This is a the written version of a talk I gave at UX Camp Brighton 2014… I would imagine it differs greatly from what I actually said.
Brand space has never been more accessible.
Consumers’ time has never been more scarce.
What does this mean for the way we work?
What is the age of reduction?
The spaces where we work to interact with brands and send a brands message are smaller than they have ever been:
– Units of space
– Units of time
– Word counts
– Picture sizes
– Screen sizes
– Colour palettes
– Graphics options
The elements we use to create attention have shrunk exponentially. The spaces we use have become cheaper and, at the same time, more precious.
If you imagine the user experience of many kinds of brands in the past the ownership of the look, feel, experience and understanding of them was almost entirely owned by the brand itself.
If you used an airline you might experience their ad campaigns, brochure, phone line, customer communications, then everything that happened to you at the airport and on your flight.
If you bought a magazine the act of reading a magazine was just about 100% of your experience of the brand.
If you went to a restaurant it was a phone call and then the visit. Possibly some reviews in the press.
The ownership of that footprint by brands has been vastly reduced. By screen space, sharing, “the economy of attention”, by mobile browsing.
Part of that airline experience might be reviews online or using there booking tools through a digital device and site that was, in turn, built with the limitations of the technology of its time.
A magazines output might be split between print, download, web and twitter feed. It will be consumed on a device where someone can leave that product in the blink of an eye either with intent – or merely the distraction of a notification.
A magazines channels all might have the same or different content and be consumed in totally different ways at different times for different profits.
A restaurant might use a third party website. Booking platforms and have a slew of user reviews sites, press reviews, social media stories and images before you can experience and actual trip to its physical place, meet its staff, taste its food.
The need for functionality and common affordances in design, the unprecedented sharing culture, the incredible functionality of third party digital products, the requirements of responsive products – ALL mean a reduced palette with the incredible payoffs.
Brands and products have more opportunity than ever and but have also have a vastly more limited control over their message and experience.
What are the key factors of this environment?
As designers and makers what do we have to account for?
How much can we say about our brand with how little?
Can we still generate character and uniqueness?
1. Simplicity
Brands must present a simple and honest image of what they stand for.
All brands have some give in them but they must, ultimately “Do one thing very well”.
2. Technological and cultural relevance
Products won’t survive by fixing one thing alone. If you aren’t technologically appropriate for your business and clients you will fail. Equally you must be, and prove that you are, culturally relevant.
That is your message: the shared public representations of you and the appropriateness of your technology.
3. Tone & credibility
Be charming and of the moment – People don’t buy things from people they don’t like or places that are out dated. They never have.
4. Context
The multiple situations in which people consume and make decisions about things has change immeasurably.
Think of the actual meaning of the rise of mobile: users in a multitude of different spaces making decisions on multiple screens.
5. Image space
For certain kinds of brands the percentage of their image created and managed by other parties has become extra ordinary. What can brands do to gain control of that?
What can we do with these factors?
These are not necessarily new ideas or situations for brands but there has been a shift in there relative importance. I don’t believe there is are a set of catch-all answers but I we look at individual cases certain subjects do repeat themselves.
– Make as many things as you can your own
Library shots and free typefaces do not say as much as items chosen for a very specific message. you can say a lot with a little if you plan and commission your assets well.
It seems a little thin to say it but hire goos designers – then trust them. Typography done well is a very nuanced matter. Its easy to see the incredible unsubtlety of library photography.
“British Airways trying to convince you that you should pay a premium with advertising that use cheap, stock photography. Land Rover trying to convince you that they’re the pinnacle of automotive engineering with a shitty website that doesn’t work. This stuff matters. The expectations and associations people have of a brand, its products and its services are set and met everywhere. Or else they’re not.”
Pavlos Themistocleous, Creative director of digital Publicis.
– Tell stories – Good ones
With words and with pictures. What is a great piece of copy?
What is that combination of things that makes a message convincing? I was intrigued as to how to some this up so I asked prolific journalist Michael Hodges if he had a way of describing what makes piece of writing – or a story – compelling:
“Truth of intent. Not ‘is what it is saying true?’ or not – ‘fish can swim, figs are sweet’ – but ‘does it believe what it is telling you?’. If so it will be compelling and it will avoid cliche. In that way purpose shapes aesthetic.” Michael Hodges
What could be a more damming statement about the see through-ness of bad marketing material? Or poor content? Or an unconvincing brand.
– Ensure you message is honest
The age of sharing means what you say must be both true and believable.
I was discussing this with Kerin O’Connor, the CEO of The Week. He said this:
“Nothing works unless you have a great product. Successful marketing come from the product being great. When customers are interacting with either marketing materiel or the product they should feel like they are engaging with the brand. Everything else should be invisible”
Kerin O’Connor, CEO, The Week
– Ensure you message is relevant
Relevance is so many things at the same time: your message is contained in everything from the functionality of your interface to the timeliness of your typefaces.
I think this idea is often lost in the race to hold onto “the idea we started with”.
– **Make your technology and channels appropriate**
A large amount of third party digital solutions are fantastic. populate them with brilliantly executed images and compelling copy and your product will be just that. Users priority isn’t necessarily the innovation within your product. Users are more interested in if it solve there problems effectively? Did it work and how did I feel using it?
Conclusion
Large and small brands have seen incredible gains from both bespoke technologies and from using third party platforms to represent their digital fronts.
The goal is to prove that you are unique and relevant when so many products have a shared technology, shared purpose and shared functions.
ideas/forms/functions 