Here at Bottle Rocket Apps, we are ALL about the user when we begin our Strategy, Creative and Design process for our clients’ iOS and Android mobile apps.  With that in mind, we offer a peek under the hood at our inner workings with a random collection of UEX, Marketing, and Brand terminology.  To us, it is important we all have a similar understanding when using these terms.

Audience Segmentation is used to for more specific targeting and providing the user greater relevance.  As an example, Pizza Hut segments it’s consumers into three audiences. The Eating Machine (college age males that view food as fuel, eating pizza multiple times a week), the Families (family consumers that consider the pizza meal a family event once a month) and the Adventurist (not loyal to any pizza brand, eating pizza only a couple times a quarter).  In this case, a mobile app for the Pizza Hut Eating Machine might be designed very differently than an app for the Adventurist.

Brand Equities are the brand characteristics that positively set the brand apart from their competition and is partially responsible for their financial successes. mBrand equities for Apple would be beautiful design, usability, and different.  The apps we develop should exploit, extend and reinforce existing brand equities.

Exception Path is used to refer to a user story or screen flow that identifies an error path or paths outside of the Happy Path (see below).

Happy Path is used to refer to a user story or screen flow that identifies the path the majority of users will experience.  It does not include all the alternative paths, exceptions or alerts.  Usually a Happy Path is fleshed out and then a second iteration of the experience fleshes out the alternative paths, exceptions and alerts.

Key User Tasks are the actions the user is most likely to take.  Usually for an app, there are only a few.  Greater emphasis of experience design should be put on these tasks over other less likely user tasks.  Having only a few key user tasks also helps to keep the app focused and of value for the user.

Lo-Fi is short for Low Fidelity.  Low Fidelity techniques can be used to move design along quickly.  Pencils would be considered a Lo-Fi technique.  Photographing white board ideas and texting them to a client would also be a Lo-Fi technique.

Marketing-Centered Design is an approach to design that emphasizes business goals and marketing strategy.  It is more about the messaging being pushed to the consumer than what the consumer might truly desire.  Marketing-centered design in a casino forces you walk past hundreds of slot machines on your way to the bathroom.  A user-centered design would have put the bathroom in a convenient and easily accessible location.  Marketing-centered design is more common in heavily branded apps.  User-centered design is more common in more utilitarian apps.  Usually, we design for a delicate balance of both to satisfy both our clients and their users.

Production Value is used to describe the level of craftsmanship and polish put on something.  For example, one might claim Star Wars had a higher production value than Plan 9 From Outer Space.  It is usually in reference to aesthetics, it does not refer to how something works or if it is “buggy.”  For purposes of a common understanding across the Bottle Rocket team before designing something, we discuss the production level for which we will be designing.  The production level is influenced by time available, budget, and client expectations.

Reason to Believe is a branding term referring to the end consumer’s belief that a company can deliver on its brand promises.  This belief is often related to brand equity.  If I hear that Apple will be releasing an automobile, my reason to believe that it will be a good automobile is that they have a exceptional track record for beautiful design, usability and thinking different about the products they produce.  If our client puts an app in the app store and is asking me to pay $5 for it, as a consumer I will reflect upon my reasons to believe that company will put out an app worthy of the $5.

User-Centered Design is an approach to design that puts the user’s desires and actions above all other design considerations.  It is an approach that greatly values user input and user testing.  Key user tasks are defined and heavily influence the design.  The chief difference from other product design philosophies is that user-centered design tries to optimize the product around how users can, want, or need to use the product, rather than forcing the users to change their behavior to accommodate the product.