worked on creating a new app, I have discovered that possibly the greatest way to design an extremely effective user experience is to figuratively become the consumer or end user.
After much conversation, whiteboard drawings, sketches, mock-ups and revisions, the uCondition team and I decided we would go back to the drawing board on our damage billing interface. We wanted to reach our consumer by marketing an experience. As a result, our team decided it would be prudent to step into the mind of our target audience by creating short stories called “A Day in the Life.”
We reached out to an individual who fit the profile of the end user and asked them to write journal entries based on their daily interactions prior to using our app. The journal entries showed raw frustration of life without our electronic room condition reporting app. By reading these journal entries, our team was able to pinpoint the greatest needs of our consumers by just stepping into their shoes and seeing through their eyes. It allowed us to analyze our end user’s behavior by hearing their needs first hand.
When we went back to the drawing board, our sales team, design team and development team all had a renewed perspective on our mission and goal. Because we took the time to understand our consumer’s behavior, we were able to develop a user experience that fulfilled the needs of our end user.