Great experiences in User Experience at the latest 3XE Conference, May 16th event review

3XE Conference, event review

On May 16th, Croke Park’s Hogan Suite once again became filled with an array of techies and marketeers for yet another 3XE event of talks and workshops. 3XE Digital events have been running about three themed events a year since 2015 and the name has become synonymous with excellent information and learning around digital marketing. This time the theme was UX and Design Thinking, topics close to my techie heart as a designer and accessibility champion.

Appropriately, the event was compered by Colman Walsh, CEO of the UX Design Institute. As usual at these events, the #3XEDigital hashtag trended in the top two all day long.

Can we stop being so data driven

First up was Gareth Dunlop who has graced the 3XE stage a number of times as well as delivering a module in DMI’s renowned Digital Marketing diploma course. This time the Fathom CEO asked us to stop being so data driven. Gareth explained that speaking to real people and gathering human stories will teach us far more about how to look after our customers than data ever will.

UX and Marketing must team up

CEO of The UX Studio in Galway, Rachel O’Donnell, gave a thought-provoking talk on collaboration between UX and marketing teams. She suggested using “lunch & learns” as a collaboration building tool where knowledge and tips are shared and problems tackled together. User experience is constant, happening whether planned or not. We have the opportunity to control that experience and design it with empathy for the user. Rachel gave a fabulous example of a children’s MRI machine where sick children were no longer afraid to be scanned due to simple stickers that made it look like a fun adventure.

0.6 seconds is the new slow… Wait.., WHAT!?

Another interesting (and highly energetic) talk was from Jono Alderson of Yoast claiming that 0.6 seconds is the new slow when it comes to website loading times. Not sure if I’d call 0.6 seconds slow but I do agree with the statistic he presented that claims 47% of people expect a site to load in less than 2 seconds. According to a 2014 report by Radware, 20% of purchasers will abandon their cart if the transaction process is too slow.

I’ve been that cart abandoner but if we knew this back then, surely five years later we have a handle on fast checkout processes, right? Well according to Jono, no, we’re still far too slow and speed underpins user experience. Fixing speed issues overnight may not always be possible but he recommends that it’s tackled through constant tweaking. 

Call things what they are

Another highlight was the talk by Anna Potanina of Google who used pepper shakers and dating apps (not together!) to demonstrate how relying on user intuition leads to vague information and ultimately poor user experience. Call things what they are and be clear about what they do. Also, as the human eye responds to movement, she urged everyone to get rid of annoying animated carousels which can be perceived as ad banners and which irritatingly move while being read. This opinion on carousels proved popular as it set heads nodding across the packed room and launched a sizeable number of supportive tweets.

Mapping the customer journey

There were more fantastic talks throughout the day but in my opinion, the best talk was the last one, which came from Treasa Flynn, Head of Design at Matrix Internet. Treasa talked about mapping the customer journey. It’s only by understanding your customer’s journey that you can make that journey easier and therefore more likely to be repeated. Her talk was full of interesting statistics such as how it’s up to 7 times more expensive to get a new customer as to retain an old one.

Or the shocking statistic that 96% of unhappy customers do not complain. Instead, 91% of unhappy customers simply don’t return and most will tell between 9 and 15 friends of their bad experience. Treasa recommended stress testing of new offerings. To wrap up and to demonstrate exactly how all of this should be done, Treasa hilariously mapped the customer journey of a rather familiar-looking new mum named “Meghan” as she searched for the perfect baby buggy.

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