Continuous User Experiences

When designing a single user experience for a single platform, it is too easy to become myopic about the individual that will be using the experience, and not take into consideration, that same individual’s behavior on connected or related digital platforms. It is a stretch, for example, to think that a consumer would only visit a company’s web site, and never encounter another digital interface, or digital store front, from the same company. People use the web and mobile devices for different purposes.  One digital platform may even drive usage of another. Information Architects should seek to evolve their research methods to observe a single end-consumer's behavior across a connected, digital ecosystem of browser-based, mobile, and other digital experiences. The end goal, is to develop a holistic digital strategy for the client.

What happens, however, if a client isn’t thinking about, or willing to pay for an engagement with a larger scope, or broader implementation across digital platforms? After all, client engagements typically begin with a single project.  Client budgets may only cover research that yields insights that inform the design of the contracted project.  In this case, it is up to the Information Architect to convince the client that the precious time spent with the end-consumer should be maximized to uncover insights that may prove helpful, when connecting behaviors across all touch points of their planned, digital ecosystem. Missing key behaviors on digital platforms that aren’t immediately relevant, may result in non-scalable interfaces that won’t elegantly support naturally connected experiences across platforms (from an end-user perspective).

Ultimately, upfront end-user research with an intentionally narrow scope, may cost clients more money later, in future research and fixes to non-scalable interfaces. Behavioral personas should illustrate an end-user's total digital lifestyle, not an isolated set of behaviors, if they are to be used to inform the design of a connected set of digital platforms, rather than a single user interface.