Customer Experience 2.0:

Designing for a Demanding, Distractible User

Social networking and the interactive tools of Web 2.0 are enabling the creation of highly useful, personalized customer experiences. But only a carefully orchestrated research program can shed light on what users really use and want – and the results are often surprising.

• The Web site has become an essential brand development and customer relationship vehicle with an increasingly significant impact on the bottom line. Many organizations realize that Web sites they created just a few years ago no longer serve the needs and expectations of their customers/users.
• There are no shortcuts to achieving an effective understanding of user expectations of a Web site and what users desire to accomplish. Effective research is critical, but tried-and-true usability lab and web analytics models alone fail to characterize user dynamics in a Web 2.0 world. New models offer both statistically reliable sample data and attitudinal insight.
• Like the navigator's mantra to "always trust the compass," it is incumbent on Web design teams and executive management to understand and act on reliable research rather than subjective notions of what a site should be and do.
• View a brief overview of research methodologies.

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