Data-Driven Design: personalizing design based on user data
A commonly heard phrase is, “designers are not users”. It’s often used to point out that a successful website, platform, or app requires more than an excellent idea and a skilled team, it requires a clear understanding of whom the product’s users will be. That understanding comes from data – information about the target users’ pain points, attitudes, goals, and expectations. Only then can the product and user experience be tailored – and even personalized – to the user’s needs. This principle can be applied more broadly. Just as designers are not users, marketers are not customers. The key to customer engagement – both before conversion and throughout the customer life cycle – is a data-driven understanding of who the user/customer is. Read on for more on data-driven design and how the personalization of products and marketing strategies can impact your business.
Table of contents
What is data-driven design?
The simplest definition of data-driven design is that it involves making design decisions based on data and information about the target users rather than just the designer’s personal insight, skills, and experience (not that those aren’t highly valuable, they are!).
This commitment means carrying out research with a variety of data-gathering methods that connect with potential users; such as interviews, surveys, usability testing, feedback, etc.
Data-driven design uses:
- Data to better understand user needs and preferences.
- A process of design hypotheses, prototypes, and testing.
- User feedback to hone the product.
- Data and information to justify design decisions.
For examples of Boldare’s successful design projects based on research and data, check out our YOUCAT daily app case study.
Often, digital products are key to providing personalized customer experiences. Using data to personalize those experiences is a core element of many businesses marketing strategies, using data to deliver tailored content, offers, and recommendations to existing and potential customers. This philosophy of ‘the right content delivered to the right person at the right time’ engages on a personal level, elevating the customer experience which, in turn, drives further sales and business.
To illustrate, take a look at these results from a focused survey by consulting firm Invesp:
- 87% of marketers stated that data is their company’s most under-utilized asset.
- 40% of brands plan to increase their budgets for data-driven marketing.
- Using data-driven marketing strategies result in five to eight times more ROI.
Add to this Salesforce research that found two-thirds of customers now expect you to understand their unique needs and expectations, and just over half expect offers to be tailored to their individual preferences. The case for data-driven design becomes clear for both designers and marketing specialists.
Data-driven personalization
So, just how can the customer experience be personalized using data-driven design and insights? Personalization can be done according to three broad perspectives:
- Location – depending on geographical location; e.g. having distinct websites or portals according to the customer’s country or territory.
- Role – targeting groups of customers with common characteristics, motivations or personal interests.
- Individual – content is tailored for individual customers; e.g. product or service recommendations based on the customer’s previous buying/browsing/viewing history.
As we can see, in all three categories of data-driven personalization, digital products are central to the process.
NOTE: Personalization is different to customization. Customization is offering the user or customer the option to change elements of their experience to suit their own preferences. Personalization is the business adjusting the experience based on customer data.
Data sources used for data-driven UX design
All of this begs the question: if data is (or should be) at the heart of design processes and marketing strategies, where does the data come from? How do you find it? From a design perspective, sources of user data are well-established.
Quantitative data (concrete numbers and statistics) can be gathered via:
- Analytics data – page views, clicks, bounce rates (perhaps the best-known source is Google Analytics).
- Heat maps – showing where users are clicking on your website or platform.
- Usage data – by monitoring user interactions, you can see how people navigate a website, which features are most used, etc.
- A/B testing – offering two alternative design options to groups of users and comparing reactions.
- Usability testing – various options for testing product versions with users.
On the other hand, qualitative data (subjective responses which offer potentially deeper insights into user behavior) can be gathered via:
- Surveys – using questionnaires or similar to gather written input from users.
- Interviews – face-to-face, usually one-to-one discussions of user experience; again, often questionnaire-based.
- Focus groups – similar to interviews but with groups of user representatives; with the potential for group discussions to produce wider and/or deeper insights.
However it is obtained, the key here is to gather feedback from users on their product experience.
Meanwhile, if the focus is on personalization of marketing efforts – often achieved through specific design choices and features – additional data-gathering efforts may focus on:
- Customer demographics – What are your customers’ key characteristics? This includes age, gender, location, socio-economic status, etc. (This type of data will also form part of establishing user personas during the process of product design).
- Past purchase history – What products or services has the customer previously bought? From this data, the customer’s preferences and buying patterns can be determined, leading to tailored recommendations for the future.
- Social media activity – A customer’s interactions on social media platforms (who or what they follow, like and engage with) offers rich data possibilities; including their preferences from specific types of content or product/service.
Utilizing these data sources can result in greater insights into user and customer journeys with your products and business. This allows for user-centric design and, by extension, a more personalized customer experience.
The benefits of data-driven user experience
Data-driven user experience drives sales, improves conversion rates, and enhances customer loyalty. More specifically:
- Increased value – Product design based on data results in greater value to users due to their improved relevance and usefulness.
- Better and faster decision-making – During the design and product development process, decisions are informed by gathered data and facts, reducing the risk of basing the work on unproven assumptions.
- Better UX – End products are closely aligned with users’ problems/pain points and preferences.
- Successful innovation – Data can be used to drive innovation, keeping new and bold solutions rooted in actual user and customer needs and desires.
- Better risk management – Design decisions based on validated data and evidence, with the final product a result of testing responses to prototypes and/or minimum viable products, helps avoid design dead ends or even the risk of creating a product no one wants.
- Continuous improvement – Establishing a data-driven approach to both design and marketing means a regular influx of updated information which can be used to drive further iterations and improvements to both products and services; thus increasing product longevity and long-term customer engagement.
- Overall improved customer experience – Personalization gives each customer a unique experience, with individualized messaging and offers according to their own preferences and needs. Customers that feel understood and appreciated as individuals will show greater brand loyalty and engagement.
- Increased conversion rates – A personalized experience encourages purchase decisions, boosting conversion rates and revenue.
- Increased retention rates – Customers that feel understood will stick with the brand and business that understands them because their needs and preferences are being met.
- Improved customer journey – Data-driven personalization results in a customer journey that feels seamless and natural, taking the customer from one touchpoint to the next.
Data-driven personalization – a partnership between designers and marketers, driven by developers
It is clear that personalized marketing strategies rely on a range of players in the digital product realm. First, the developers who code the platforms, websites and apps used to gather the data to provide individual customer experiences. Product designers and UX/UI designers are more directly involved with their longer-term focus on digital products, using the gathered data for continuous improvement of the user experience. Then, there are product owners who drive development from a ‘How can I improve my product and improve sales?’ perspective. In turn, this links to roles such as marketing managers and product strategists, looking at increasing market coverage and ensuring profitability.
In a nutshell, data-driven design results in a personalized user experience and can be used to facilitate personalized marketing, which leads to better engagement and increased conversion rates. Whether it’s segmenting the market, personalizing campaigns and forecasting trends, or tailoring products and user experiences, data-driven insights are invaluable for the whole business.
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