Revolutionize Your Content with Design Thinking

You’re already a genius at knowing all the juicy, enticing features about your service. Can you put yourself in your customer’s shoes first? Let’s find out!

What Is UX Validation?

UX (user experience) is how someone experiences and interacts with an app, site, product or service.

UX validation, i.e., researching every creative choice you make, is a key tool that designing a product and promoting it have in common.

Benefit One - Spend Less By Doing More Upfront Research

There is a rule of thumb in user-centered design circles. Comparatively, it only costs $10 to make a design change, but $100 to make changes once your project is in development.

Let’s apply this idea to marketing and branding.

Work with writers and marketing teams who apply empathy and design thinking as early as possible to content marketing and copywriting. The research they’ll do on your behalf is invaluable.

What research, you ask? That brings us straight to the second benefit of using design thinking!

Benefit Two - User Personas Save Time and Spark Imagination

To define your ideal customer, craft a vivid user persona with your team.

Let’s say you are thrilled about your new app, which lets people order impossibly delicious dessert crepes.

Who is your buyer? A 25 to 34 year-old woman? What if her name is Lilly, she uses GrubHub three times a week, lives on Instagram foodie accounts, listens to Spotify and works at a bridal salon?

When you create a detailed picture of, well, a fake person based on research of someone likely to use your service, she springs to life. Keep Lilly front and center when crafting content about your business.

Benefit Three - UX Validation Methods Eliminate Guesswork

Imagine that you’re prototyping your glorious foodie app.

An inexpensive way to get early feedback is to do “card sorting.” Write every element of your app on separate index cards. Ask research subjects to sort the cards into appropriate groups and then name the groups.

When you have 15 to 20 people do this, you’ll discover patterns in how most people organize information and can eventually craft written copy based on the best organization for your app. Structuring your content around what speaks to the customer is user validation at its best.

Another research method is A/B testing a web page or ad. A is the control and B is the new copy you’re testing and your user’s actions (leaving, lingering, buying something) will provide very clear user data about which works better. For more data-driven ideas, look here.

Challenge Assumptions with Evidence

With design thinking and user validation techniques in particular, you’re brushing aside assumptions about your customer and instead gathering evidence about what works. Bake that knowledge into your content creation and you’re golden!