Designers; next time you’re creating a user journey, think KISS. No, not the rock band. The acronym.
KISS stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. And it certainly applies to UX and UI designs. Oftentimes, designers seek to add solutions to fix any problems that arise. But over time, this process can create overly complicated user journeys instead of the cleaner, simple solution.
How do you know when it’s time to clean up your user journey? First, check your engagement data.
“If you’re seeing low engagement in your user journey, it’s time to hit the whiteboard and brainstorm ideas,” Brennan Robinson, XCLAIM’s growth manager, said.
Testing user journeys and putting yourself in your customers’ shoes also works.
“Designers are good interpreters. To be a product designer is to take apart a problem, learn about its origin, its obstacles and who the problem affects,” Natalie Lew, a senior experience designer at ChowNow, said.
Want more tips on how to simplify your product’s user journey? Built In LA sat down with two designers to learn more about what processes they use to identify opportunities for simplification, and the common traps designers face that can complicate the user journey.
What they do: ChowNow is an ordering platform dedicated to helping local restaurants grow and compete in a sustainable way.
When do you know it’s time to simplify your product’s user journey?
Simplifying a product’s user journey is all about a full awareness of the user flow. If you know your user’s thoughts, feelings and desires, you can better predict what steps of your existing product journey are open for modification or removal altogether. However, the goal of a product journey isn’t just to get rid of steps. Instead, it should ask, “Are we actively creating viable happy paths for our users?”
What process do you use to identify opportunities for simplification?
While simplification can be a positive byproduct of modifying an existing user journey, simplification for the sake of simplification often won’t exclusively solve user journey problems. For example, if users are having a difficult time getting from point A to point B, we want to create better opportunities for users to identify what point B is in the first place, why point B is important etc. Merely eliminating steps between point A and point B might not get us to our end goal.
Simplifying a product’s user journey is all about a full awareness of the user flow.”
What are some common traps designers can fall into that result in an overly complicated user journey?
In general, designers are good interpreters. To be a product designer is to take apart a problem, learn about its origin, its obstacles and who the problem affects; then diagnose that problem through a solution. Designers who can diagnose these problems through user journeys, rather than create a journey for the sake of creating it, are very effective.
What they do: XCLAIM helps creditors recover lost value through its global marketplace to digitally trade bankruptcy claims.
When do you know it’s time to simplify your product’s user journey?
If you’re seeing low engagement in your user journey, it’s time to hit the whiteboard and brainstorm ideas. You can analyze your funnel to find the greatest leverage points when it comes to engagement. For example, if we’re seeing a low click rate but high click-to-open rate (CTOR), we know we need to test our subject line because the content in the email is good but people aren’t clicking the email.
Sometimes, our users will let us know it’s time to simplify our user journey. We’ll receive emails that say things like, “You’re emailing me too much (angry face emoji)!” or “Why did you send this to me?!” Negative feedback is a great sign it’s time to simplify the user journey.
What process do you use to identify opportunities for simplification?
When trying to identify opportunities for simplification, it’s best to take your user’s perspective and think backward from what they need and how you can best achieve that goal in the simplest form. Recently, we redesigned our cold onboarding journey. Cold onboarding users are potential users of XCLAIM but have never interacted with our brand. In the previous journey, we sent them weekly content that didn’t have a goal except to keep XCLAIM at the top of their minds.
However, we were seeing low engagement and began to think from our user’s perspective about their needs. We realized we needed to inform and activate. They wanted to know who XCLAIM was, how we can help them, and how they can take action. With this in mind, we brainstormed a new experience that always explained what XCLAIM was and inspired them to take action by giving them activities that would help move them one step closer to their goal.
Sometimes, our users will let us know it’s time to simplify our user journey.”
What are some common traps designers can fall into that result in an overly complicated user journey?
Doing too much at once. Product people and marketers tend to brainstorm big ideas. However, in a startup, it’s crucial to have “a good enough for now” mentality and move fast instead of getting bogged down with a grand vision. Start as simple as possible, with the least amount of work to achieve your goal so you can gather learning and move forward.
On the flip side, the culture of A/B testing by and large highlights the effects that incremental changes can have on performance. For example, changing a button color can be the difference between 1X and 3X in revenue. Sometimes, you have to take major swings to see change. It’s on the teams working together to change a user journey to decide how big of a swing you want to take.
