By Jamie Tolentino-Deludet
Artwork by Inna Beato
Digital design can influence the consumer in a variety of different ways, from first point of contact, to sale, through to their entire lifecycle as a customer. Below are a variety of elements that you can alter to help shape their behavior or perception about your product, service or brand to a more positive light.
Color
Color says a lot about a brand or service, which is not a new concept. However, you should also note the trends in how color and imagery is used for certain brands and how it affects the perception of color. For example, the use of a lot of white space and big images is typical of Apple’s website, which gives it a bit of a premium feel in the tech space. Use of certain colors have also been associated with certain brands, eg. red for Coca-Cola, pink for Barbie and Victoria’s Secret, navy blue for Facebook, green for Starbucks, etc. Make sure that you don’t steal a logo or color that makes you look like a copycat, but make sure that your color is appropriate for what your brand stands for and evokes the right feelings from your customers.
Usability
Make it easy for the user to do what they are meant to do. The aim is for the consumer’s interaction with your brand to be pleasant, straightforward and efficient. Can you make something smarter? Shave off one less click of a task that the user is trying to achieve? Can you personalize? If a user finds that you can make them smile, save them time or give them value, it’s more likely that they will convert or decide to stick with you for the long haul. For example, Uber’s fare estimation tool takes off the uncertainty of how much a user needs to pay when they take a cab. This certainty lets the user know exactly how much they would spend on a trip rather than getting a surprise bill at the end which enables the user to compare against the cost of public transport and other cab companies.
Copywriting
Your brand needs to have some sort of personality, otherwise, you’ll sound like a robot. That’s a problem because even modern day robots have personalities. Just talk to Siri or Alexa and you’ll notice a difference. How you talk to your customers in your copy will affect how they feel towards you, similar to the way how someone talks to you might affect the way you feel towards them. Just like you’d think twice before you speak, you should think twice before you churn out copy.
Currency
Your brand needs to remain current. No one wants to see functionality and designs from the early 2000s. Try to service what your customers need today, not what they expected 10 years ago. It’s always tempting to stand still because ‘it works,’ but you need to remember that what worked five years ago may not be working anymore five years forward. Remember the trusty Nokia phone before the 2000s? Ah yes, nostalgia. They didn’t work so much once smartphones got hold of them. Make sure your brand, service or product is designed for the people of today, not yesterday.
About the Author
Jamie Tolentino-Deludet works as a digital marketer at a global asset management firm. She writes for TNW (The Next Web) and blogs on the Huffington Post UK.
This article was published in adobo magazine Design 2017 issue.
