Insight
How design elements impact customer experience
James Carr
In today’s hyper-competitive digital landscape, customer experience (CX) has become the ultimate differentiator for brands.
Design is at the heart of this experience, shaping how customers perceive, interact with, and feel about a brand. In fact, design influences everything from a customer’s first impression of a website to their loyalty to a product or service. But we’re not just talking about pretty pictures. Effective design balances aesthetics with function, emotional engagement, and seamless interactions across every touchpoint.
For brands aiming to elevate their CX, design needs to be more than an afterthought – it must be a central part of the strategy.
This article will explore how design elements such as visual aesthetics, functionality, emotional resonance, and omnichannel consistency play a pivotal role in shaping the future of CX. Whether you're a Chief Marketing Officer or Chief Digital Officer, these insights will show why working with a customer experience agency that deeply understands design can be your biggest asset.
Visual design is the art of crafting the look and feel of a digital product or service.
It includes elements like layout, typography, and colour schemes, all working together to create an aesthetically pleasing and functional interface. But visual design isn’t just about beauty—it’s about solving problems.
A well-thought-out design enhances usability, guides user behaviour, and creates emotional connections with customers so that it’s more than beautiful - it’s also functional.
In CX, first impressions are everything.
Studies show that the time it takes for users to form an opinion about a website is incredibly brief—just 0.05 seconds. A well-designed interface instantly conveys professionalism and trustworthiness, while a cluttered, unattractive design can have customers running for the exit.
Take Apple, for example.
Their minimalist design ethos is more than just a visual choice – it’s a carefully crafted user experience that prioritises simplicity, ease of use, and visual appeal. The clean, uncluttered look reinforces Apple’s brand identity of innovation and sophistication, meaning that customers can easily engage with their products (also a significant contributing factor for why they are a multinational technology corporation with huge profits)!
Consistency in design across all touchpoints is crucial for reinforcing brand identity. A consistent design not only makes navigation easier but also strengthens brand recognition.
Visual guidelines, colour palettes, and typography choices should be uniform across your website, app, and physical stores. This coherence builds trust with customers, as they feel they’re interacting with the same brand no matter where they are.
Imagine a brand like Coca-Cola suddenly changing its iconic red-and-white colour scheme on some platforms but not others. It would create confusion and erode the emotional connection customers have with the brand.
Consistency = reliability… and reliability is key to exceptional CX.
No matter how visually stunning a design is, if it’s not usable, customers will be frustrated. Usability refers to how easy it is for users to navigate, interact, and achieve their goals.
Amazon, for instance, is a masterclass in functional design.
Their platform is built for convenience – one-click purchasing, easy-to-find product information, and a seamless checkout process. This frictionless experience is what keeps customers coming back. A 2024 Hotjar study found that as many as twenty five % of users abandon carts because delivery takes too long, and website errors or crashes lead thirteen % of shoppers to abandon checkout. That’s thirty five % of users who potentially haven’t bought from you and instead have bounced off your site to visit a competitors’.
By focusing on usability, brands can make sure their customers don’t waste time figuring out how things work. Instead, they can focus on enjoying the experience, ultimately increasing brand satisfaction and brand loyalty.
Interaction design goes beyond aesthetics; it’s about creating meaningful interactions between the user and the product. Micro-interactions, such as button animations or form feedback, may seem insignificant, but they contribute to an intuitive user journey.
These small design elements often go unnoticed when done well but can lead to significant user frustration when poorly executed.
Ever thought about how satisfying it is when a button visibly responds to a click? For example, when you hover over a button and it changes colour or an animation pops up, giving instant feedback that the system is working. These seemingly tiny details create a sense of control and smoothness, significantly improving the overall CX and encouraging users to buy from you because they’re satisfied with their experience.
In today’s inclusive world, accessible design isn’t just nice to have – it’s a must.
Designing with accessibility in mind means that all customers, including those with disabilities, can engage with your brand. Accessibility not only broadens your audience but also demonstrates empathy, which builds deeper customer loyalty.
Brands that prioritise accessible design, such as BBC with its highly accessible website, set a standard for inclusive customer experience. WCAG Success Criterion 2.1.1: Keyboard requires all websites to be operable with the use of a keyboard alone. The BBC is an excellent example of this, for example taking the down or up button on a keyboard and cycling through every element on the page without needing to use a mouse.
Offering options like text-to-speech, high-contrast colour schemes, and keyboard navigation are simple ways to make sure that everyone can access and enjoy your products or services.
Human emotions drive decisions.
Emotional design is the practice of creating experiences that evoke specific feelings and associations.
Colours, for instance, can have a profound psychological impact – blues may invoke calmness, while red can create a sense of urgency. Designing for emotion allows brands to build deeper connections, driving engagement and increasing loyalty. Up to ninety % of initial impressions are based on colour, highlighting its importance in user engagement and retention.
According to colour psychology, the following colours can be effectively used within web design:
UX designers often harness emotional triggers to keep users coming back.
A great example of this is Duolingo. The language-learning platform uses playful animations and gamification to keep users motivated, while its mascot, Duo, offers encouragement (and sometimes a bit of guilt).
This clever use of emotional design taps into the users' desire to succeed and feel good about their progress, making the learning experience more enjoyable.
Omnichannel design refers to creating a unified experience across all customer touchpoints—whether digital or physical. Customers should have a seamless experience whether they are shopping online, interacting on social media, or visiting a physical store.
Some key features of omnichannel design involve:
Starbucks is a prime example of omnichannel design done right.
Their mobile app, website, and in-store experiences are all interconnected. For example, customers can order through the app and pick up their coffee in-store, a design that prioritises customer convenience and enhances CX.
The following features are what make the Starbucks omnichannel strategy so strong:
By designing a connected experience, brands like yours can make sure that customers remain engaged no matter how you interact with them.
AI is already reshaping the way brands personalise customer experiences. AI-driven designs can anticipate user needs, suggesting products or services based on previous interactions.
Predictive UX, which tailors the design experience based on user behaviour, is becoming a game-changer for brands seeking to offer hyper-personalised experiences. By leveraging machine learning algorithms and analysing vast amounts of user data, predictive UX can anticipate user needs and preferences before they even arise. This allows brands to proactively deliver content, recommendations, and experiences tailored to each individual user, creating a sense of intuition and understanding.
Forbes found that better user experience (UX) design can lead to conversion rate increases of up to four hundred %. Additionally, sixty % of consumers reported that they are likely to become repeat buyers after a personalised purchasing experience. Finally, a 2016 piece of research from Forrester found that for every one $ spent on website UX, businesses could expect a return on investment of up to one hundred $. If this doesn’t encourage you to start thinking about your CX seriously, we don’t know what will!
The future of design lies in immersive technologies like Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
IKEA has already tapped into AR with its app, allowing customers to see how furniture would look in their homes before making a purchase. This blend of physical and digital experience can significantly enhance customer engagement and streamline the buying journey.
AR and VR are both enabled by current digital technological developments in offering a mixed reality via integrated and merged real and virtual worlds, at which physical and virtual objects compliment, support, and interact with each other.
AR and VR create immersive experiences that capture users' attention and keep them engaged for longer periods. For IKEA, this means customers are not just browsing products but interacting with them in a meaningful way. Engaging experiences create emotional connections with the brand, which can increase customer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.
From visual elements to functional interactions, design plays a critical role in shaping customer experience.
As brands look to the future, designing with
Investing in thoughtful, user-centred design not only builds customer loyalty but also creates long-lasting emotional connections.
For brands aiming to elevate their CX, partnering with a customer experience agency like EM Code can unlock new opportunities and deliver breakthrough designs that captivate and engage customers at every touchpoint. Get in touch today if you think your company would benefit from support with their CX and design.
Code is a customer experience, digital innovation and AI agency.
We’re a strategic digital partner that delivers breakthrough growth throughout the customer experience (CX).
We achieve this through our industry-renowned services in digital transformation, web development, brand strategy, conversion rate optimisation (CRO) and UX (user experience).
Our human centric approach underpins every aspect of our work.
A collective of experts in multiple disciplines, we collaborate to distil the complex needs of organisations and end users to engineer solutions that make an impact.
From fast scaling start ups to global brands, we can help you to transform your organisation.
Code is a part of EssenceMediacom North.
EssenceMediacom North helps brands to breakthrough in the new communications economy.
Disrupting models of media, EssenceMediacom North accelerates creative and business transformation for its clients roster, including Hillarys, Absolute Collagen, Webuyanycar.com and United Utilities.
The agency delivers breakthrough growth, capabilities, and revenue through the integration of media, creativity, data and technology, combined with its diverse industry-leading expertise.
Equipped with access to the richest data, robust benchmarking and advanced technologies, EssenceMediacom North unlocks new opportunities to deliver truly integrated media solutions for scaling and global brands.
EssenceMediacom North is part of WPP’s media investment group, GroupM.
