Paul Rouke and PRWD on User Centered Design

After our branding and marketing strategy work we are delighted to officially launch UCDcommerce, our best practice driven e-commerce platform.

This follows our recent posts on what symbolises customer conversion, an inside look at brand concepting, and strapline brainstorming for UCDcommerce.

UCDcommerce Website Features

If you’ve not already taken a look at the UCDcommerce site, below is a summary of what we have decided to launch with:

An introduction to the platform, explaining how UCDcommerce allows us to deliver User Centered Designed e-commerce solutions

A page dedicated to why your business will benefit from using UCDcommerce, including the statement that “your business recognise the importance of user experience for increasing brand credibility, conversion and retention”

A page showing prospective e-commerce customers exactly who is behind the platform, the amount of credibility and blue chip experience we have, and our expert usability services

Additional areas we have included are:

• A definition of User Centered Design (UCD) for people who aren’t familiar with this method of designing user experiences
• Dynamic links into our most recent articles, on the subjects of UCDcommerce, retailing and best practice

Onwards and upwards

Alongside the development of our Content Management System and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, the continual evolvement of UCDcommerce will now begin in earnest, as we attract the right type of serious online retailers to our business.

After our strapline brainstorming sessions, our brand concepts and considering which symbols best represent customer conversion, our new brand identity for UCDcommerce is now finalised.

Bold, simple and with a touch of personality (plus our key conversion message)

There are 2 variations of the new logo dependant on how they are being used, either horizontally or vertically, and we are delighted with the boldness of the brand, the simplicity and the touch of personality provided by the strapline (top marks for Rob on this!).

UCDcommerce website is round the corner

Following the finalisation of the new brand logo we will shortly be revealing the new website for UCDcommerce, so watch this space!

Following on from my post around symbolising User Centered Design and Customer Conversion for UCDcommerce, I thought it would be good to share some of the brand concepts that I’ve been working on, as we move ever closer to the launch of the new brand identity.

Recapping on some of the USP’s the brand logo should aim to portray

• The brand is all about User Centered Design
• Customer engagement, conversion and retention are key principles
• With UCDcommerce suited to serious online retailers including blue chips, striking a balance between having a slightly corporate edge whilst also delivering fun, engaging and personal e-commerce platforms is fundamental to our proposition

Example’s A - focussing on circles to symbolise our User Centered Design approach

Example’s B - focussing on circles to symbolise converting from unfulfilled through to fulfilled

Example’s C - using straight lines to signify a clear path for customers

Straplines, Symbols and some Brand Logo Concepts

What with brainstorming sessions for straplines, consideration of how symbols can help represent our core principles, and with some of our brand logo concepts on the table, we are now getting much closer to finalising the new brand identity for UCDcommerce and we can’t wait to share it with the online retailing community. So keep an eye out!

As part of our brand development and marketing strategy work for UCDcommerce, I have been working on brand logo concepts.

My key considerations are:

• representing User Centered Design, the foundation for UCDcommerce (hence the brand name!)
• symbolising customer conversion, which again is an integral aspect of the platform
• adopting a clean, minimal identity, representing the clarity at which our e-commerce solutions are based upon
• balancing the corporate, blue chip retailing look and feel with a slightly personal, fun tone of voice
• adopting aspects of our existing brand identity at PRWD

Symbolising User Centered Design

In order to symbolise this fundamental aspect of UCDcommerce, I immediately considered a circle, as this is already used within the PRWD logo to symbolise the continuous cycle of User Centered Design. By this I mean that our solutions/platforms/systems are never finished in the traditional sense, where you don’t go back to something again that is fit for purpose. Instead we continually monitor the performance of our delivered systems following the deployment stage, both because we work with our clients long term but also because providing an exceptional user experience is an on-going process of continual improvement.
This in turn means our processes come full circle as per any high quality User Centered Design process.

Symbolising Customer Conversion

For symbolising Customer Conversion, one of my interpretations of this for e-commerce site’s is of a user/customer starting off unfulfilled. In order to convert this visitor they need to feel fulfilled, in terms of their enjoyment, satisfaction at the shopping journey and having being able to find what they were looking for (if they were in fact sure of what they were after when they arrived at the store!).

Using circles of different shadings, with the use of borders where you would otherwise lose the visibility of lighter shades, I began to play around with circles of different sizes, styles and strengths. See what you think below…

UCDcommerce Identity and Website is Coming

We are absolutely delighted with the progress being made on both the brand identity and the long term marketing strategy for UCDcommerce, and we will soon be launching the the new brand and website to the retailing industry and the usability community.

Following the recent launch of our UCDcommerce platform, we’re now beginning to brainstorm potential straplines for the platform, which will feature on the new logo (hold your horses, we’ve not got to that yet!) and website (when designed and developed).

Straplines Following My Blue Chip Retailing Background

To recap on my reasons why I decided to begin developing UCDcommerce 12 months ago, this came off the back of my 7 years commercial experience in User Centered Design for Shop Direct Group, the UK’s biggest shop at home group. PRWD certainly wasn’t going to settle for any off-the-shelf or mid level e-commerce platform, instead we were going to be in complete control of how our platform will evolve, based upon client, but most importantly users, requirements.

With a continual evolvement of UCDcommerce planned, my initial strapline ideas very much revolved around our aim to deliver enterprise level e-commerce solutions to blue chip clients (both existing and new), and I must admit I was very happy with these 1st ideas.

If you’d like to see my ideas 1st hand, download a pdf mindmap of my initial strapline ideas for UCDcommerce.

Alternatively I’ve listed them out below:

• blue chip e-commerce intelligence
• user centered enterprise e-commerce
• remarkable e-commerce solutions
• harnessing consumer intelligence
• user driven e-commerce
• where business goals meet user goals
• consumer driven e-commerce
• engage, convert and retain customers
• results driven e-commerce
• enterprise level intelligence

What do mean they are corporate and boring!?

Following my personal initial brainstorming the team got together, and although the consensus was that these straplines certainly encompassed the vision and strategy for UCDcommerce, they have a strong leaning towards being corporate and ultimately boring. In addition Katie felt that although users/consumers are key drivers for our platform, these straplines lacked more of a commercial focus. To quote Katie,

“Most of these straplines aren’t selling the benefits to the seller, only the user, and they could be more fun!”

Not one for ignoring constructive criticism, I embraced our teams views and we swiftly moved on to thinking of how to combine the user benefits and the commercial objectives for our User Centered Designed e-commerce platform.

Oh and adding some fun and personality into the strapline where high on the agenda!

Straplines Following Group Brainstorming

You can download a pdf mindmap of our group strapline ideas for UCDcommerce.

Alternatively, they are listed out below:

• converting shoppers to buyers
• driving shoppers to buy
• from shoppers to buyers
• from surfing to spending
• user experience drives sales
• more than a shopping solution
• selling, the right way
• consumer driven e-commerce
• engage and convert shoppers
• because happy users spend more
• because satisfied users increase sales
• because users want to enjoy shopping
• if they enjoy shopping they’ll buy

And the new strapline is…

We’ve not decided yet! Alongside the strapline we are developing the long term strategy for UCDcommerce, and therefore we’re making sure that we don’t rush in making the right decision.

We’d be interested in finding out your views on which straplines resonate best with you, knowing that UCDcommerce is all about delivering user centered shopping experiences which provide engaging shopping experiences, resulting in increased conversions, referrals, basket sizes and repeat visits for our clients.