UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
October//4//2024
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
Following a brief break.
1.
The Limitations of NPS (for retailers). This article from Chanel Gaynor for the UserTesting Blog, functions on a multitude of levels, the most obvious one being of course, a plug for the usertesting platform. However once we read beyond that, there’s aspects well worth reflecting upon, namely when the author addresses Omnichannel Product Experiences, Mobile Experience Optimization, and Conversion Rate Improvement. The article also mentions trends such as the integration of AI, AR and VR, The Metaverse, Enhanced Payment Experiences, to name but a few, all of which have various degrees of penetration, credibility and relevance, but nonetheless, buzzwords that are worth paying attention to (at least to understand if the investments pouring into them are actually moving them in any direction that isn’t the one propelled by its creators). All of this to say, Net Promoter Scores are but a tip of a vaster need for data from customers. Highlight of the article includes:
“Continuous customer listening paired with a holistic experience measurement strategy is at the heart of overcoming these retail challenges and addressing the gaps in traditional metrics. A dedicated culture of customer-centricity integrated into your organization’s product development process is essential for fostering innovation, building customer loyalty, and ultimately driving revenue. By consistently gathering and acting on customer feedback, you can stay ahead of the curve and meet evolving customer expectations.”
2.
Improving Email Sender Score. This thorough article from Andrian Valeanu for Unspam Email is a fantastic and very pertinent read. Email continues to be one of the most efficient ways of getting brands to interact with their clients/customers, building relationships if done right, and alienating quite a few others if done poorly. The article details what Email Sender Score is, and how to maintain a healthy score for companies. The article looks at aspects such as Strengthening Technical Aspects, Tracking the Email Sender Reputation, Inspecting Blacklist Providers, Sleaning Subscription List regularly, to name but a few recommendations that are provided. It’s a rewarding read. Highlight of the article includes:
“In simple terms, an email sender score is a digital number that ranges from 0 to 100. It is assigned to every company that communicates with subscribers through digital newsletters. This includes regular and bulk senders and covers all types of emails, such as informative, promotional, and transactional. The higher it is, the more chances email will pass security barriers and land in the inbox. The lower it is, the more email risks to be thoroughly inspected and either directed to the spam folder or rejected. The company may even land in the email provider’s blocklist in the worst-case scenario. Quite often, the email sender score is referred to as email sender reputation because it determines the opinion of key email environment participants about the company through quantitative representation.”
3.
The CEO of AWS and Views on Generative AI. Controversies aside regarding Amazon, this article is a great document registering the interview with AWS’s new CEO, Matt Garman (who started as an intern at the organization in 2005). The article focuses on the strategy Mr. Garman envisions for the organization (he mentions maintaining the market leadership), and his particular take on Generative AI and how AWS is moving in this arena to fulfill clients’ demands (including why hasn’t AWS been more aggressive in this terrain). The closing of services is also addressed, as is the open source ecosystem. The article comes from author Frederic Lardinois. Highlight of the article includes:
“One area where AWS hasn’t necessarily even tried to compete with some of the other technology giants is in building its own large language models. When I asked Garman about that, he noted that those are still something the company is “very focused on.” He thinks it’s important for AWS to have first-party models, all while continuing to lean into third-party models as well. But he also wants to make sure that AWS’ own models can add unique value and differentiate, either through using its own data or “through other areas where we see opportunity.””
