For Customer Experience Professionals

Assumption Personas Help Overcome Hurdles To Using Research-Based Design Personas

by Jonathan Browne, November 4, 2009

Forrester recommends that customer experience professionals use personas founded in ethnographic research to guide the design of products, channels, and messages. However, some organizations struggle to use personas effectively. To overcome common barriers . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Emotional Experience Design

Creating Online Experiences That Deeply Engage Customers

by Ron Rogowski, October 26, 2009

As consumers increasingly look to connect with companies online, lackluster Web experiences will damage many brands. But better functional design won't solve the problem. Instead, Forrester recommends that companies master the three principles of a new . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Reaching Consumers Who Will Help Product Development

Where And Who Are Those Key Social Media Users That Can Help You Deliver New Killer Products And Services?

by Paul Jackson, October 21, 2009

Having established a need or desire to engage with a consumer community to help product and service development, how do you find, target, and engage the appropriate people? Locating the right channels, forums, and communities is not hard, but this should . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

Targeting Small Business Tech Buyers: The Power Of Owner Personalities

Factoring For Small Business Market Heterogeneity

by Tim Harmon, October 15, 2009

The siren call of the small business (SB) market's sheer size, along with its propensity to lead technology investment in an economic recovery and its increasingly advanced technology adoption patterns, is a compelling target. But the small business market . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Persona Best Practices Of Interactive Agencies

Forrester Applies Its Evaluation Methodology To Personas Provided By 18 Large Interactive Agencies

by Vidya L. Drego, August 27, 2009

Forrester applied its persona evaluation criteria to reference personas provided by 18 interactive agencies for the recent Forrester Wave™. Most of the personas showed some room for improvement, with problems running the gamut in both type and severity. . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

How Social Media Can Improve The Automotive Customer Experience

by Ron Rogowski, July 31, 2009

A recent Forrester survey of 4,500 online consumers showed that people want auto manufacturers to engage them with social media. For auto manufacturers, a good social media strategy can help strengthen relationships with consumers while providing cost-effective . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Pump Up Intranet Adoption With User-Centric Design

by Tim Walters, Ph.D., Matthew Brown, July 7, 2009

Few businesses fully appreciate the importance of an outstanding corporate intranet. Yet Forrester expects that companies will continue their decades-old march toward "self-service" workplaces, making large administrative support staffs either a dinosaur . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Where To Find Help For Web Design Projects, 2009

North American Interactive Agencies Report Their Capacity, Budget, And Industry Capabilities

by Vidya L. Drego, May 8, 2009

Web site owners know that selecting the right Web design vendor can be a stressful and complicated endeavor. Budgets for design services are tight, but interactive design agencies are still selective about the projects they take on. To help kick-start . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Marketing To Recession-Resistant Consumers

by Peter Sargent, April 20, 2009

There's no denying that the economy is in trouble. However, not everyone plans to cut back during this recession. By targeting specific characteristics, interactive marketers can successfully locate consumers who plan to continue spending during tough . . .

For Consumer Market Research Professionals

A Consumer Market Researcher's Introduction To How Quantitative Research Helped Staples Build Robust Personas

by Reineke Reitsma, February 18, 2009

Understanding and analyzing the behavior of your company's Web site visitors should go beyond collecting and analyzing site statistics. Staples represents a best-in-class example of how quantitative research can validate persona development and drive . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Six User-Centered Design Best Practices

by Vidya L. Drego, February 17, 2009

In recent research, Forrester uncovered six best practices in the user-centered design process — for example, Medco links business objectives to customer goals, Wells Fargo uses scenario-starter exercises to gain early stakeholder buy-in, and KeyBank . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Low-Cost User Research And Usability Testing Techniques

by Vidya L. Drego, February 3, 2009

While customer experience efforts held up fairly well in 2008's slumping economy, many customer experience professionals can expect tighter budgets during the coming year. Luckily, user research and testing don't need to end up on the cutting room floor. . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Customer Experience Best Practices From 2008 Finance And Consumer Marketing Forums EMEA

by Jonathan Browne, February 3, 2009

In November 2008, Forrester held concurrent forums in London for consumer marketing and financial services professionals. Leading companies and their design agencies offered insight into their best customer experience practices. Mike Thompson of Barclays . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Quantitative Research Turns Staples' Personas Into Robust Decision-Making Tools

by Vidya L. Drego, January 7, 2009

After redesigning its Web site in 2002 with the help of personas, office-supply giant Staples wanted to see whether its personas were still valid, whether the site was meeting the needs of users, and what those users were doing after they left the site. . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Map User Goals To Business Objectives

Focus On The Right Customer Goals To Drive Business Success

by Megan Burns, December 18, 2008

Customer experience professionals spend much of their time thinking about how to help users accomplish their goals online. But it's equally important for them to think about how user success or failure affects business success. Why? Because doing so allows . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

UI13: User Experience Misconceptions Debunked

by Vidya L. Drego, November 19, 2008

Forrester recently attended the UI13 Conference for customer experience professionals. At the conference, leading practitioners and researchers discussed the latest tools and techniques that help companies improve their design and customer experience. . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Wells Fargo Uses Ethnography To Improve Customer Communications

by Bruce D. Temkin, October 30, 2008

Wells Fargo sends a wide variety of communications, both online and offline, to its customers. To make sure that these communications are "customer friendly," the bank undertook a customer research study using ethnographic techniques. Customers who represented . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

How To Get The Most From Design Personas

It's All About Process, Buy-In, And Solid Personas

by Vidya L. Drego, October 14, 2008

Spending for personas continues to increase, but companies don't use them regularly. Our research uncovered three drivers of persona success: a design process that explicitly incorporates personas, an appropriately developed persona, and organizational . . .

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Brand-Building Online Content Matters For eBusiness And Channel Strategy In A Recession

by Henry H. Harteveldt, October 8, 2008

eBusiness executives need all the help they can get during this economic downturn in making their online businesses more successful. When looking for opportunities to optimize sales, executives must turn an eye toward online content. As an example of . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Case Study: Epicor Software Uses Personas To Boost B2B Search Marketing Results

by Shar VanBoskirk, September 29, 2008

During the past two years, Epicor Software built a paid search marketing program that today provides a good model for B2B marketers initiating search marketing or those looking to better use search to drive leads. By targeting specific audiences with . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

An Interactive Marketer's Introduction To Web Site Imagery That Builds Brands

by Christine Spivey Overby, September 19, 2008

Web site imagery builds brands when it is both helpful and engaging. Interactive marketers should work with their customer experience counterparts to ensure that Web site imagery supports brand attributes and follows basic design principles such as contrast, . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Design Persona Best Practices From Japan

Examining How Four Organizations Successfully Use Design Personas

by Jonathan Browne, September 16, 2008

Forrester decided to highlight four successful design persona initiatives within Japanese organizations that we found during our research. Hakubaku used personas to engage moms with its Web site. Fujitsu used personas to represent the children, teachers, . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Case Study: Iron Mountain Uses Personas For Marketing Success

by Vidya L. Drego, September 12, 2008

Iron Mountain's marketing team found that its product development priorities were driven more by advancements in technology than by customer challenges and pain points. To help remedy this — and therefore increase product differentiation and fit — visionary . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Molecular Brings Brand Personas To Life

Build Better Brand Experiences By Correlating Brand Attributes With Design Personas

by Ron Rogowski, September 8, 2008

Customer experience professionals struggle to create Web sites that support key brand attributes because their organizations often lack a shared definition of the brand. To fill the brand experience void, interactive agency Molecular has developed brand . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Thirteen Obstacles To Persona Success

by Jonathan Browne, August 29, 2008

Early adopters in Japan have started to use design personas across a range of applications including product design, marketing communications, HR strategy, and Web site design. To understand the challenges faced by Japanese companies that have used personas, . . .