How can marketers help designers in building mobile UX designs? What principles can these two professions share?
At first glance, you might think that being a marketer and a UX designer fall on different ends of the spectrum. However, there are certain principles that you as a marketer can learn, the same way that you can share your best practices. By doing so, your team can create a mobile UX design that promotes functionality and beauty.
Before we move on further, did you know that there are approximately 3.5 Billion smartphone users globally? And as always, it is expected to grow every year. Do you wonder how many potential customers you will lose by not focusing on your mobile UX design? Just let that sink in for a moment.
What is Mobile UX design?
Let’s briefly describe first what a mobile UX design is. It simply refers to the user experience design on smaller devices. This includes tablets, smartphones, hybrids, and other wearables.
Now, the approach must be slightly different when doing mobile UX design vs UX design on big screens. While the core principles and techniques are the same, bigger screens can house more content and icons. If you do the same on mobile devices, it can look cluttered and it’s harder to use.
Mobile UX Design Tips for Marketers
The question is, as a marketer, what principles and tips should you learn and share with your mobile UX designer?
Research is the Key
Marketing heavily relies on research. You have to understand your market, and you need to leave your personal biases in creating a strategy. The same goes when creating a mobile UX design. Your market will dictate how it should be. The look, the feel, and even the sequence must be according to your market’s preference. There are different ways to obtain market information. You can use surveys, current data, testing, and focus group discussion.
Do not skip this phase and highlight it to your mobile UX designer. This can save everyone time, money, and effort. Without research, your mobile UX designer might complete the tasks without proper foundation and direction. Simply put, you need to make the design market focused.
Using the Right Copy
As someone who does marketing, writing a copy is also essential. It’s your job to write persuasively or to lead your audience in the right direction. That same concept can be used for UX design.
Although you need to be careful. Most traditional marketing collaterals require lengthy copy or words. For mobile UX design, you need to be concise. It has to use the fewest words possible considering the size of the screen.
Also, marketing, in general, is not just about selling your products or services. It’s about educating your market. And that’s what you need to do with your mobile UX design. It has to teach your users which steps they need to take.
Using the Right Typeface
Now that you are done with the texts, don’t forget the typeface or font style. It is important that the words are easy to read even on mobile devices. Roboto or something similar can do the job. You might want to send samples to your mobile UX designer to cut down the project time.
Highlight the Company Objectives
It is a must that you explain the core objectives of your company. This could give your mobile UX designer an idea about the design and what type of techniques to use.
Are you trying to improve brand awareness?
Do you want to get more information about your leads?
Or would you like to generate sales?
Know that these things have different marketing approaches and the same thing applies to mobile UX design.
Images
Images are good for mobile UX design. It can definitely inspire and influence users. But you have to remind your designer about the proper use of these images. If possible, provide them the finalized texts or copy for each page. That way, the UX designer can choose the most appropriate images. This can also avoid confusion among your users.
In addition, tell them not to overkill the design by visual effects. That strategy might work for UX design on bigger screens. But for smaller ones, it could be a pain to look at. Chances are, your users will leave your page or app.
Sizes and Spacing of the Buttons
Since we are focusing on mobile UX design, being ‘thumb-friendly’ is crucial. You want your users to be able to easily click whatever button they choose. Again, we will go back to testing. We recommend that you choose a group that is outside of your organization. Why? Because we want to eliminate biases. Let them use the app for a period of time. Ask them about their observations and even the challenges and glitches they experienced.
Accessibility
And lastly, always remember that a part of your market might need assistance. For example, some of your users are color-blind or they are constantly multi-tasking. If this is the case, you can add a voice command feature in your mobile UX design.
So you see, marketers are used to having a detailed plan. It includes the schedules, what needs to be done, and its specifications. You can do the same when working with a mobile UX designer. Create a file that has everything that can help them create an effective design. Include the market research, the notes, and even some inspiration.
Effects of Good Mobile UX Design
Wondering how a well-thought-out design can affect your audience?
- Gives an impression of your brand’s quality and industry-standing.
- It creates not just instant attraction but also a long-lasting impact.
- Improves overall customer satisfaction.
We couldn’t stress this enough but your mobile UX design must be grounded on what the market wants. It is created for them and your main intent is to make their experience as seamless as possible. That’s how you are going to build a reputation and eventually earn profits.
Conclusion
A great UX designer knows how to use other industry tactics to make a design even more effective. And since you already know the foundation of marketing, use that to your team’s advantage. Share your data and your research so that your mobile UX design can work best for the market.
