When UX is the King and Content is His Queen!

What is content strategy?

As a formal definition, we can say content strategy plans for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.

Imagine a situation where the content is utterly confusing. Will it worth an amazing UX experience?

Well, the answer is a straight NO.  Even if your designers burn their midnight’s oil to deliver some aesthetically pleasing and functionally comfortable apps or platforms, the poor content will completely kill the user experience and satisfaction. Content Strategy is like a lady love to UX Design, who ensures that UX efforts are actually paid off by being a great couple duo.

Principles of content strategy

Content strategy generally works on the five principles of – Core Strategy, Substance, Structure, Workflow and Governance, as described by the framework of Melissa Rach, Vice President of Content Strategy in Bain Traffic.

With core strategy in the middle, substance and structure form the content components while workflow and governance are the people side of the content framework.

Core Strategy:

It generally starts with the core strategy which helps us to plan the content as per the business goals. During this stage we create a macro view of the content keeping the business ideas into perspective.

Substance:

Next we come to the planning and execution of the content. It starts with substance, which deals in detail about the messages, videos, text, picture that need to be implemented to make sure the core strategy is fulfilling the business objectives. Understanding the target users is very important to design the message architecture in the lines of the user tones and interests.

Structure:

Structures stems out of the information architecture phase of UX Design which focuses on how the content need to organized, prioritized and visible in front of the users. This structuring of the content determines which parts will be highlighted in front of the users and which parts need to be a bit subdued from the user’s interest and conversion point of view. You can check out Fortune Cookie UX Design to know how they conduct this stage for their clients.

Workflow:

In the third stage, we enter into the people side of the content strategy which divides the responsibility of managing the content and tools associated with it to different people. It starts with the users and goes to the internal team explaining the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder to maintain the content workflow.

Governance:

Finally governance implies how the organization needs to map its policies and guidelines to the content and evolve them as they grow.

Content Strategy and UX!

Typically content strategy is not a part of the UX process; however a content strategist will ensure that the UX design is speaking the ideas in a proper manner.

UX and content don’t need to cling to each other, but they should definitely complement each other. The design needs to be done in a manner that the user can relate with the substance at one go. Similarly the content needs to be structured in a way which will actually make the user experience more pleasing and seamless.

As India bids good bye to notes, let’s welcome Fintech

As Narendra Modi embraces cashless India with the recent ban on 500 and 1000 rupee notes, the payment banks and fintech startups are surely having a great Indian festival with the wallet deposits soaring high. This is surely one of the best times to promote cashless transactions and the perfect moment for the payment banks to grab the limelight yet again.

Time to bring back the attention to payment banks:

The payment bank dream went a bit haywire since these banks needed to invest 75 percent in Government securities and some were just not ready to accept this evolution of technology. With plastic money becoming one of the main sources of transaction, this concepts needs to buck up again. Moreover, with the license to issue ATM cards the payment banks fill in the gaps of liquidating the wallet balance any time for these mobile wallet companies.  When the main source of income for these payment banks come in the form of commission fees during third party transactions, the only way to sustain in this business model is by ensuring that the customers are doing enough cashless transactions. A customer will be convinced to use a payment bank or use a digital wallet to pay his regular cab fares, shopping bills, electricity bills and so on only if the process is smoother, easier and quicker than cash transactions. And, when we say an easier transaction process, we mean a smart user interface design.

How to ensure a better user experience for payment banks?

The core objective of payment banks is to push the concept of financial inclusion. When traditional banks can’t tap in the rural interiors, the payment banks can easily fill in these gaps with a deposit limit of 1 lakh rupees. So payment banks or mobile wallets need to be designed in a way such that it caters to the common Indian crowd. Let’s check out a few ways to make it work.

         Easy experience:

A farmer, who has no clue about online shopping sites and has just heard the name of whatsapp, needs to be introduced to this technology. The experience should be such that the functional elements are right in front of his eyes with an easy and simple navigation. The lesser the steps to complete a particular task, the easier it will be.

Content or Messaging:

The substance or the messaging has to be direct and pretty short. The key is to stick to a very simple language which is easily understandable and highlighted.

Quick navigation:

Internet connection is always an issue in India. The wallets need to be designed in a way such that it can work even when the internet connection is not that strong.  The user flow needs to be very quick and seamless to ensure the tasks are completed quickly.

         Local language:

When the app or wallet is targeted towards a large section of Indian crowd, local language is the trump card to win your users’ hearts. The apps should be in a way such that the users’ can relate with it in one go.

         Look and Feel:

The look and feel should be created in a manner such that it speaks the language of the local people.

Video and Images:

Text messaging can never be as eye-catching as videos or images. In fact, videos and images explain the concept in an easier way than text. After all pictures speak better than words.

Though it’s true it will take a long time for the payment banks to sip in the daily habits of the Indian citizens, we are not very far to this evolution with the government pushing it through various reforms and policies.

RBI has already granted license to 11 players. Among them four are in the telecom sectors. These telecom giants can easily tap in to a large number of users and when the target group includes every Indian citizen, the user experience has to very simple and direct.