With the advancement of technology over the last few years, there has been a paradigm shift in the online market sector.  Due to digitalization especially after COVID-19, UI, UX, and CX are the three most talked about jargon that are often used interchangeably when it comes to the online business environment. 

What is UI? 

User interface refers to the point where a human user tends to interact with a computer, website, or app. The main aim of a UI is to enhance customer satisfaction. A well-designed UI helps to facilitate effective interactivity between users and the application, program, and machine with the use of attractive visuals, clean designs, and better responsiveness. 

Anything that a user interacts with or has an appeal to human senses (touch, sight, auditory) can be considered as a part of the UI. It may include input devices such as a mouse, keyboard, microphone, trackpad, fingerprint scanner, touch screen, camera, and e-pen. Furthermore, it may also include output devices such as printers, speakers, and monitors. Devices that tend to interact with multiple senses are known as “multimedia user interfaces”. For instance – a UI uses a combination of an input (mouse and keyboard) along with a visual and auditory output (speakers and monitor) on a daily basis. 

The UI designer should consider the structural aspects of an application or website such as the white space and color contrast that tends to enhance the usability and readability from the user end. Additionally, the designer should also ensure that the illustrations and design of the websites or applications are compatible across multiple platforms.

Say for example, in a digital commerce platform, you browse through the virtual product racks; then select add the product to the cart, and then move on to the checkout finishing by completing the payment. Throughout the process you are interacting with the platform, interfacing with it; that is the significance of a good user interface.

Read more: How to Personalize the E-commerce Customer Journey To Boost Sales?

The role of a web or mobile app UI designer is to design an interface that ensures smooth communication with the customers. A user-friendly UI Design ensures that the interaction between the customers and the brand remains as seamless as possible, enhancing their experience on the platform, which brings us to the importance of user experience.

What is UX? 

UX or user experience can be defined as the interaction between the end-user and the brand encompassing all aspects of the latter, including its products and services. User experience mainly focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they value, what they need, their abilities, and their limitations. A good UX design of a website or app ensures that the product or service is optimized appropriately for customers’ complete satisfaction. It is responsible for the overall experience that an end-user has in terms of usability. 

There are several factors that a UX designer needs to consider while building an e-commerce app or website. 

• It starts with research for understanding the user requirements via surveys, use case assessment, and development of user personas to get a grip on the customer perspective. This is followed by drafting the user journey map to nail a great user experience.
• The research is followed by drafting the step-by-step user flow through the UI and sketching the wireframe which is the blueprint of the interface, defining all the key components for an overall better user experience. 
• The next stage is that of implementing what has transpired in the former stages, which involves frontend and backend development of the app/website. This is the prototype stage.
• In the final stage of the e-commerce app/website design, the usability and efficacy of the platform in delivering customer satisfaction are tested.

UX design is the culmination of all these stages, which includes UI design and implementation. User experience ensures a seamless brand exploration journey for the customers, starting from visiting the platform, browsing, choosing the product, and checking out to order confirmation, delivery, and customer support services. It is a continuous process that keeps evolving to ensure a stellar user experience.

A UX web designer is tasked with the role of aiding the users/customers in fulfilling their goals and solving any problem that crops up the way of the same. This makes the user experience the fundamental marketing concept for brands seeking growth in their respective domains.

Now let us look into top UX/UI design trends –

• Dark mode 

As one tends to spend more time in front of our laptops and mobile devices, dark mode tends to play a vital role in the overall user experience. It not only gives a stylish, elegant, and modern look but is also soothing to the eyes. This is because dark mode emits less blue light, which tends to reduce dry eyes and eye fatigue, especially in low-light conditions. Furthermore, dark mode is better in terms of the readability of text.

• Use of Animations

Innovative UI animations help to improve overall brand recognition and create a strong brand image. This is because animated content is more likely to be remembered by the customers than static content. Animations tend to create a more emotional connection with the viewer, leading to better recall.

• Bold Typography

Bold typography especially for landing pages and microsites can be considered one of the easiest ways to grab users’ attention. This UI Design tends to stand out from the rest of the content and demands to be read. However, designers should also consider the overall aesthetics of the page. Some of the best examples of bold typography usage are the landing pages of Dropbox, Nike, and Drift. 

What is the customer experience?

CX or customer experience can be considered as the sum total of all interactions that a customer tends to have with a brand.  It refers to how a business organization tends to interact with its customers at each and every point throughout their buying journey – from promotion to selling to customer service.

CX can be impacted by multiple experiences at different points in time with the same brand. It combines all brand experiences across all channels of customer engagement. Customer experience has a more holistic approach that transcends the online experience into physical store customer engagements. The best way a brand can ensure stellar customer experience in online marketing is by assessing and optimizing each customer touchpoint to maximize the likelihood of customer satisfaction with the help of good CX Design.

According to recent data, in the year 2021, the global revenue of the customer experience personalization and optimization software and services industry was estimated at 7.6 billion U.S. dollars in the year 2021 and is expected to increase to 11.6 billion by 2026. 

Why customer experience is important?

In today’s competitive business environment, as products tend to become more and more commoditized, good CX plays an important role that sets a brand apart from its competitors more than specific product features and functions. A customer tends to go through various touchpoints while interacting with a business organization. At every customer touchpoint, a company can improve or destroy customers’ feelings towards their brand.

As a result, the best way by which a business organization can ensure stellar customer experience in e-commerce is by assessing and optimizing each customer touchpoint to maximize the likelihood of customer satisfaction. They must deliver personalized and pleasing interactions at every customer touchpoint. These interactions then go on to have a positive cumulative effect on their customers’ overall perception and impression of the brand.

The 5 reasons why customer experience is important- 

1. Good customer experience helps to improve revenue

A small but impactful act of taking feedback from the clients and then using that information to improve overall customer service goes on to make a big difference in a business organization. You must be wondering how. Providing a good customer experience helps to improve customer loyalty. When a customer is satisfied and happy, he or she tends to come back for more products and services from the same brand. This will help to boost the overall profits of the business organization. As per the latest data mentioned in Times Of India, increasing customer retention by 5% tends to boost overall profit by 25%. 

In addition, loyal customers also help to spread positive word of mouth for a brand and organization which will help them gain new customers. All these help to make a significant positive impact on the overall revenue of a business organization. 

2. Good customer experience gives a competitive advantage

Excellent customer experience can be considered one of the most important ways that help a company set itself apart from its competitors. A customer decides if he or she will return to a particular company or brand based on their earlier encounter.

This shows that positive customer interactions are essential for the overall growth of the company.  Business organizations should make sure that any customer problem should be solved in the first interaction itself. This will create a positive image for the company in the eyes of its customers.  In addition, providing good customer service also helps in overall customer retention. 

3. Establish good brand awareness with an excellent customer experience

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is.” —Scott Cook, Co-founder of Intuit and a director of eBay and Proctor & Gamble. 

Creating and delivering high-quality goods and services is not enough in today’s competitive age. The importance of a positive customer experience cannot be denied.

Brand identity is created when there is a positive customer experience from the previous brand encounter. It can be something as simple as recognizing your brand logo or hearing positive word of mouth about your brand from new customer groups. Say, for example, the number of stars or positive customer feedback helps to create greater brand awareness.

4. Quality customer experience helps to reduce overall customer acquisition cost 

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) refers to the cost that a business tends to incur in order to acquire a new customer base with the help of advertising and marketing costs, sales commissions, and other related costs. Business organizations can reduce the overall customer acquisition cost (CAC) by focusing more on the customer experience. By improving customer experience, business organizations can increase customer retention and referrals which in turn helps to reduce overall marketing and advertising expenses to attract new customers. For instance, a company provides various loyalty programs that reward customers for their repeated purchases. 

So by providing various personalized offers, discounts, and incentives, the company encourages customer retention by encouraging them to continue shopping with them. This will help reduce the overall money spent on advertising and marketing campaigns in order to gain new customers. This in turn will help to reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) and improve the overall profitability of the business organizations. 

5. Good customer experience helps in upselling

In simple layman’s terms, upselling refers to the high-priced add-ons that are offered to customers while buying a product. To give an example a business venture can add a warranty along with any electronic products, or they can introduce a costlier mobile phone with a bigger screen, better quality camera, and upgraded features.

When a business organization tends to deliver a good customer experience, it becomes easier for them to upsell in front of their target and potential customer base and increase overall sales. This is because trust is built between customer and client with quality customer service experience. If a customer feels that he or she has been treated well by a business organization in the past, there is a higher possibility that they might also explore the additional services that the business organization offers.  

How Does UI, UX, and CX Impact Digital Commerce?

UI, UX, and CX might have varied insinuations but all three are closely related from a digital commerce or online marketing perspective. They converge to help improve consumer interaction and engagement.

To put it in simple words, a poor UI leads to a poor user experience, which negatively impacts the overall customer experience (CX) of the brand. So, business organizations should focus on creating an engaging customer experience with the help of smart  UI, UX designs, and good marketing strategies. 

Read more: What is Omnichannel Customer Experience and Why Should You Do It?

Note: This is a repurpose blog with new update added.

Wrapping up

UI, UX, and CX are the irrefutable tri-facta of the Digital Age brand marketing. Unless you understand the difference and interdependence of user interface, user experience, and customer experience, you cannot devise a compact marketing plan for the growth and visibility of your brands across all platforms. 
As a result, it is very important for a business organization to hire experienced web developers. Skilled web app engineers can use the latest technologies to develop custom web applications with a good UI-UX design that can run on different operating systems.