We need more heroes.
Consumers are suffering. Suffering from cognitive overload, micro-annoyances, and decision fatigue as a result of extremely poor digital experiences. And, it’s only getting worse as brands shift more transactions onto customers, like grocery scanning and tagging bags at the airport.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Heroes at Amazon, Google, and Facebook are focusing on friction-free user experiences by creating Echo, Home, and Jarvis. Those experiences start with break-through thinking and leap-frog ideas generated from strong UX leadership, people willing to take a stand.
Set a recurring appointment reserved for creative thinking time once a month to analyze the technology trends, understand up-coming capabilities, and reimagine how those capabilities could help customers. Practice asking open-ended questions about unspoken assumptions to see new possibilities and anticipate future needs. Read and follow futurists like The Singularity University.
Signals come the moment you realize there has been a paradigm shift in a digital experience. That shift not only leads to delight but also removes the friction from the previous interaction.
Brands are embracing a new wave of robots and experimenting with chatbots, artificial intelligence, and autonomous vehicles. Subway just announced that you can now order a Subway sandwich through their Facebook Messenger chatbot. You might think “Who's actually going to use Facebook Messenger to order her sandwich?”
But, consider these three trends that Subway observed:
Subway embraced these three trends and looked for opportunity. To deliver friction-free digital experiences, we must do the same.
If you’re not already, become a voracious reader of digital news and insights on the latest technology advances. Take time on a regular basis with your team to discuss external trends and what opportunities exist for your product. New technologies can be daunting, but not if you narrow down to the doable.
Use this exercise with your team: Pick three trends and brainstorm a mashup of them. Think about how you could design for user needs in the context of that mashup. Most importantly, marinate in these ideas and exploration. Don’t feel like you have to take action on everything. Some ideas, trends, and technologies may not have immediate impact for you, and that’s okay.
Foster an appetite for research. Learn how early adopters are using new technologies and consider applying those use cases to your business model. Set aside budget for experimenting with new capabilities, external trends, and prototypes; test them in user experience labs with design researchers.
Also realize that inherent in the idea of testing and iteration, is the notion of failure. Some stuff won’t work. The reason Silicon Valley can produce so many unicorn companies is because those companies embrace failure and mistakes. If you don’t risk failure, you won’t make large leaps in innovation. As Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Over 20 years of working in the UX space, I’ve learned that leaders who frequently spend time observing or interacting with customers have much deeper levels of customer understanding than those who merely look at data and reports.
Use the following techniques to build a well of empathy:
By cultivating these five practices, you can open the door to possibilities for digital experiences that won’t cause consumer suffering, and instead surprise and delight.
What other practices would you add to this list? Connect with me on Twitter and let me know.