Everyone knows the generic values of UX design like function, intuitiveness, aesthetics and so on. All these need to be in place. But in order to craft genuinely rewarding customer journeys (for both the customer and the brand) the creative needs to add real value to the customer experience. That can only happen if the creative team then consider the ‘specific’ customer values of the design.

The ‘Specific values’ are concerned with the target audience and is what will enable you to develop a more personal experience and the parameters to flex the proposition as the journey develops. Design needs to add value. Which means it doesn’t just do the job and say the right things and look the part, the customer’s experience of the function and the brand has to be genuinely better. Which means we need to understand what ‘better’ really means to our customers

The designer needs to understand the customer and segmentation. They need to understand different customer profiles, different mindsets. We need to understand who the different target audiences are, segmentation within those and then be able to tailor propositions, messaging and journeys appropriately. They need to understand what turns them on, and what turns them off. We also need to understand that different people have different drivers. And these drivers can leap frog each other for dominance depending on what’s happening in their lives. And because human beings aren’t machines and while segmentation is useful to us, we have to remain mindful that it’s still dealing in generalised terms, it can leave holes for real, actual individual people – holes we need to be able to fill.  So our UX and content strategies need to account for different rational and emotional drivers. If you want customers to traverse your website to get to the point you want them to an dto read your content, returned, share or link to it, the journey had better speak to the customer on a deeper need based level. It’s important to remember that when a customer shares your content in their circles, they aren’t doing so to build your brand, they are building theirs.

More specifically great design will satisfy a users needs, calm their fears and support and reassure them throughout the journey. It’s enabling.