With user experience set to overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator, offering experiences that are easy-to-use, intuitive, and curated is extremely important. Today, tech-savvy users’ demands from user experience is a lot more than just easy navigation and fluidic screen taps. Several new and innovative factors need to be considered including improved in-app recommendations, intuitive search, and personalised experiences.
Big data makes use of the massive amounts of data generated from user interactions to help users make informed and data-driven decisions and create user experiences that win the audience. By discovering insights across location, preferences, situation, behaviour, the pattern of interaction etc., big data can help in creating personalised contexts that power stunning user experience design.
Big data and user experience
In today’s highly technologically driven world, user experience involves creating immersive experiences that enhance satisfaction rates and result in higher adoption rate. Do you know? 90% of users stop using an app if the performance is poor, and 86% will instantly delete or uninstall a mobile app because of problems with its performance. While the humongous volume, velocity and variety of data being produced today, what matters most is how we can make sense of this massive volume of data – to boost accuracy in decision-making or to predict future behaviour. There are many reasons that make big data crucial for developing better user experience – from gaining in-depth knowledge of the user behaviour, developing experiences optimised for the target audience, driving more meaningful interactions as well as facilitating customer behaviour and contextual analytics corresponding to the location, preference, interest, and more. Here’s how big data can help in creating stellar user experiences:
Predictive Analysis
The potential of big data in drawing insights about user behaviour is enormous and this treasure trove of information can make a lasting impact in user experience design. Using the insights gathered from enormous data sets, one can find patterns that were previously hidden and offer experiences that are more personal and engaging. In addition, big data can also be used for contextual analysis to understand how users behave when using a website or application. These contextual insights can form the foundation of great predictive models that evaluate user engagement at every stage; one can understand which elements of the design are most liked by users and which ones need to be revamped in order to maximise engagement. For example, big data can provide insight into how much time users spend on a website, or reflect every user’s browsing history on an application. The goal is then to take this information and tweak the user experience design to better match user behaviour and need and increase adoption and satisfaction.
Data Visualisation
Big data can also be used for data visualisation purposes; by presenting information in a creative manner, it helps in delivering more intuitive user experience. With users spending a lot of time on mobile devices on-the-go, presenting complex data in a visually appealing manner will go a long way. Data in pictorial or graphical format has a lasting impact on users as compared to a large body of text. By putting data into vivid graphics or images, the application can allow users to quickly glance through important information and also introduce interaction features in them – making the experience more seamless and meaningful for every user.
Personalisation
The data generated from a customer’s interaction with a web page, e-commerce app, search engine or social media profile is enormous. When the data of millions of such profiles is aggregated, it can highlight behavioural patterns that can then be used to drive personalisation that is unique to every customer’s needs. Personalised user experiences can result in more satisfaction for the customer, more conversions, and increased revenue for the organisation. Big data can also help prioritise results, deliver more contextual experiences and make the overall experience more intuitive and relevant for every user. Brands can not only offer a personalised shopping experience but also contextualise push messages unique to every user. For example, e-commerce companies can provide personalised recommendations and suggestions based on user’s previous purchase history, products viewed or liked as well as currently trending products so as to improve the likelihood of a purchase and enhance customer satisfaction.
Create Value
As users spend more and more time in front of screens, collecting, correlating and analysing data from each interaction is key to transforming user experience. Although most user behaviour is predictable, sometimes users also behave in unexpected ways that need special attention. One of the main reasons why users leave a website or delete an app is because of poor user experience elements. If a form field is taking too much time, the navigation is poor, or if the search is not intuitive, the chances of dropout are higher.
Big data plays an extremely important role in offering satisfying interactions that can benefit both customers and the business. Do you know? The revenue impact from a 10% improvement in user experience can translate into more than $1 billion in revenue. No matter how the data is processed, the end goal is to better understand users and their behaviours – specifically what users do today points to what their wants, needs, and desires will be tomorrow. Once we understand what users are looking for, we’ll be in a better position to improve user experience design and provide the right content or interaction at the right time. If done well, we can boost overall effectiveness and drive business value.
