ENGAGING WITH USERS IN A MEANINGFUL WAY
As a general rule, every brand believes that their product, service, concept, etc. is different or novel within its market in some way.
That being said, few brands effectively communicate this point of differentiation in all aspects of brand expression. This may be due to poor messaging and communications, a disconnect in online presence, or simply an ineffective brand strategy from the get-go.
The key to effectively engaging with users in a meaningful way starts with a comprehensive understanding of this point of differentiation and what it means to an audience. As mentioned in our blog The Importance of Understanding User Empathy, we explain how user stories, personas, and workflows ultimately guide the design process. An understanding of the user alone, however, does little to drive action or increase awareness. A clear point of differentiation must also be identified, defined and communicated to the audience in all aspects of expression.
We worked with Pursuit to design a hunting and fishing licensing app for avid outdoorsmen. During the Discovery phase, we identified a key differentiator in the Pursuit app – it allowed users to not only store their licenses digitally, but also organize multiple licenses by activity and state, and even renew those licenses directly within the app. This answered an unmet need for modern hunters and anglers – specifically millennials – who needed a more efficient way to organize licenses. We focused on this feature in crafting the Pursuit story and utilized beautifully simple UI design to allow users to intuitively navigate throughout the app.
In order to effectively interact with users, brands must not only communicate how they set themselves apart from competitors, but also must implement meaningful design which further emphasizes this differentiation and ultimately captures audience attention and incites further interaction.
