This is a sample from a content marketing project for Chisel Design. Chisel’s owner wanted to increase awareness on LinkedIn and build thought leadership on branding and effective design.
I was hired to write four articles that would convey Chisel’s philosophy concisely, giving readers a sense of the benefits of a strategic partnership—especially small businesses who thought branding was too expensive and complex for them. This was the first of the series.
Four Ways Customer-Oriented Design Makes
Your Business Stand Out
Imagine an online business interaction so satisfying that you told your friends, “I found just the solution I was looking for! It was quick, easy, and enjoyable. I trust them, and I’m going back.”
That’s a rare experience indeed, one that was likely the result of customer-orientated design.
Good design places the customer at the center of the process and engages them in every interaction with your company, whether in print, digital, or face-to-face, and across all stages of your relationship, from awareness to purchase to loyalty.
I’ll suggest four ways customer-oriented design leads to a positive user experience.
1. Customer-Oriented Design “Gets” The User
As we say at Chisel Design, “good design starts by understanding the true needs of your users and how your solution is going to apply to their world.” The customer’s context and concerns should drive your design process.
Before design even begins, it’s critical to know who the users are, what problems they want to solve, and how they will be interacting with your product.
Why do they need your product? What frustrates them?
What are their habits and personalities?
What are their expectations? What would please them?
Becoming a credible guide begins with empathy for your customers and how they’ll engage with your product. Ideally, a visitor to your website quickly perceives, “They understand my problem. They know what I’m after.”
2. Customer-Oriented Design has a Clear and Focused Message
Good design, because it begins with understanding the customer, clearly and concisely conveys that your business is special and different—that you uniquely solve a problem or fulfill a need.
Design that emphasizes your company’s ten different services, eight technical features, and dozen core values with verbose and crowded copy is likely to bury your unique value proposition and leave a visitor to your website asking, “what does this company actually do?”
Remember: customers don’t read scan websites and emails, they scan them. Can visitors to your site know what you solve as soon as they arrive without having to scroll? Does what they see intrigue them to stay and learn more?
3. Customer-Oriented Design Creates Ease of Use
Steve Jobs once said: “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
If your product or service is more web-based, then a simple, user-friendly design is indispensable. Good design makes customer interaction easy, eliminating unnecessary mental effort.
When customers can’t access or even understand your services due to a complex website that asks too much of them, they’ll move on with a lingering negative impression.
A pretty design may briefly get attention. But a great design makes your customer feel understood and comfortable. They want to come back.
With the overwhelming number of apps and services competing for attention, ease of use is a major differentiator. Simplicity is key. By adding more services and features, usability is often compromised.
4. Customer-Oriented Design Creates an Appealing Visual Identity
If brand identity is the personality of your business, visual identity is the visible representation of that personality, from the design of your website to the look and layout of physical stores, your logo, color palette, animations, icons, typography, and imagery.
Poorly designed visual identity confuses customers with disjointed graphical elements and vague or verbose content messaging. The user is left wondering if they have been bounced to another company’s site.
Even the prettiest designs cannot overcome the damage done by negative customer experience or a disorganized message and navigation.
Customer-oriented visual identity uses consistent elements across all pages and channels. It is recognizable, memorable, and enjoyable, serving as an elegant map: having a beauty that is simple, clear, and attractive.
Seamless Strategy, Positive Customer Experience
Taken together, design that understands your customer, conveys a clear message, is easy to use, and presents an appealing visual identity unifies your messaging and aligns all your branding and marketing strategies seamlessly.
And most of all, such good design produces positive experiences for your customers.
Even if your business is small, you can get your design strategy in order with a modest budget. Your product or service will be more recognizable and memorable, helping you build customer relationships from browsers into buyers, ambassadors, and return customers.