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unixcommerce · 4 years ago

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UX Design Doesn’t End With Your Website

User experience design is something that most of us associate with websites. But why isn’t it something we extend beyond the website?

Here’s why I ask this:

As a consumer, it’s so rare that your only interaction with a brand is through its website. Take an ecommerce site, for example. You buy a product from it, and then what happens?

You get a confirmation email;

You get another email when the package ships;

You might get another email or SMS notification when the package is delivered;

You retrieve the package and open it;

You open up your purchase and use it.

These are all an extension of that initial user experience on the site. If there’s just one hiccup along the way, it could easily erode the trust and happiness you felt after quickly finding and buying what you needed on the site.

So, what I’d like to do today is look at 10 areas where UX design should extend beyond the website to ensure that the frictionless experience started there remains untarnished.

Extending UX Design Beyond the Website

As a web designer, you might be thinking that this part of the user experience doesn’t fall under the umbrella of your responsibilities. And you may be right about that.

For brands to truly be successful and profitable, someone needs to carefully examine the bigger picture and ensure that the user experience is flawless no matter how far away from the site it is. At the very least, you should share the UX research and strategy you do for a client’s site so their team can ensure it carries over to other areas of the business.

Here are some things to think about:

1. Mobile App

It’s not uncommon for websites to have mobile app counterparts these days. The layout doesn’t need to be identical since mobile users tend to behave differently than those on desktop.

That said, an app shouldn’t force users accustomed to the desktop experience to re-learn how to navigate or engage with the brand. So, the branding, UI design, speed, security, and navigation all need to be on par with what’s already been established in terms of usability.

2. Email

Most websites have a direct connection to email. For example, blog newsletters, purchase confirmation emails, and lead generation follow-ups all start on the website.

Consumers are well aware that when they hand over their email address, they will receive an email in return. In many cases, those emails are welcomed when they’re done right. But if something feels off, that bridge could easily burn between brand and consumer.

To preserve the UX, emails should come with the following:

The same branding and visual style as the website;

A personalized subject line, greeting, or offer;

Consistent messaging as the site, especially when it comes to the CTA.

Another thing to remember is that email isn’t the time to inject dark patterns into the experience. So, the “Unsubscribe” option should be in an easy-to-spot area and a sharply contrasting font color.

3. Social Media

Social media is another channel that’s commonly connected to a website. While you can’t control the aesthetics of social media websites themselves, the visuals and messaging in posts need to be on-brand.

That means that things like memes and emojis — which are popular means of communication on social — should only be used if they’re normally part of the brand identity. If not, you’ll need to find other ways to communicate engagingly.

Another part of the user experience to think about is customer support. Social media is a lot like going into a store. If someone has an issue with what they bought or the service they received, there will be many people around to witness the complaint. Social media only amplifies that — so the quality of customer care needs to be consistent with how the brand handles it everywhere else.

4. SMS

Not every brand will need to be connected to customers via text messaging. eCommerce companies, news sites, and personal services providers likely will, though.

However a brand uses SMS, the same UX guidelines apply here as they do across all other channels:

Keep messages concise;

Make sure they’re relevant and valuable;

Use branded messaging and design;

Don’t abuse the privilege and send too many;

Make it easy to opt out.

Basically, if you can’t make it a valuable extension of the brand’s offering, don’t use it.

5. Phone

Any website that publishes its phone number should expect to receive calls from prospects and customers. While there’s nothing to design here visually, the experience of getting on the phone with a company should be consistent with what they experience elsewhere.

One way to do this is to design an easy-to-follow routing system. It should be simple for callers to figure out which number to choose. What’s more, there should be no endless loops. If a caller has exhausted the options, they should be immediately directed to a representative.

Another way to ensure consistency is to adhere to a script — that goes for call centers for enterprises as well as the local lawyer’s office. Every caller should be greeted with the same tone and handled in the same manner (depending on the situation, of course).

6. Ads

There are a lot of places where brands can advertise these days:

Google search;

Social media;

Ad networks;

TV;

Radio;

Podcasts;

Blogs;

Billboards;

Direct mail.

When designing an ad campaign, there should be consistent messaging, aesthetics (when relevant), and CTAs presented. If branding isn’t consistent from ad to ad, there may be a delay in consumers recognizing the brand or its offer. Or, worse, not recognizing it at all.

7. Packaging

For brands that sell products, you have to think about how the packaging will impact the user experience. There are two types of packages to consider, too.

The first is the product’s own packaging. Branding should be clear as day and consistent with the site they bought it from.

It should also be easy to open. There’s nothing more frustrating than finally getting your purchase, only to realize you need tools to get it out of the packaging.

You also have to think about packaging for products that get shipped.

The product should fit well within the packaging. A too-roomy package will feel downright wasteful. So will excessive bubble wrap and paper filler.

Having a shipping label present in the package is also important. If the website makes it easy to make a purchase, the package should offer a convenient way to return the product if they’re not happy.

8. Product

The product itself has to align with the expectations set by the website.

Take the example of a SaaS. You’ve built an awesome landing page and mobile app store page to promote it. It looks great, it loads fast, and it’s easy to get around. But if the SaaS itself is ugly, disorganized, slow, or otherwise just clunky, all of the work you did to market it will end up being just false advertising.

So, make sure the expectations set before and during purchase naturally carry over to the experience with the product.

9. Business Exterior

For brick-and-mortar companies, the business’s exterior matters just as much as what happens inside it.

The most obvious thing to focus on is the aesthetics of the building. Does it look attractive? Is it in a safe area? Is there clear signage around it? Is it easy to find?

But you also have to think about user experiences that take place outside of the building. For example, there’s now a rise in curbside pickup. There are tons of things that can affect how happy the customer is with the experience — like if the pickup area is hard to find, there are never enough spots or the associates who deliver the orders always seem to be in a foul mood.

The business’s exterior should always set a good impression for what takes place inside.

10. Business Interior

Here are some things to think about when it comes to “designing” business interiors for a good UX:

Decor;

Layout;

Signage;

Furnishings;

Product discoverability;

Availability (of products or people);

Quality of customer service;

Checkout process.

It doesn’t matter what the company does — whether it’s a large retailer like Walmart or your own freelance design business. If a business’s establishment doesn’t look good, operate flawlessly, or provide a good person-to-person experience, it’s going to be very hard to get people to return.

So, all those things you do to design a streamlined website journey should be applied to a bricks-and-mortar business’s interior.

Wrapping Up

Depending on the types of companies you build sites for, some of the channels and suggestions above might not be relevant. Hopefully, this has got you thinking about other ways you (and your clients) can extend the UX design and strategy from the website.

If you can maintain the high-quality user experience from channel to channel, your clients’ brands will get more business, grow their profitability, and see a rise in loyalty, too.

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padmaaccessorieslimited · 5 years ago

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Amazon's incredible, vanishing cardboard box - CNN

Over the past decade, e-commerce has been a welcome boost for the cardboard industry at a time when demand in sectors like food and manufacturing has stagnated. Shopping online is seven times more cardboard-intensive than picking up items from a store, according to the commodity data analytics company Fastmarkets, and e-commerce generated 1.3 million tons of container board in North America in 2018 — a jump up from 1.1 million the year before.

"In a regular brick-and-mortar supply chain, products are put in blister packs, and then go into a box on a pallet and don't leave that box until they're in the store," explains Derek Mahlburg, an analyst with Fastmarkets. "In e-commerce, the products get shipped to individual houses, so they get taken out of that box very early, and then they get put in a new box."

That increased demand has also driven prices upward, Mahlburg says, prompting retailers and shippers to try to find ways to waste less cardboard in their packaging — which has environmental benefits, as well.

Why the United States uses so much cardboard

The United States is starting from a low baseline when it comes to cardboard recycling. Because America has abundant space for tree farms, pulp is relatively cheap; the country has long been a big exporter of wood fiber. Also, boxes usually have to travel longer distances than they do in more dense places like Europe, and historically boxes made out of recycled material haven't been strong enough to survive the journey intact.

There hasn't been much regulatory or consumer pressure to increase recycling rates, depressing the supply of cardboard to be recycled. In those places, both companies and governments have imposed much more ambitious sustainability targets. A strict new law in Germany requires that manufacturers report how much packaging waste they generate. JD.com — the Amazon of China — is shooting for 100% recyclable or reusable packaging by 2020.

For those reasons, only about 35% of North America's total manufacturing capability is geared toward recycled content, according to Fastmarkets, compared to 80% in Europe and 93% in Asia.

"It's not so quick to switch factories that have been using virgin materials for many years," says Natasha Valeeva, an analyst at the Dutch financial services firm Rabobank. "We expect more pressure from society. The trend is everywhere, but in Europe it may be progressing faster in this direction. It's from a consumer perspective, but also from regulations."

Still, the United States is gradually changing, as paper companies have converted old newsprint mills into recycling facilities. They're also lowering the "basis weight" of cardboard, or the amount of material that has to go into every square foot.

"Corrugated companies are trying to take the paper out of paperboard," says Quint Marini, who runs the UPS packaging lab, which works with companies to cut down their shipping costs.

Mills have gotten better at making recycled cardboard that stands up to wear and tear, so it's usable for longer shipping routes. Mark Schlossman is the chief operating officer of Accurate Box, a manufacturer in Paterson, New Jersey, that produces boxes to order for companies ranging from PepsiCo to Jimmy John's. He says his company's boxes have gone from 70% virgin paper five years ago to 70% recycled today.

"The recycled liner board world has made tremendous strides in the last number of years, both in its availability and its pricing, and in the quality of its paper," Schlossman says. "In the box world, strength can be very very critical."

Even recycling, however, has an environmental impact — it requires huge amounts of water and energy. That's why shippers are also trying to use less cardboard in the first place.

In the early days of e-commerce, retailers would order large numbers of a few sizes of boxes, throw whatever needed to be shipped into one that seemed big enough, and fill all the empty space with bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts.

No longer. In consultation with shippers like UPS — which in 2015 started charging by volume, not just weight — companies are shrinking their boxes by using algorithms that can tell them the precise dimensions they need to get an order from point A to point B.

One of the leaders in the world of "right-sizing" packaging is a Salt Lake City-based company called Packsize, which makes machines that retailers buy and use to make custom boxes in their own distribution centers. Their most advanced machine can automatically determine the optimal size for the combination of items that need to fit a box as soon as a customer clicks "buy," then route all the items onto a conveyor belt that automatically cuts and forms the box to size — no human assistance necessary.

"It's like an oversized Tetris that has been optimized," says Packsize CEO Hanko Kiessner. That not only saves on cardboard, it also allows shippers to pack boxes more densely in their trucks, requiring fewer trips. "When you have many smaller sized Tetris cubes, you have gaps, but the gaps are significantly smaller," he says.

Amazon as regulator

With nearly half of the e-commerce market, the biggest force in box shipments is Amazon.

The company buys millions of boxes a year from manufacturers close to its fulfillment centers. It employs statisticians, operations researchers, data scientists, material engineers and computational engineers — the types of people who design airplane wings — to think about boxes, bags and envelopes.

"We put those groups together, probably for the first time in the corrugate box business, to ask, 'what is happening to the corrugate box in the back of a truck?'" says Houchens.

The different stresses and strains on boxes in different parts of the truck told them how big each one really needed to be, and how thin the cardboard could get without jeopardizing the product inside. Amazon also uses machine learning algorithms to monitor feedback that comes from customers via call centers and social media on any damage that occurs in transit, to see when they've gone too far.

Using pilot production lines and partnerships with big tape and glue manufacturers, Amazon creates new designs and materials that its suppliers then figure out how to produce at scale — like a fully recyclable plastic-free padded envelope mailer, for example, rather than the standard bubble-wrap-and-paper version. With all of that combined, Houchens says they've managed to reduce packaging material by 19% in tons over their baseline year of 2016.

Still, there's plenty of room for improvement.

Companies are starting to design packaging differently for products that are bound for a customer's doorstep rather than a store shelf, so that those sold through e-commerce don't need an "overbox" at all. Tide laundry detergent now comes in a container that looks like boxed wine, rather than a plastic bottle that ships in a paper box.

Amazon has the scale and buying power to push those changes faster — and has been, since it helps its bottom line, as well. For the past year, for large items and those weighing 20 pounds or more, the company has been paying retailers $1 per package that is easily recyclable and able to ship without a brown Amazon overbox. Starting in August, it will stop paying that incentive, and instead charge $1.99 per package that doesn't comply.

Retailers are starting to see better packaging as an opportunity, too. Shipping in their own boxes also allows brands to make a stronger connection with their customers, with specialized messages on the inside to enhance the experience of getting something in the mail. They're trying to capitalize on the "unboxing" trend, wherein people record themselves opening a package and posting the video to YouTube, making the box that much more visible.

"It is a billboard, in a sense. It's the last impression that people have, your last point of contact with someone is when the box arrives at peoples' home," says Rachel Kenyon, vice president of the Fibre Box Association, which represents paper-based packaging manufacturers. "If you can take that one step further by enhancing that unboxing experience, it's a great opportunity."

Consumers are tired of garbage

Rightsizing, lightweighting, and getting rid of overboxes have reduced the rate of cardboard consumption so much that analysts believe production will slow, even as more goods are ordered online. As shopping through the mail becomes more common, companies and postal services are experimenting with ditching single-use cardboard containers altogether.

Amazon is running a pilot in India where products are delivered to homes in plastic totes, since it's more common in India for someone to be home during the day to receive them. (Security and privacy are a big reason why overboxes are used at all.) And in China, a company called Suning.com is using shared plastic delivery boxes in 13 cities that can be almost infinitely reused. In the United States, the rise of delivery lockers may allow for box-free delivery to spread as well.

Until everything is reusable, paper-based packaging companies are making the argument that at least cardboard is better than single-use plastic, even as they take steps to make packaging less damaging to the planet. And consumers, they point out are starting to reject products that come swathed in garbage.

"With social media, you can see people are not accepting certain things any more, and potentially not re-ordering because of it," says Herwin Wichers, market development director for Smurfit Kappa, a global Dublin-based paper packaging manufacturer that serves both Europe and the US. "Price is still an important part, convenience is still an important part, but the sustainability angle is starting to influence peoples' decisions."

At the same time, however, there's still a clear difference between the progress made in the US vs. Europe and Asia, with their stronger government mandates and culture of waste reduction.

Without similar pressure, even with Amazon pushing for change, the US will struggle to catch up.

This content was originally published here.

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johnny-mcjohnface-blog · 5 years ago

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youtube

Every morning during the normal people business work week, I start my morning by making packages to fufill orders of the items I sold on eBay the night before. I put a 2-day handling time on all of my listings, but I typically try to get everything shipped out within 24 hours. A lot of times I will list mailing at a slower, cheaper method than I actually use. This always gives me the option to ship a cheaper way if the customer lives on the other side of the country. USPS's new postage rates and the way they calculate rates by distance now has caused me to tweak the way I ship items. Plus, if I advertise that the customers item is expected in 4 days and they recieve it in 2, it could make someone's day! for all items that are not fragile and breakable, I try to ship out first class USPS, or even media mail if possible to save on shipping rates. I already get an eBay discount on shipping charges, but when you ship thousands of packages, you can save thousands of dollars! Tape and bubble wrap is so cheap in bulk, so I use it very liberally. I like to use at least 4 sheets of bubble wrap, regardless of the item, and more sheets if the item calls for it. Fragile items are shipped in sturdy boxes, and if they are small enough, I will throw them in one of the tie-dye polynag mailers that I use. Please check out my review video on the UpakNship SmileMail tie-dye envelopes. Even though I use quality labels that do not smear, I always tape over the address and the corners of the label so nothing will happen to it in shipment. These mailers that I use are not only the coolest polymailers ever, they are also a thick mil that will not tear. You could safley ship a sharp box in one of these! Thank you for watching my video, have a great day!

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themanuelruello · 5 years ago

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Canning Cherries with Honey

When someone offers to send you a whole box of freshly picked Bing cherries?

You say yes.

Even if canning cherries will add an extra measure of craziness in between back-to-back trips and 4-H events.

And that’s exactly what happened when Northwest Cherry Growers emailed me and offer to ship me a box of cherries if I’d create a canning recipe featuring them.

I’ve been on a canning kick lately anyway–how could say no?

So I didn’t.

Even though they arrived in the mail the day before I left for Amish Country to visit the Lehman’s Hardware store. And I had a small heart attack trying to figure out how I was going to can them in the middle of packing to leave.

Thankfully, unwashed cherries will last up to two weeks in the fridge (yes, I emailed them to ask).

Crisis adverted.

This time, at least.

Anyway, I’m home from my fabulous trip to Lehman’s (seriously– it’s Homesteader’s Paradise) and what better post-trip project than canning cherries?

(Ironically, I totally missed the fact that Lehman’s has a stellar cherry pitter… If I had thought to grab one while I was there, it would have saved me about two hours of work and a lot of splattered cherry juice in my kitchen…)

These were sweet cherries. And not just the regular kinda mushy, kinda blah sweet cherries I’m accustomed to from the grocery store. These were vibrantly sweet. And I couldn’t bear the thought of smothering them with tons of white sugar, so I decided to use a light honey syrup instead.

(Normally tweaking canning recipes is extremely unsafe and a big no-no. Thankfully, when it comes to sweeteners, you have a bit more leeway in many cases.)

Thankfully, as far as food preservation goes, canning cherries is pretty darn easy. I had it wrapped up early afternoon, even in the midst of post-trip mental fog and unpacking.

Honey canned cherries, y’all. Make ’em. You won’t regret it.

Canning Cherries with Honey

You Will Need:

Yield: 7 quarts

14 to 17 pounds of fresh cherries (roughly 2 pounds of cherries per quart jar)

3 cups honey

10 cups water

Instructions:

Pit the cherries (see note below).

Place the honey and water in a large saucepan or pot and bring to a boil.

Ladle about 1/2 cup of the honey water into each of the seven quart jars. (Make sure to heat the jars first– I like to do this by simmering them in my canning pot while I’m prepping the other food.)

Place the pitted cherries into hot, waiting jars. Fill the jars to the top with cherries, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. (I lightly tapped the jars on my counter to help the cherries settle and was able to fit more fruit into each jar)

Ladle the hot honey water into the jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace at the top.

Remove the bubbles from the jars, wipe the rims, and affix two-piece lids.

Process quarts** for 25 minutes in a boiling water canner. (Add more time if you are at higher altitude.)

(New to the idea of canning and not sure what all of this means? I’ll walk you through the process step-by-step right here!)

Eat your honey canned cherries straight from the jar, over ice cream or oatmeal, or add to pies and cobblers. They won’t last long!

**You may also can cherries in pint jars. The method is exactly the same and you still process pints for 25 minutes.

Notes about Canning Cherries

The exact amount of the honey syrup you need will vary depending on how tightly you pack your jars

Have a bounty of cherries? This recipe doubles (or quadruples) easily!

Sweetness of cherries varies, so feel free to adjust your honey syrup accordingly. You could also can these in fruit juice– just be sure to boil the juice (just like you do with the honey syrup) before adding it to the jars and proceeding with the rest of the recipe as written.

I love cherries. I hate pitting them. Pitting hacks abound (paper clips, bobby pins, etc…) but my favorite diy cherry pitting method is as follows: Find a glass bottle with a narrow mouth. Remove the stem and set the cherry on top of the bottle mouth. Use a metal straw (like this one) to poke out the pit. It will fall into the bottle, reducing the mess and leaving you with a perfectly pitted cherry. You can also get this Cherry Pitter from Lehmans. It’s inexpensive and I imagine worth every penny. Now, only if I had discovered all these handy-dandy tips before I spent 2 hours pitting the cherries I used for this blog post recipe. Argh.

It’s perfectly fine to leave the pits in when canning cherries. However, as tempted as I was to do that, I decided I didn’t want to have to deal with the pits later, so I opted to pit first.

If you have sour pie cherries, you could also can them using this method. You’d just want to increase the amount of honey in the syrup, or sweeten then when you’re ready to use them (such as in pie fillings)

Other Home Canned Recipes & Tutorials You’ll Love

Canning Made Easy: My step-by-step canning process walkthrough– perfect for beginners or nervous canners!

Roasted Poblano Salsa

Honey Canned Cinnamon Peaches

How to Can Pickled Beets

How to Can Hot Pepper Jelly

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Canning Cherries with Honey

Author: Jill Winger

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 7 quarts

Category: Food Preservation

Method: Canning

Ingredients

14 to 17 pounds of fresh cherries (roughly 2 pounds of cherries per quart jar)

3 cups honey

10 cups water

Instructions

Pit the cherries (see note)

Place the honey and water in a large saucepan or pot and bring to a boil.

Ladle the hot honey water into the jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace at the top.

Remove the bubbles from the jars, wipe the rims, and affix two-piece lids.

Process quarts** for 25 minutes in a boiling water canner. (Add more time if you are at higher altitude.)

Eat your honey canned cherries straight from the jar, over ice cream or oatmeal, or add to pies and cobblers. They won’t last long!

**You may also can cherries in pint jars. The method is exactly the same and you still process pints for 25 minutes.

Notes

The exact amount of the honey syrup you need will vary depending on how tightly you pack your jars

Have a bounty of cherries? This recipe doubles (or quadruples) easily!

I love cherries. I hate pitting them. Pitting hacks abound (paper clips, bobby pins, etc…) but my favorite diy cherry pitting method is as follows: Find a glass bottle with a narrow mouth. Remove the stem and set the cherry on top of the bottle mouth. Use a metal straw (like this one) to poke out the pit. It will fall into the bottle, reducing the mess and leaving you with a perfectly pitted cherry. Now, only if I had discovered all these handy-dandy tips before I spent 2 hours pitting the cherries I used for this blog post recipe. Argh.

It’s perfectly fine to leave the pits in when canning cherries. However, as tempted as I was to do that, I decided I didn’t want to have to deal with the pits later, so I opted to pit first.

The post Canning Cherries with Honey appeared first on The Prairie Homestead.

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