UX+ or Digital Brand Experience Design? Part 2: Digital Habits

In our previous article, we analyzed the difference between basic UX theory and Digital Brand Experience Design. It is clear that a well-developed Digital Brand Experience gives birth to new digital habits. In this second part, we will dissect these habits and understand how they are formed and why they are so addictive.

As a brand, after investing in a digital product, you don’t want users to open and use your platform only just once. Your goal is to convert these first time users into repeat users. On Meitu Xiuxiu, the image-editing software popular for its beautifying features when taking self-portraits, users spend an average of 40 minutes per day using the app. After the app introduced its face-recognition feature that automatically analyses the user's skin condition and apply the according beautifying filters, user retention doubled and conversion rates increased threefold. Therefore, it’s highly vital to hook your consumers digitally.  

Therefore it’s important to design a digital experience that piques your consumers’ curiosity so that they develop affinity, perhaps even dependency, towards your product. This desirability is conveyed in the customer’s subconcious tendency to return to the digital product, thus allowing you to deliver relevant content to the consumer at the right time. To complement the core business objective and earn consumer loyalty, you should be proactively shaping users’ digital habits within your digital product.

Each digital experience is designed to satisfy the user. At least they should be. At MADJOR, we use the “Pyramid of Digital Satisfaction” – a 5-level gradation – to help us categorize customers’ engagement with any digital item:  

1. Basic Engagement – Satisfies the basic needs
   • Simple one-function APP, e.g.: APP to make a photo
2. Satisfactory Basis – Provides satisfaction according to the user’s requirements
   • APP to make a photo and then process it by applying different filters
3. Intercorrelation – Understands and anticipates the user’s needs
   • APP to make and process a photo while suggesting the most trendy/ commonly used filters
4. Digital Habits – Develops user addictions and establishes digital dependence
   • APP to make and process photos with some proactive suggestions. Users then publish the photo to the likeminded community created by the platform and constantly check their post for feedback.
5. Digital Experience  – Provides the user with complete emotional contentment
   • An APP that defines a lifestyle, supports communication and drives e-commerce by encouraging users to post their photos

Many brands today reach a mere Level 2. Maximum 3. Established brands that want to weaken the competition need to start looking beyond this simple UX framework.

How can you capitalize on your standout product and start to generate a profit? We are ready to help you create your bespoke DBED.

How often have you tried to double click a photo to “like” it? Or to accept or decline an event by swiping right or left? How do you feel when these simple functions fail? Thanks to Instagram, Tinder and other apps, our fingers have grown accustomed to dozens of mechanical habits that we subconsciously try to apply everywhere.

That’s what differentiates a well-crafted Digital Brand Experience from a merely satisfactory UX and elevates your brand from the 3^rd stage of the Pyramid into the 5^th. Imagine your competitors are forced to add a new user feature that you created, as it has become the new norm. Sounds great, doesn’t it? To get there, however, there is a comprehensive process that needs to be followed:

• Understand market situation and digital possibilities (Desk Research, Brand Status Quo, Competitor Analysis, Alternative Scenarios, etc.)
• Research and define your brand’s target audience (Contextual Interviews, Digital Personas, Digital Lifestyle Habits, Mobile Ethnography, etc)
• Map the target audience’s needs (Development of Customer Journey, Customer Expectations, Customer Needs/Motivations etc.)
• Ideate Signature Brand Experiences concepts (Co-Creation and Innovation)
• Service strategy and experience visualization (Experience Roadmap, Wireframes, User Flows, Storyboards, Canvas, Animated Prototypes, etc.)
• Create the hook – A digital product with a signature brand feature that addict users and keep them coming back for more

At MADJOR, we don’t design an app to only satisfy the most basic needs- say, booking a hotel room or ordering an item in an online store. We design a digital experience that leads users to interact with your brand constantly.

Ideally, the consumer should get the “itch” and the solution of “scratching” the itch within the same digital product- the desired result of Digital Brand Experience Design. By doing so, you can strengthen your brand’s positioning in the consumers’ mind and impact their behavior. Whether you are creating a new platform or improving an existing product, a well-crafted DBED is crucial to achieve the desired level of user satisfaction and engagement for your brand.