Customer Services: What You Offer Them: Digital try-on

The more technology grows and the more access we have-the more content we may add to a website. Previously, if you added too much content to your site, it would bog down the whole thing. It would be sluggish and slow. With quicker streaming, you have the opportunity to add plenty of new tools to communicate with your customers.

We can now add a video that gives us a 360-degree view. Perhaps have a woman spin in the dress so you can see how the fabric moves on her body, which will help you make the emotional connection you’re looking for.

However, the more individualized it becomes, the more interesting it becomes. As a result, we’re beginning to see the potential to make a digital version of you and see yourself wearing that clothing.

Because it’s simple, we’re starting to see it on a large scale with companies like Warby Parker and glasses. Capturing your face and putting on glasses isn’t difficult. Clothing is a little more challenging, but we’re getting close, and some exciting advancements are happening.

This allows you to see yourself in the clothing as if you were standing in front of a mirror inside the store. That, I believe, will be a game-changer. If anything, one thing I’ve noticed is that fashion moves at a breakneck speed, but in fact, we’re just going back to square one. We’re returning to a time when everything can be hyper-personalized. We can get a product and see a product that’s just for us. Technology allows us to do so in a way that we never imagined.

Customer Services: What You Offer Them: Discounts, promotions, and loyalty programs

There’s a little trick out there that many of us have used; using a different email address to get an extra discount or promo and then cancel it.
There’s something to be learned in that.
First and foremost, people love discounts. But, in reality, they want to feel like the brand is caring for them. So, the discount is more than 10% off. It’s more about this idea of “Hey, we want you to shop with us and we’re willing to give you a discount if you’re willing to spend some time with us”.
That’s an important consideration. However, that also belies the fact that we’ve become more and more product-driven.
Another way to be able to do this is through the use of loyalty programs. Now, loyalty programs are extremely important among Millennials and Gen Z shoppers. One of the reasons for that is creating a community.
So, if you have developed a loyalty program or are thinking about doing so, give your customers something back when they purchase. You’ll also be able to quickly reach out to a customer through a loyalty platform program and say “Hey, this is still in your cart. Do you want to pass this transaction?” or “just so you know, the item that you have in your cart is now 10% off because you’re a loyalty member”.
So, there are these ways that you can go about to able to get people back into a cart that they may have abandoned.

Daphne Lin Discusses the UX Design Jobs-To-Be-Done Method

The Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) method is relatively new. It’s both a theory about consumer actions and a set of tools that you can use to help you figure out why someone is using your product. You can trace its roots to marketing.

Jobs-To-Be-Done History

The primary story that’s told about JTBD is that there were two researchers who were trying to improve sales of milkshakes. They basically had customer segmentation down, but they still couldn’t figure out how to improve sales.

As we often see in UX design, they tried an observational and feedback approach. They went into stores and watched people use and buy milkshakes. They figured out that people were buying milkshakes as a breakfast item that would help them during their commute. A milkshake would conveniently fit in one hand as they were driving to work or other locations.

It was an “aha moment” for these marketers because they realized that it’s not really your age that contributes to why you buy milkshakes… it’s your situation.

Online UX Design Education

As these marketers discovered, you can learn a great deal about user experiences during your UX studies, whether you’re working on an early UI design, UI prototype or merely trying to better understand a target market, by using a Jobs-To-Be-Done perspective. You merely need to find out more information about the job or task that members of a target market believe a particular product can complete for them.

Designing a Tone and Feel That Match the Brand

When it comes to the brand Islam, it’s important to keep in mind that the brand is not necessarily just the visuals. Really, it’s the entire feeling that you get when you deal with the company. This is typically the way that brands strive to present themselves.

When you’re designing a website, an app or a product, you’re often subconsciously creating something that is an extension of the brand it’s under. Because of this, you have to be keeping in mind what that brand stands for and how that brand wants to be represented. You also have to consider how the brand wants to communicate with users, and all of these things go into creating a continuation of that brand in a digital format.

Let’s say you’re working with a brand that’s relatively quiet or minimalist. In this case, you want to ensure that what you’re designing carries on that same kind of feeling. Whereas if you’re working with a brand that’s louder and more boisterous, you’ll want to ensure the design feels more like that instead. Basically, you want to be sure that what you’re designing fits what the brand is trying to do and communicates in the same way that the brand chooses to communicate with its users and other formats.

To learn more about having your design appropriately match the brand, as well as many other concepts involving UI, UX, UI design and UX design, consider trying out online UX design education. This way, you can access valuable lessons and information without needing the same level of available time and resources that you’d need for an in-person education.

Designing the Site: Copy: Written Content

Designing your website and the written content thereon is extremely important for the success of your ecommerce business.
When a customer buys from you online, they don’t really have a reason to trust you, especially if they’re a first-time buyer. With the visual content on your website, the language you use, and the content you produce, you can create a sense of trust to make it easier for customers to make the leap to buy from you.
So, what is the importance of content design as compared to the actual text on your ecommerce website? Understand that writing is essential to ecommerce. People tend to emphasize the visual content, especially if they work with design a lot. Visual content is important, but you can’t forget about writing.
Where you place the text depends on how easy it is for someone to quickly get information or not. One of the biggest components is knowing when to put more text on a page, but not too much.
If the images are center stage, you might have less text to keep the webpage from crowding or looking too busy. You might need to develop a separate webpage where there’s more text about the product that the customer needs to know.
You don’t have to hire a bunch of specialists to write everything for you. Consciously think about what you write, where you put it, and how it represents your products on your e-commerce store, as well as on social media and any other place where you put your content.
You also want to make sure there are no spelling mistakes or inconsistencies. If these items exist in your content, it can subconsciously create a feeling in your customers that your ecommerce website cannot be trusted. Having another person read and review your content can catch some of these items for you.

Designing the Site: Images: Images, Images, Images

What is it that makes e-tail design meaningful? It’s about how you use images and how you place them so that the customer who visits your site understands what you want them to feel and do. How do you want them to interact with your brand? Think of e-tail design as the flagship of your company. Even if you were only on an e-commerce platform, it’s still the flagship of your brand because everyone has access to it.
So, how do you use images to evoke a feeling? What types of images do you want to have? Even if it’s only a single shot of the product, that shot of the product needs to be so beautifully done that it compels the buyer to click and transact with you. Or, if you want to use people, how does your image represent how your brand views the community as a whole or to your shoppers? So, it’s really important how you think about the image.
The next thing is to understand how you want those images placed on the page. One important aspect you’ll learn about is the symmetry and balance of the actual website pages. How do you want the customer to navigate through each page? Do you want your customer to view an ad campaign upon their first visit to your website? Do you want to ask them for their email from the moment they click on your website?
You really have to think about the design of what your e-tail business will look like. All these factors play important roles to ensure your success.

Designing the Site: Layout & Navigation: Wireframing

Why is it necessary to first build the skeleton of your website using wireframing? One reason is that we expect all websites to conform to a certain standard. Maybe, the menu bar is always on the top left, and the search magnifying glass is always on the top right.
If you disrupt this, you also disrupt how the user navigates your site. You don’t want to deviate from how everyone uses a website because it becomes frustrating for the customer. By conforming to existing standards on your site, you make it easier for your customers to navigate your site and buy your products.
Wireframing is a process that we use at the beginning when designing a website. A wireframe is a stripped-down version of your website design in which you focus less on what the site looks like and more on what the user experience will be. You can use it to sketch out ideas quickly and share them to make sure that everyone agrees. If you need to make changes, you can easily update the wireframes because they are low fidelity and don’t contain minor details.
You can use wireframes during the design phase to share ideas instantaneously with project stakeholders. If you want to share your site design with friends and get feedback before going into details, wireframes are a great idea. Wireframes help you move expeditiously, confirm that the user experience is pleasing, and generate actionable ideas. They affirm that you’re designing the right thing before investing a ton of time in a detailed design.

Industry Perspectives – Cosmetics: Three Key Traits

The beauty industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it takes three key traits to become a success story in this competitive field. Juliet Falchi, the director of global product innovation for MAC Cosmetics, shares a few tips with readers on how to make your mark.

Whether you’re focusing on the beauty business side, makeup artistry, beauty education, online beauty education, or cosmetics research and development, this growing industry requires hard work and dedication.

“There’s a rhyme, a reason, and a science to why we do everything that we do,” said Falchi. “There’s a lot of work, thought, and testing involved.”

Falchi believes there are three traits an aspiring beauty professional should possess in order to be successful: the first is to be flexible, adaptive, and willing to learn. The beauty industry is an extremely fast-paced environment where things are constantly changing.

“You have to know you may be working on a project for months about matte lips,” said Falchi. “Someone may come to you and say, stop what you’re doing. You need to focus on metallics. This is the new trend.”

A successful beauty professional must be able to adapt and go with the flow. There is no syllabus when it comes to working in the beauty industry as new research and trends emerge. Flexibility is key.

Number two: being collaborative is super important. You can’t work in a silo. The beauty industry means working with other people who have different opinions, backgrounds, and interests than you. When you all come together to share ideas and concepts, you can create something incredible. You may have one piece of the puzzle, but you need all these diverse people to create the rest.

Lastly, Falchi says the third trait you need is to be passionate about beauty and truly love what you’re doing. That passion will shine through you and everything you do.

Industry Perspectives: Be Business-Savvy

Jeanne Grey, founder of GreyLayers says that cosmetics and beauty as a whole can change one’s personality. “When I was little, I used to observe my mom and how she got ready in the morning and completely transform from a completely simple person into somebody different. I saw how her personality changed along with that and I thought that was amazing. I wanted to grow up and see how I can do that for other people as well,” explains Grey.

Grey says about beginning her career as a social media beauty expert, “My advice to the younger me would be to just be you and just let things flow. And eventually, with experience, all the trial and errors counted in too, everything will just work out.”

The most common mistake that Grey has seen in the beauty industry is people not being prepared prior to getting into the career. She says, “You have to treat this career as you would any other career, being a lawyer, a doctor, any important one.” She also emphasizes being business savvy and professional. “This industry, especially because it is an easy play, you know playing with cosmetics, products and different kinds of experiences, you easily forget to be professional.”

One of the ways Grey has found success in her career is by putting together case studies. These case studies are reports of a certain niche project that she’s done in the past. “For instance, as an influencer, I have done projects for a lot of hospitality brands,” says Grey. In order to land a gig with a beauty brand, Grey creates a slideshow that ties in her hospitality background of traveling and creating content. She then combines beauty into that by showing them that she was able to use beauty products throughout her trip. “I highlight how I was able to create that and capture my audience at the same time.”

Industry Perspectives: Push Yourself to Explore

Hannah Bronfman, founder of HBFIT sits down with us and provides advice on how to get a career in the beauty industry and push yourself out of your comfort zone

“I think the advice that I would give to my younger self would be don’t feel awkward about cold calling and reaching out blind,” says Hannah Bronfman, founder of HBFIT. “I think there’s something to be said about a go-getter and someone who knows what they want and how to get it, or at least how they think they know how to get it.”

When you cold call someone and you have a heart and soul behind what you’re trying to achieve, that comes through. Maybe the first time, the person doesn’t answer the email but emails them again. Persistence is key.

A specific area of the beauty industry that’s changed via technology is the booking platforms. Hannah says a lot of these companies have created their own SaaS products, which is a statistical analytics system that is like the brain of a lot of these apps. Whether it’s Glam Squad, the Glamm app, Style Seat, all of these programs and technologies have created a new way that people interact with beauty and the way that beauty is booked for the professional and the consumer.

It’s brought the beauty world to a full on-demand system just like everything else that we see. So I think technology has an impact on the product and the way it’s designed.

Every single brand is trying to recreate the lipstick or foundation, lotions, gels that finish matte or true match a color, or lipstick that looks blue, but it’s going to turn bright pink. I think everyone’s trying to do this kind of surprise and delight using technology to help create a different product that hasn’t been to the market yet, says Hannah.

To prepare for an interview, you can do a few things differently. One, do your research, know who you’re being interviewed by, and know the trajectory of their career.

For the company that you’re interviewing for, know their past big product launches and what has gone on in the news.

Consider: Have they raised money? Have they been acquired? Did they go through a recall?

“Those are things that you want to know before an interview. And I think some other things that you can do is, always, if you’re going into a beauty meeting, wear lipstick, wear eye shadow, nothing that’s flashy, but something that says you’re an enthusiast,” Hanna explains. “And always be polite, take your time when you’re speaking. It comes off a lot better when you don’t say the word like or um.”