\
Skip to Content
Enter
Skip to Menu
Enter
Skip to Footer
Enter

3 UX PRINCIPLES to INCREASE USER ENGAGEMENT

Product Performance SERIES

Even the most talented development teams can find themselves pouring time and money into products that never reach their full potential.

Why? Because without a strong user experience UX foundation that properly guides users, you risk building something that customers find confusing, frustrating, or simply irrelevant.

In this series we explore the principles that increase user engagement and reduce customer frustration.

"Poor onboarding ranks as the third leading cause of user churn, surpassed only by issues related to poor product fit and lack of engagement."*

UX GUIDANCE PRINCIPLES

Guiding users effectively is the secret sauce to crafting exceptional user experiences and boosting product performance. It’s the antidote to user friction and the catalyst for usability and retention. When we equip our customers with clear directions and intuitive cues, we’re empowering them to sail smoothly through our product’s interface.

This effortless navigation is the key to unlocking higher conversion rates and cementing brand loyalty, ultimately driving sales and revenues.

But how do we achieve this? The answer lies in our three guiding principles:

Directed Choice:

Directed Choice is essentially “silent” instruction with your customers.

Directed Choice

Directed Choice is essentially “silent” instruction with your customers. It’s a strategy that guides users towards desired goals without being overly directive. This approach enhances product performance by making crucial next steps clear and intuitive.

We achieve this by streamlining choices and highlighting preferred paths, thereby boosting sales and efficiency.

Ask your team the following questions:

  • Do We Have Obvious Next Steps? Our users always know the next step on our platform to accomplish their goal. Buttons and calls-to-action make the desired activity very clear.
  • Do We Maintain Consistent Navigation and Wayfinding? Our users can easily find what they are looking for on our platform. The navigation menus and buttons are clear and intuitive, and the layout is consistent across all pages.
  • Are we Using Clear Language? We use simple and straightforward language throughout the UI to help ensure users understand what they need to do without confusion or ambiguity.
Want to learn more about how to drive engagement through Directed Choice? Click Here.

A good user experience ensures that users always know what their next step should be to accomplish their goals. Designing obvious next steps and clear calls-to-action is critical to ensuring a great user experience. Here are some tips to achieve this:

DIRECTED CHOICE FIRST STEPS:

DIRECTED CHOICE NEXT STEPS:

Visual Enhancement:

Incorporating visuals like icons, illustrations, or even straightforward photography can significantly enhance your CTAs and indicate the value of the offer. This strategy, while requiring a medium level of effort, can lead to a substantial impact on your user engagement and conversion rates.

Motivating Messaging:

Use specific, urgent, motivating, non-committal, and personalized messaging that speaks directly to your target audience. Use a button or link label that starts with a verb to indicate action and encourage visitors to take the desired action. Instead of “Buy Now,"  use “Claim Your Spot Before They’re Gone.”.

DIRECTED CHOICE ADVANCED STEPS:

Sequential and Logical Steps:

Tackling complex tasks can often feel overwhelming for users. However, by breaking these tasks down into smaller, sequential, and logical steps, we can significantly enhance the user experience. This approach, while requiring a complex effort, can have a high impact on your product’s performance and customer satisfaction.

Incremental Engagement

For newcomers, we advocate for incremental engagement. This strategy gradually reveals content to visitors as they seek more information. Pages appear clean and simple at first glance, enhancing reliability and durability. We determine what the visitor should see first and what interaction is most important on the page, then gently unfold secondary and tertiary content. This data-driven approach maximizes user engagement through careful analysis of key metrics.

Ask your team the following questions:

  • Do We Progressively Onboard? We provide a guided journey for new users, introducing features and functionalities at a comfortable pace. We gradually introduce advanced features as users become more familiar with our product.
Want to learn more about how to drive engagement through Incremental Engagement? Click Here.

Incremental Engagement:

This strategy gradually reveals content to visitors as they seek more information.

The more personalized the experience for visitors, the higher the engagement. This can be achieved by delivering the right content to the right visitor at the right time in their journey, essentially setting new benchmarks for user engagement. To achieve this, you can follow these steps:

Personalized Experiences FIRST STEPS:

Define User Profiles:

The first step is to clearly determine the specific target audience’s goals, motivations, and pain points through a proper customer journey workshop and user flow. Just having the knowledge of your users clearly defined, along with their specifications, will improve your ability to deliver higher value.

Personalized Experiences NEXT STEPS:

Design Tailored Dashboards:

Design tailored dashboards for each persona that highlight the features and content that are most relevant to their goals and needs. This will help them quickly find what they need and get started on their tasks, effectively benchmarking their journey.

Provide Hyper-Relevant Actionable Insights:

Introduce actionable insights to guide users who are getting acquainted with the product. You can do this using contextual guidance or actionable product guides, tailored to the specifications of each user.

Personalized Experiences ADVANCED STEPS:

Personalized Workflows:

Use personalized workflows for each persona that guide them through the process of achieving their goals. These workflows should be intuitive and easy to follow, providing clear direction for users who are unsure of where to begin. This not only enhances the user experience but also sets a new benchmark for user engagement.

Personalized Experiences:

Personalized experiences are all about speaking directly to an audience’s needs.

Personalized Experiences

Personalized experiences are all about speaking directly to an audience’s needs. By tailoring experiences and removing unnecessary details or information, we can drive significant results. This approach not only improves product performance but also enhances quality and customer satisfaction.

Ask your team the following questions:

  • Do We Focus on Audience-Based Dashboards and Workflows? We understand that the unique goals and needs of personas within our software and experience are not one-size-fits-all. We address the needs of different audiences and provide a direction for users who are unsure of where to begin.
  • Do We Provide Personalized Insights? Our product promotes personalized insights, which are key findings or recommendations that can guide decision-making and drive business growth.
Want to learn more about how to drive engagement through Personalized Experiences? Click Here.

Progressive onboarding is the process of gradually exposing users to advanced features and functionality as they become more familiar with the software. This is especially important for onboarding processes, where users need to quickly learn the basics of how to use the software.

Incremental Engagement FIRST STEPS:

Provide a starting point:

Provide a starting point for users who are unsure of where to begin. This might be a dashboard or workflow that is tailored to their persona or a tutorial that walks them through the basics.

Simplicity at First Sight:

The initial interface is clean and uncluttered, focusing on core features to avoid overwhelming new users.

Set clear goals and objectives:

Give users clear goals and objectives to work towards, helping them stay focused and motivated.

Incremental Engagement NEXT STEPS:

Provide clear guidance:

Offer clear instructions and guidance on how to use advanced features and functionality as they become available. Use tooltips, pop-ups, or videos to explain new features and how to use them effectively. Provide contextual help and support for advanced features and functionality, so users can quickly get the help they need when they need it. This can include contextual help buttons or supportive chat.

Milestone Recognition:

The software acknowledges when users reach certain milestones, such as completing a tutorial or successfully using an advanced feature. This can motivate users to continue exploring and learning.

Incremental Engagement ADVANCED STEPS:

Gradually expose users to advanced features:

Introduce advanced features and functionality gradually, as users become more comfortable with the basics, to avoid overwhelming them. This can be done by unlocking features or providing in-app tutorials as users progress.

Gradually expose users to advanced features:

Enable users to customize their level of access to advanced features and functionality based on their needs and preferences. Provide customizable settings that allow users to turn off features they don't need or adjust the software's behavior to match their workflow.

These principles are not just strategies; they are the building blocks for creating a product that performs well and resonates with users.They are the keys to unlocking superior product performance, improving the user experience and customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, driving sales.Boost your product performance with a free audit from Toolbox No. 9.

Our team’s expertise in direct choice, personalized experiences, and incremental engagement can help enhance your user experience and drive sales. Leverage our skills in analytics and metrics to make data-driven decisions.

ScheDULE A FREE
CONSULTATION

Get a free 1 hour consultation with the Toolbox UX strategy to review your product and find the areas of highest impact to improve your product.

By using this website, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information.

Deny
Accept All