UI/UX plays a significant role in any brand’s success. It can help you reach new heights but only if you deliver a good service. This article takes you through the latest UI/UX trends and its benefits to help you understand it better.

What is the difference between UX and UI design

Both mobiles and desktops have a majority of digital users onboard and both the platforms have their own significance. For instance, desktops serve the purpose of quick access to web pages and mobile phones are ideal for creating engagement. Aesthetic graphics and engaging content must be on point while designing a digital presence but another important thing that most of the designers overlook is good user experience and interface. But what exactly is UI and UX?

What is UX?

UX is the abbreviated form of User Experience and it is based on the idea of creating a system that provides the users with the best experience. It aims at turning your customers into loyal customers by offering a positive experience to them. UX is accountable for a user’s journey through the mobile app or website which eventually becomes the deciding factor for the success of the business.

What is UI?

UI is an abbreviation used for User Interface and it’s the way using which users can interact with any mobile application. User interface design for mobile applications focuses on delivering easy, enjoyable and effective interactions between users and the application. In IT, User Interface refers to any device that allows the users to interact with monitors, screens or mobile devices. The primary goal which UI aims for is to provide the best interaction possible.

What are benefits of UX/UI

1. Encourages the use of interaction: Creating content is not a hard task. But creating content that people would like to interact with, is the real challenge. Be it in the form of text, images, advertisements, or call to action, everything must lure the user. There are several techniques to encourage user interaction such as producing the content that appeals to the targeted audience. It can also be about personalised features based on consumer behaviour or things they like. People prefer a software that has consistency in design, is predictable, and comfortable to use.

 

2. Generates loyalty: A good user experience can create customer loyalty for your brand. An application or website that offers easy functionality and backed by great service will make your users use it again and again. The designer can create a Customer Journey i.e. CJM Map to achieve it. It will help the designer to map the entire journey of the user through the website or the mobile application. This journey must be thoroughly tested to make sure that a user’s interaction with the product is as smooth and easy as possible. It’s more like putting the design team in the shoes of the user and thinking from their perspective.

 

3. Generates recommendations: An interactive user experience design is the key to encouraging word of mouth recommendations i.e. it should be good to an extent that the users can’t stop talking about it. A well-designed site or application with the ease of use, offering great features and usefulness will encourage people to tell others about the service. A part of user experience is meant to make sharing easy and a free recommendation from a user itself is way more impactful than a paid advertisement.

 

4. Reduces development costs: A stellar user experience helps you keep a project within budget by lowering development costs along with extensive user research, prototyping, and usability testing. By doing this, you can ensure that development time is targeted on the areas of functionality that matter. This focused approach helps you create better initial design specs, reduces the risk of feature creep, and provides more relevant content. It greatly erases the need for last-minute redesigns and enhancements.

 

5. Reduces internal costs: User experience is an end-user focused approach that concentrates on the design and development, keeping in mind what users want and not what developers think they want. It not only saves money on development costs but it also helps businesses to wisely use their internal resources. For instance, the design will help you identify the products liked or wanted by people. This would help the sales and marketing department to put their efforts on profitable products instead of putting it on the less profitable ones. Moreover, it reduces the need for manual intervention and hence reduces the support costs eventually.

 

What are latest UX/UI trends

 

1. Animation: It makes web pages or mobile applications more appealing to users as it connects with the customers more than any other design. This tool is getting popular amongst the designers as it allows them to create a positive impact on the users. Earlier, we used to have flat logos, icons, buttons, etc. but now they are getting replaced with animated buttons, icons, and even logos.

 

2. Digital illustrations for the web: Custom digital illustrations are trending in the field of UI and UX. These digital illustrations are generally used on web interfaces and add colours, designs while making the information more evident and interesting. They are widely used by blogs and service websites to beautify their website and present sober information in a modern and fancy way.

 

3. 3D designs: It helps you create more impactful design and it’s already being used in many games and movies with high functionality. A combination of animation and 3D is going to be the next trend in UI and UX.

 

4. Split Screen: The idea of using two screens simultaneously appeals to a lot of users. It not only looks cool but also allows you to gather more information at the same time.
5. Voice UI: Voice assistants like Google Home and Alexa have taken over the entire digital world of virtual assistants. People use these services widely to get most of their work done irrespective of its origin i.e. small or big. Performing tasks using your voice is a lot more convenient than operating a device with buttons and making it do the same.

 

NDN Group build a chatbot with personality for hotel group

At NDN Group, we help our clients map out UX/UI to understand their customers, define customer experience journeys and innovate with a strong focus on customers’ needs and awe-inspiring insights about them. From user personas and customer journeys to content strategy, wireframe to website and app design, we help our business clients tell their stories and engage with customers for scaling businesses.

NDN Group’s digital consultancy, New Digital Noise, has been helping a global hotel group to develop an AI-powered chatbot with persona and personality traits, thereby creating immersive and fascinating experiences to its customers. The bot can help guests make suite booking and restaurant reservations as well answer questions on thrilling entertainment and hotel facilities.

To create persona and personality for the bot, our team has gathered insights to understand more about the hotel group from its brand persona, daily operations, gaming and entertainment facilities, world-class dining experience and luxurious and bespoke services offered to customers.

Creating a chatbot conversation flow and putting to the test

Our UX/UI team has arranged empathy sessions for the hotel to learn their customers genuine needs. With our five-stage process – Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test, we empathise with the targeted customers through researches, interviews and sharing. We understand customers’ emotional needs, discover human touchpoints and garner insights on the needs of customers in different segments. Our team has created solid solutions to address users’ needs and built a prototype chatbot for testing/validation to excel to entire UX process.

Also, we have embraced six core human needs – Certainly, Variety, Significance, Love, Growth and Contribution – in the process. Then we have clearly defined the background, personalities, tone of voice and manner of the bot.

In the development of the chatbot script, we imagine how the AI-powered chatbot talks to customers based on its persona.  Based on conversational diagram, we have imagined the bot talking to customers in real time when writing scripts. We listened to characters or people who are similar to the bot persona. We try to avoid dead ends and leaving the user hanging. It mimics what we would hear from a concierge in the luxurious hotel. Finally, we have developed a prototype for the chatbot and fine-tuned scripts. We have interacted with the bot to excel its dialogue flow and make it immersive to customers, ensuring that the bot is helpful and meet customers’ needs and expectations.

Conclusion

Our User Experience/User Interface design services are thoughtful, engaging, user–centric. We work with our clients to define their business goals, and every industry is different. The trends of UX and UI have changed a lot and it will continue to do so. But one thing which doesn’t change with time is the quality of UX and UI. To derive better results and satisfy your customers, it is important to offer them an outstanding UX/UI services. Drop us a line at info@ndngroup.com to learn more about how our UX/UI services fit your business needs.

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most popular emerging technologies. AI chatbots are transforming the customer experience in unexpected ways. In this article, you will learn how chatbots enhance customer experience and key benefits of using chatbots for your business.

How AI chatbots interact with customers

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most popular emerging technologies. It’s changing the business dynamics in a lot of ways and one such way is by enhancing the customer interactions. We have AI-driven chatbots that are transforming the customer experience and helping us unfold the newer business opportunities. An ideally perfect chatbot delivers a seamless customer experience in which users can’t tell if they are talking to a machine or a real human being. But before we move ahead and discuss the ways in which chatbots are transforming the user experience, let’s first try to understand what a chatbot is.

A chatbot is an AI-based software that communicates with humans through a live chat interface. This interaction can take place through platforms such as Slack, Skype, WhatsApp, a brand’s website or app, Facebook Messenger, and even Alexa.

Simple chatbots are capable of scanning the keywords from a customer’s inquiry and deliver pre-packaged answers. While on the other hand, advanced chatbots that are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) use natural language processing and can create responses and conversations that are more complex. AI chatbots are more flexible than simple chatbots while speaking to the customers and when the human doesn’t give the exact message they have been programmed for. Instead, they keep learning from the conversations they have with the users to help customers with their queries.

AI-powered chatbots can tap into customer information and provide personalized experiences as they are better integrated with the CMS and CRM platforms underpinning a brand’s online presence. But how do they actually enhance the customer experience? Here are some of the most popular ways in which AI-powered chatbots are transforming the customer experience and providing customer satisfaction.

AI chatbots enhance customer experience

1. Seamless live chat:
   Customers can easily engage with chatbots in a similar way as they do with live customer support employees in an online conversation. Most of the chatbots follow natural language processing methods that allow them to analyse the questions asked by the customers and answer to them accordingly, meeting the needs of the client. Chatbots can easily be integrated with a company’s website or mobile application for better results.
2. Analysing customer data and insights: A chatbot can pop up on any product page that offers additional information about your services to boost the sales and purchasing process. They can also provide customers with product recommendations by analysing user behaviour. They keep a track of customers’ shopping history, modes of payment, etc and uses them to offer a better and enhanced customer experience.
3. Chatbots make friends and build relationships: Most of the companies believe that it would have helped in transforming the customer experience if their agents had more time to make outbound and proactive contact with their customers. Well! Chatbots can help in revolutionising the way brands stay in touch with their customers. Be it a simple email or a birthday text, or just taking friendly feedback about your services from the customer, chatbots can jazz it all. And as chatbots don’t have human empathy, they don’t have bad days or get frustrated from regular client queries which helps them provide a smooth customer experience.
4. Personalizing the customer experience: Chatbots are exceptionally well at collecting customer data from support interactions. After all, it’s the computer software powered by AI and machine learning that is doing the work. It helps the live support agents to personalize their interactions with customers by making use of this information. Chatbots work as virtual assistants that can easily feed customer data to the customer support agent in real-time, facilitating the agent to give the customers good information and solutions based on their current needs as well as past interactions with the company.
5. 24/7 customer service:
   Unlike your human workforce designated for live chat support that needs some rest, chatbots can work 24*7. Customers’ needs can arise outside of business hours during which your staff members won’t be available at their service but the customers need a way to seek out answers to their vital questions. A chatbot could be your saviour in those cases as it can answer to customer queries irrespective of the time so that your customers don’t have to wait for a response from a voicemail or email message.
6. Automated operations: Most of the operations such as customer support and in-store experience can be automated with the help of chatbots powered by AI. They can send timely notifications to customers about your product updates or new features. Using chatbots, we can implement smart shelves and they can help in inventory control as well. Automating your customer experience not only reduces the chances of errors caused by human intervention but also reduces the cost. Hence, chatbots are an ideal way to transform customer experience in a cost-effective manner.

Benefits of AI chatbots for businesses

There is a lot of benefits offered by the chatbots driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning. They help businesses transform their identity by enhancing the customer experience.  A chatbot is an ideal choice for you as:

1. It provides you with a global goal and reach along with an actively growing base of customers.
2. It offers support across multiple channels such as website, in-app, on social media, and several other platforms.
3. It facilitates you with a 24*7 customer support team with high efficiency.
4. The usage of AI chatbots helps you reduce your customer service costs and find more efficient ways of scaling your customers.

 

It is evident from many studies and reports that modern customers want quick, frictionless solutions to their problems and instant answers to their questions. They don’t like to wait at all. Also, in a world where people have only been using phones for customer support, it is hard to adapt to AI chatbots. But there is a growing need and demand for smart and efficient solutions, just like AI chatbots. They come with a lot of advantages and bring new opportunities to transform your business. Hence, to stay in the competition, it is necessary to change and adapt as per the customer behaviour. Drop us email at info@ndngroup.com to learn how our AI-powered chatbot solutions fit your business needs.

Digital transformation is forcing enterprises to change their business strategies and adapt to the new market models. Digital technology has transformed customers’ habits. Mobile devices, chatbot, apps, machine learning, automation allow customers to get what they want almost exactly at the moment they need it. Customers expect relevant content in relation to what they’re doing and on the device of their choosing. Enterprises must embrace technology to deliver a good customer experience.

In this era of disruptive technological change, products and services that are cutting edge one day are outdated the next. In this context, the unmatched customer experience a company offers is increasingly its differentiator. Advanced digital technologies have caused a shift in customer expectations, leading to the sharp rise of new kind of modern buyers. Due to the opportunities that rise from using modern technology, consumers rank businesses based on digital customer experience. Digital first requires entrepreneurs to rethink how they better interact with their customers and offer good customer support.

Mr. Andy Ann, Founder and CEO of NDN Group, said, “It is of utmost priority for entrepreneurs and business leaders to fully understand the customers’ unique needs and enhance their customer experience through the adoption of digital marketing and technologies. Businesses have to deploy right technologies to understand and get a whole picture of why a customer made a certain decision as well as garner consumer insight.”

Leverage right technology to power up digital strategies

Having the right technology to power up digital strategies is fundamental in business world. By easily connecting SaaS applications such as customer databases, Big Data analytics, web and mobile apps, companies can digitally record all touch-points to create a holistic view of customers and deliver customer experience strategy.

At NDN Group, one such campaign we have successfully launched is for Blue, a digital insurer partnership by Aviva, Hillhouse Capital and Tencent. We have deployed 360-degree touchpoints covering social media, video production, web/mobile production, SEO/SEM, as well as innovative technologies namely cognitive ads, an AI chatbot capable of suggesting interest-based offers to engage users individually and generate sales leads. Cognitive Ad helps us understand consumers’ needs and interests by deploying the latest AI-enabled interactive advertising on websites and WeChat.

With our Cognitive Ad technology, we use massive consumer data and a powerful AI-engine to build industry specific ads that are easy to implement and customize. Our ready-to-go and pre-configured dialogues allow your campaigns to run smarter, engage customers faster and improve conversions over 300%.

Seamless omni-channel customer experience

Technology has empowered customers to get what they want, whenever they want, and how they want it. Omni-channel customer experience involves using multiple channels to engage customers. When businesses use social media, blogs, the web, videos and other channels to engage customers, they must ensure delivery of a seamless message across all touchpoints to maximize customer experience.

In fact, content types are versatile and diverse content can be specially curated to fit into different channels. Sites like YouTube will provide a better video sharing experience, Pinterest offers a brilliant experience to users interested in product photographs and other kinds of images, and you can find other website aimed at other types of contents. A blog is a very versatile tool, as it allows you to publish all kinds of contents, from text contents to embedded videos, audio images.

Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It is the process of using digital technologies to create new business processes, models, culture, and customer experiences to meet ever-changing market demands.

Digital transformation is imperative for all businesses, from the startups to the giant enterprises. Thinking, planning and building digitally sets your business up to be agile, flexible, and ready to grow. What’s not clear to many enterprises is what digital transformation means.

Technology plays a crucial role in an organization’s’ ability to evolve with the market and continually increase value to customers. Organizations are in different places on the road to digital transformation. One of the hardest questions in digital transformation is how to get over the initial humps from vision to execution.

What is digital transformation?
As digital transformation will look different for every company, it can be difficult to pinpoint a definition that applies to all. Digital transformation can be defined as the integration of digital technology into all areas of business operations and delivering good customer experiences. The Agile Elephant emphasizes the ways businesses need to adjust their practices: “Digital transformation involves a change in leadership, mindset, business models, and digital assets to improve the experience of the organization’s employees, customers, suppliers, partners and stakeholders.”Andy Ann, Founder and CEO of NDN Group, said, “Every digital transformation is going to begin and end with the customer experiences. Businesses don’t transform by choice because it is expensive and risky. Businesses go through transformation when they have to innovate and evolve. Seamless customer experience is one of the most important discriminating factors for how a business will perform and succeed.”

Why does digital transformation matter?
A business may take on digital transformation for various reasons. But by far, the most likely reason is that they have to: It’s a survival issue for many. Digital transformation does not simply mean changing how you do business or creating new types of businesses. It’s about keeping the core competence, and using faster and better ways to instantly access customer data and not trapped somewhere in an archive.

Think of customer service, whether in retail or a call centre. Digitalization changed service forever by making customer records easily and quickly retrievable via automation. Customer service has not changed, but the process of searching customer data and offering a resolution became much more efficient with automation.

For example, deploying an automated customer Chatbot will allow businesses to automate customer service live chat conversations. According to IBM, up to 80% of routine customer service questions could be answered by a simple AI Chatbot. Chatbots can be trained to respond to customer service questions and provide fast solutions, 24/7.

Enterprise leaders have largely gotten the message and are prioritizing accordingly. At NDN, we have deployed and used AI technologies including machine learning and natural language processing for a local bank (Hang Seng Bank), creating a virtual assistant that is able to simulate human-like contextual conversations and interact with the bank’s customers. The Chatbot can communicate in Chinese and English, and can also understand Cantonese as well as the mixing of English and Chinese. Through interacting with customers, the Chatbot will continuously improve their ability to address customer inquiries.

It is widely expected that worldwide spending on technologies services that enable digital transformation will reach US$1.97 trillion in 2022, per the (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Digital Transformation Spending Guide. IDC predicts that digital transformation spending will grow steadily, achieving a five-year compound annual growth rate of 16.7 percent between 2017 and 2022.

IDC predicts that, by 2020, 30 percent of Global 2000 companies will have allocated capital budget equal to at least 10 percent of revenue to fuel their digital strategies. Advanced analytics is the number-one digital investment – with enterprises planning to increase related deployments by 75 percent during the next 12 to 18 months.

Organizations are at different places in the digital transformation journey. Business leaders face pressure to show that digital transformation initiatives and strategies continue to translate to increased agility and speed for the entire organization. Fostering seamless customer experience has become a crucial goal and thus a crucial part of digital transformation.

What does digital transformation framework look like?

Digital transformation changes widely based on an organization’s challenges and demands. Yet, there are a few constants and common themes among published frameworks that all business leaders should consider when initiating digital transformation.

These digital transformation elements are cited in a wide array of aspects over customer experience, operational agility, culture, leadership, workforce enablement and digital integration. Below are a few examples of digital transformation frameworks include:

· MIT Sloan: The Nine Elements of Digital Transformation

· Cognizant: A Framework for Digital Business Transformation

· Ionology: A Step-By-Step Guide to Digital Transformation

· IDEO: The Human-Centered Design Toolkit

While each guide has its own recommendations and varying considerations, leaders should look for those important themes when mapping out their own digital strategy.

Adapt business to leverage digital transformation

Digital transformations have reshaped how companies approach customer service and enhance user experience. The rise of social media has changed service much like it’s changed advertising, marketing, and even sales and customer service. Forward-thinking companies embrace technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, and social media to extend their service offerings to customers on their platforms.

What happens when Digital Transformation creates Exponential Growth?

It is not that we don’t know exponential growth is coming due to digital transformation. What we misunderstand is the speed at which it comes. At Singularity University, Peter Diamandis talks about the Moore’s Law and the speed of technology accelerating our entire economy. In conclusion, we advise leaders to dive deep into the process of creating powerful tools for scaling the business and stay competitive among competitions.

Just when you think by now surely all companies have mastered their digital transformation, a recent report by Forrester Consulting suggested otherwise. A mere 5% of organizations said they had successfully made digital an advantage over their competitors.

What does a business have to do to become one of those five percenters?

“First and foremost, set a clear digital vision and strategy. It might seem obvious, but many companies do struggle with this simple step,” Andy Ann, Chairman of NDN Group, said. “Improving customer experience is above all one of the top goals in digital transformation.”

“Many companies think making a significant investment in technology is the be-all and end-all of the process. That cannot be further from the truth,” Ann continued.

“That’s right,” chimed in Louise Au, COO of NDN Group. “Technology certainly is a great part of digital transformation, but operational processes and human resources still take centre stage. It’s essential to communicate your end vision and any necessary changes so that everyone in the business is well aware of the direction they’re heading.”

Paula Yang, NDN Group’s GM, explained the concept further. “Digital transformation is a company-wide initiative. For it to succeed, you got to change the work culture and get everyone involved. Build enthusiasm. At the end of the day, your staff are the ones delivering the change. If they’re excited about the transformation and genuinely believe in the benefits that it brings, you’re already halfway there!”

“A good way to start is to invite digital transformation experts to speak to your staff about how to grow business through digital. That does wonders exciting and inspiring staff members,” said Au. “Meanwhile, identify those on your team who welcome digital the most. Provide them with more training and let them be the ambassadors and motivate others from within your business.”

“That includes the senior levels as well,” Ann added. “You’d be surprised how even some of the most senior-level staff can have a hard time appreciating the impact of digital transformation. Bringing in industry experts would certainly help bring across the message.”

“Businesses also need to find ways to engage with their customers through technology. When face-to-face contact is almost non-existent, what can we do to provide quality customer service and give it a bit of a personal touch at the same time?  For instance, how about sending your customers a personalized video instead of a standard email reply?” Yang added. “Also make sure you set clear key performance indicators to measure results and keep track of your progress.

“Do consider partnering up with an expert,” Ann said. “No one knows everything.  Sometimes enlisting third parties that can guide you through the transformation could be a win-win situation and save you loads of money and time in the end.”

“And don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Empower your staff. Let them try out new ideas without the red tape and review them afterwards,” the Chairman concluded.

Digital transformation could be something that everyone is doing, but not everyone is doing it well. Start with a shared vision; experiment with technologies while nurturing innovative cultures over time to sustain the transformation. Let us help! Find out more here.