What we decided to do was focus on excellence in WordPress development, focus on excellence in the one platform that actually we could see was growing in the marketplace, the one that was truly going to make a difference. I don’t want to go home at night knowing I just sold something that isn’t really what the client wants.
Scott Jones is the Founder and Managing Director at Illustrate Digital, a leader in WordPress development and user experience design that specializes in FinTech and Enterprise. Jones is also a board member of FinTech Wales, which champions the FinTech economy and Financial Service sectors throughout the UK.
In this episode of Velocitize Talks, Jones discusses WordPress development and user experience design.
UX is everything (2:03)
You know UX design is ultimately about focusing on the user, and I would say that over the last few years, that focus has become more about the user and less about the business’s priority and what the business wants to get out of the client, and driving the end user story.
According to recent statistics, only 55 percent of companies conduct user experience testing, despite the critical nature of personalizing the user journey. Fun fact: Users are 276 times more likely to climb Mt. Everest than click on a banner ad. Don’t disrupt the flow.
Journey to the center of the user (2:56)
If the journey is not simple, if the journey doesn’t communicate the purpose, the belief, the message of that brand in a very quick, direct way that is targeted to that user then that brand misses out.
Another interesting statistic shows that 70 percent of online businesses fail because of poor user experiences.
If content isn’t still king, it sure is close (4:37)
What we try and do is create an experience that allows content managers and marketers to actually own their own content, to be as relevant as they possibly can, to keep that content as relevant as it can be.
Writing still matters. So does the right format. The Content Marketing Institute lays some out, including evergreen reference tools and glossaries; how-to guides; blog posts; infographics; and Q&A interviews.
Why WordPress? (5:31)
It’s all down to the ability and flexibility that the platform has, it’s open source, it’s free, but it’s built in a way that allows you to slice it here and here, put something in the middle, and just grow that and expand it as much as you need to without actually breaking it completely.
There’s a reason why 35 percent of active websites use the WordPress platform (close to 62 percent of the CMS market)—it’s easy. You don’t have to be a developer to use it, just a marketer with a dashboard.
Are websites facing extinction? (9:18)
It’s not about a website; it’s about an experience. If you change the conversation to experience it’s not the same anymore. People will still want to go and see the credibility of a brand. You could start to bring AI and voice and VR into the conversation… but at the end of the day it’s a computer talking to you, not someone who carefully thought through that journey.
Websites are still an integral component of a comprehensive marketing strategy and brand messaging, as long as they’re not dinosaurs. And apparently users still like real people. In fact, 71 percent of Americans would rather interact with a human than a chatbot, according to a customer experience study conducted by PWC.
If you are in an industry, if you have a niche, if you focus on something then really you should know that subject inside out. You don’t want to be embarrassed when a client asks you, what does this mean and you don’t have a clue.
To learn more about Illustrate Digital, visit their website. Follow them on Twitter at @IllustrateUK.
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