Unit 9 User Experience (UX)
In this unit, we will build on the concepts developed in the previous units to better understand the impact of the consumer lifecycle and design thinking on the user experience (UX) to create maximum engagement for our brand. User Experience (UX) is a consumer optimization practice within brand management that focuses on consumer experience and consumer engagement. UX is often studied in the virtual space of the internet to best add a humanistic touch. This shaping is building the right type of experiences around your brand so that the brand's customers have specific, positive thoughts, feelings, beliefs, opinions, and perceptions about that brand, as opposed to the competitor's brand.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- evaluate the UX process from a brand management perspective;
- analyze the assumptions behind a UX study;
- evaluate design thinking processes;
- evaluate how a UX site map improves the consumer experience; and
- evaluate the importance of the user journey.
9.1: Introduction to UX
Brand managers apply UX to many situations to gain insight into how consumers engage and gain satisfaction. Read this novel perspective on UX, which studies consumer experience within the mobile phone market. Compare the theoretical foundation in phenomenology, where individual subjective experience is the primary and natural focus of inquiry, versus the model of consumer journey discussed in section 7.3.
Brand managers utilize the UX (User Experience) to inform the analysis of factors of human behavior in efforts to both understand and quantify Customer Lifetime Value. Review the results of the systematic mapping study in this research and the researchers' emotional theory of consumer engagement. Align this perspective with the CRM study discussed in section 8.3. Does this offer a fresher touch point for understanding consumer loyalty and repeat brand purchases?
9.2: Customer Lifecycle Management
Customer lifecycle management (CLM) grows consumer engagement and, ideally, culminates with customer loyalty. There are five stages of customer lifecycle management: 1) Awareness: the first step in the consumer journey; 2) Consideration: the second step is engaging with a positive response; leading to 3) Purchase: Consumer chooses to purchase the branded product; 4) Retention: post-purchase consumer contact leads to sustainable long-term behavior; and finally 5) Brand loyalty: the consumer becomes a valued "brand ambassador" and adds to the brand equity over time.
Read this comprehensive study on the UX experience within the fashion sector. Examine the research to identify how values on positive emotions influence a user's engagement toward a fashion brand. At what point in this research was the user experience enhanced (the conversion process)?
9.3: Design Thinking
Brand managers utilize many techniques to gain the best understanding of what makes the target consumers "tick" and what are the "pain points" to achieving consumer engagement. Brand managers often collaborate with a design thinking team to gain a novel understanding of consumer intentionality. Design thinking offers a different perspective that bridges the consumer thought process and the purchase behavior leading up to the thought process. The design thinking process has five (non-sequential) steps: 1) Empathize: This starts with listening research that considers the emotional intentionality of consumers' behavior; 2) Define the Problem: This uses the results of research to develop human-centered problems first, and profitability second; 3) Ideate: Based on the problem, brand managers and design thinking colleagues then innovate and refurbish existing products from a creativity "out-of-the-box" perspective; 4) Prototype: This step takes the chosen idea and creates a minimum viable product (MVP) to gain feedback from the target consumer, and is when many refinements can happen until all consumer insights create the final version to test; 5) Test: Testing your solution in the real world is what matters the most and confirms whether the problem identified in previous steps is solved.
Design thinking represents a creative way for brand managers to solve a problem or develop a new idea to address the emotional perspective of the consumer. This research adds a novel twist on the traditional design thinking model. The authors propose an updated design thinking model which overlays a social justice process. Compare the original design thinking model to the proposed model, which includes the third bottom line of social consciousness. Where does the PESTLE model fit into both?
Brand managers apply design thinking, which is a user experience (UX) strategic model designed to gain insight to how consumers engage and gain satisfaction. Read this perspective on design thinking and its impact on growing brand equity. Compare how design thinking and CRM intersect when studying consumer touchpoints.
Unit 9 Study Resources
This review video is an excellent way to review what you've learned so far and is presented by one of the professors who created the course.
Watch this as you work through the unit and prepare to take the final exam.
- Unit 9 Review Slides File PDF document
You can also download the presentation slides so you can make notes.
We also recommend that you review this Study Guide before taking the Unit 9 Assessment.
Unit 9 Assessment
- Receive a grade
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.