“What is Branding to you?”
I was being asked to answer this question in one of my interviews. I wanted to share my answer from the UX designer’s perspective.
- Branding is the representation of the product, a definite promise to the customers about what your product offer, and what they must expect.
- UX is about understanding users and creates a product that offers a better experience for the users.
Since the user experience way of approaching to design or redesign leads users and customers to have a positive experience with the product, it also sets the tone for the brand. A good UX leads customers to believe that the product solves not only their problems but also a trustworthy product that they can rely on, whereas a bad UX might entirely ruin the branding and the reputation of the product.
Before doing anything, we need to start by understanding the brand. Considering what the core value of this brand is? What industry it belongs to, and who benefits from it? If a brand belongs to a particular category, how to ensure how people think and feel about the brand based on its core function?
We generally consider the visual representation. We often see this in the prints and advertisements. However, there is one downside of it, which is that people have no interactive engagement with the brand itself. As technology evolves, industries starting to understand the meeting between users and their product matter in their branding, this is when UX steps in. For instance, we see customization in almost every demanding industry nowadays, from food to fashion, from personal care to healthcare, etc.
To represent both UX and branding balanced product, take the Sweet Green’s website, for example, the message it’s communicating are that:
- Green & Clean
- Healthy
- Delicious
And it allows customers to customize their needs.
As UX designers, our role is to apply brand attributions into interactions through understanding both brand and users.
Once the brand representation is out and ready, we can test it with customers to know how effective it’s working. One common way to achieve it is through surveys by asking people to select what term describes the brand the best.
