Experiential Design and Development In Practice

We previously discussed the 4 keys to success in Experiential Design and Development. Let’s walk through a practical example of how these principles come to life.

For this example, let’s consider a life insurance provider. Life insurance is not necessarily an appealing product to think about -- not only are we forced to consider our own mortality, but choosing life insurance can be an arduous, painful process. Let’s say this example brand aspires to differentiate itself by positioning its relationship with customers in a personal, intimate way.

A key step in the conversion funnel for life insurance is helping customers understand what type of life insurance may be a good fit for them and how much coverage they need. At this stage, it’s important to educate customers who do not understand life insurance and guide them through the process. Let’s say our example brand has taken a traditional approach to gathering this information from customers by using form captures.

It’s worth mentioning that forms are one of the few experiences that have not fundamentally evolved since the days of the first web browser. A little innovation wouldn’t hurt -- we'll come back to this point. That said, in the current experience, users enter information about themselves into a number of fields: age, location, marital status, etc.

Let’s walk through how using Experiential Design and Development, this provider can gain a competitive edge and get closer to realizing their vision of a personal, intimate experience with customers.

Observing
Onsite behavior data about the form process -- which is lengthy, cold, and uninviting by nature -- shows that engagement with the form drops off after 50% of the form is completed.

Understanding
If the provider only considered the direct observation data, the brand would likely test different form experiences while limiting themselves to “traditional” form variations -- breaking the form up across several pages, formatting it differently, and so on. However, by considering larger trends, such as user expectations for an interactive, engaging experience, the provider may land on a more innovative approach.

Knowing that this brand aspires to create a more personal, intimate experience, at this stage the brand understands that the current experience is not creating an emotional connection with their users. This becomes an overarching theme in which understanding and improving is framed.

Improving
Fortunately, this life insurance provider has a robust UI/UX team that is closely integrated with the web development team. What if, they supposed, we innovated the form experience such that imagery on the form page dynamically changed based on the information entered? Not only would this reduce the “snooze” factor of the form experience, but it also might build more emotional connections with users, even if in a small capacity. They test the idea by creating a simple illustrated image that lives alongside the form which dynamically changes based on gender, location and marital status data, rendering a male or female illustration, with or without a spouse, that is surrounded by a city, suburban, or rural background.

Repeating
Going back through the cycle, the brand then observes that form drop-off rates decline when the illustrated dynamic component is present. Understanding that this more personalized, interactive, and even fun approach drove greater success in form completions, the brand now understands that users are engaged with this type of dynamic experience. From there, the brand tests the experience by incorporating animation to the image.

Eventually this life insurance provider has evolved the form experience and created a fun, new, and interactive experience for users to submit their data. They have a competitive edge over all the other brands that are not in an active site update or redesign. By positioning their talent teams to be agile and integrated, this life insurance provider was able to test into a unique and innovative experience that goes beyond form submission best practices.

To learn more about how Rise can help your brand edge out your competition with Experiential Design and Development, contact us today.