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User experience, once a differentiator, is now an imperative. The rise of UX as a service ( UXaaS) reflects the industry-wide acceptance that superior user experience is no longer a choice but a requisite for successful products. Businesses have come to realize that the effectiveness of their digital products hinges on their ability to provide users with intuitive, efficient, and delightful interactions, which can ultimately determine whether they lead the market or quickly fall into oblivion. 

In essence, the rise of UX as a service is not just a trend but a fundamental shift in how businesses operate, reinforcing the belief that satisfying users is instrumental for sustained growth and prosperity. User Experience as a Service (UXaaS) has experienced a significant surge and in this article, we will explore compelling industry statistics to gain insights into the topic.  

An Overview of UX as a Service Market Report 

The UXaaS market is thriving within the broader spectrum of user experience and digital transformation domains. The sector encompasses a diverse range of UI/UX design services dedicated to improving the usability, accessibility, and overall quality of digital platforms and applications. These services include user research, usability testing, UI/UX design, audits, and A/B testing. 

To underscore how businesses across different industry verticals are integrating UXaaS to gain competitive advantage and meet the ever evolving user demands, let’s look at some statistics.

1. The Global User Experience Service Market is on the brink of substantial growth, with expectations to increase from USD 1,937.3 million in 2021 to a remarkable USD 48,931.58 million by 2031.
2. This is an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate(CAGR) of 37.8% for the forecast period spanning from 2021 to 2031.
3. Breakdown of the Global User Experience Service Market Share by application areas is as follows:

• Professional design holds the largest share
• Business comes next
• Followed by education
• And other sectors.

What Drives this Boom in the UX Design Industry?

Businesses are increasingly prioritizing user-centric products to boost customer satisfaction and retention. The digital products UI is the first business touchpoint for customers and they get a positive experience interacting with digital products, become brand advocates, and spread positive word-of-mouth. To enhance customer acquisition and retention, businesses are investing in UI UX designs developed by skillful and experienced design companies. 

Key factors that compel organizations to increase budget allocation for UX design

The world is becoming increasingly digitized 

The world is becoming increasingly digitized, with almost all businesses transitioning to online mode. This shift drives up the demand for user-friendly and intuitive websites and applications. Consequently, there is a surging demand for UI/UX design companies that can craft well-designed digital products, making them a valuable asset in today’s market.

Another driving force behind the industry’s growth is the widespread use of mobile devices. As smartphones and tablets have become ubiquitous in our daily lives, businesses must ensure they have mobile-optimized websites and apps that deliver exceptional user experiences. 

Importance of strategic UX investments 

More and more businesses are recognizing the significance of UX design. A notable study conducted by Forrester Research revealed that companies making investments in UX design can realize a remarkable return of $100 for every $1 they put in. Such a return on investment is undeniably impressive. 

In an article on Forbes, the founder and CEO of Intechnic emphatically stated that the business case for User Experience (UX) is a matter of survival. He argues that companies that don’t embrace UX will lag behind their competitors.

Furthermore, a study conducted by the Design Management Institute analyzed 16 publicly traded stocks from design-centric companies. They used a set of criteria called the Design Value Index, which includes factors like “design operating at scale across the entire enterprise” and “increased investment in design to support its growing influence.”

The findings revealed that organizations meeting the Design Value Index showed an impressive “211% return over the S&P 500, the American stock market index. This marks the third consecutive year with results exceeding 200% over the S&P,” according to the report.

UX design is no longer just aesthetics it is about creating an optimal user experience 

A great user experience is the result of a blend of creativity, attention to detail, and a deeper understanding of user needs and preferences. Business giants like Apple, Airbnb, and Amazon are prime examples of how the best practices in UX design can fuel customer satisfaction and drive business growth.

Apple, for instance, centers its approach on creating intuitive, user-friendly products. By prioritizing simplicity and ease of use, Apple has cultivated a loyal customer base willing to pay a premium for their products.

In a similar vein, Airbnb has made substantial investments in UI/UX design to ensure its platform is highly intuitive, facilitating easy bookings and property listings for users. Amazon, too, capitalizes on UX design to fuel its growth. Their website prioritizes usability, enabling users to easily find and purchase products. Personalized recommendations and a streamlined checkout process contribute to their success as one of the world’s largest retailers, generating billions in annual revenue.

Not just visual and usability aspects, UX also focuses on enriching content experiences. A key example is the use of DAM (Digital Asset Management) metadata by organizations to improve the content experience. By creating a single source of truth for all assets across an organization, DAM metadata improves the user experience within an organization. 

Cost-effective expertise

UXaaS allows businesses to access a dedicated team of user experience experts without the overhead costs of hiring and maintaining an in-house UX team. This can significantly reduce expenses while ensuring access to top-tier UX professionals who can enhance the user experience of your products or services.

Scalability and flexibility of UX design services 

UX needs can vary over time, and businesses may require more or fewer UX resources based on project demands. UXaaS offers the flexibility to scale resources up or down as needed, ensuring that businesses can adapt to changing requirements without long-term commitments.

The bottom line is that businesses are significantly enhancing the user experience for their customers and users, recognizing the evolving role of UX design in today’s interconnected digital world.

The Dawn of Next-Gen UX Design Agencies 

The UX as a Service Market report has received wholehearted approval from design leaders. One key takeaway is that the fusion of creativity and technology can significantly boost business profitability. This makes companies fearlessly experiment with cutting-edge technologies, to stride into a new era for enhancing user experience within the digital sphere. 

To recap:

• The User Experience Service Market is expected to grow significantly by 2031, indicating a rising demand for user experience services.
• The high Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 37.8% suggests rapid market expansion.
• Professional design, business, and education sectors are leading in adopting user experience services.
• The presence of “other sectors” highlights the market’s diversity and the potential for UI UX design services to extend to various industries.
• This growth signifies businesses’ increasing focus on providing excellent user experiences to stay competitive.
• The market expansion offers significant opportunities for user experience service providers.
• It reflects a shift toward a user-centric approach in different sectors, where the user’s needs and expectations take center stage.

Featured image by UX Indonesia on Unsplash

The post 5 reasons why you should invest in UXaaS to boost your business  appeared first on noupe.

Remember when Comic Sans wasn’t the butt of the jokes? Long for the days when we actually enjoyed using the Impact font? In this list, we’re going to condense down ten of the most despised typefaces of all time.

In my previous article, we tackled ribbons in CSS. The idea was to create a classic ribbon pattern using a single element and values that allow it to adapt to however much content it contains. We established a shape with repeating CSS gradients and tailor-cut the ribbon’s ends with clip-path() to complete the pattern, then used it and wound up with two ribbon variations: one that stacks vertically with straight strands of ribbons and another that tweaks the shape by introducing pseudo-elements.

If you are wondering why I am using 80%, then there is no particular logic to my approach. It’s because I found that covering more space with the color and leaving less space between lines produces a better result for my eye. I could have assigned variables to control the space without touching the core code, but there’s already more than enough complexity going on. So, that’s the reasoning behind the hard-coded value.

Styling The First Ribbon

We’ll start with the red ribbon from the demo. This is what we’re attempting to create:

It may look complex, but we will break it down into a combination of basic shapes.

Stacking Gradients

Let’s start with the gradient configuration, and below is the result we are aiming for. I am adding a bit of transparency to better see both gradients.

h1 {
  --c: #d81a14;

  padding-inline: .8lh;
  background:
    /* Gradient 1 */
    linear-gradient(var(--c) 80%, #0000 0) 
      0 .1lh / 100% 1lh,
    /* Gradient 2 */
    linear-gradient(90deg, color-mix(in srgb, var(--c), #000 35%) 1.6lh, #0000 0) 
      -.8lh 50% / 100% calc(100% - .3lh) repeat-x;
}

We already know all about the first gradient because we set it up in the last section. The second gradient, however, is placed behind the first one to simulate the folded part. It uses the same color variable as the first gradient, but it’s blended with black (#000) in the color-mix() function to darken it a smidge and create depth in the folds.

The thing with the second gradient is that we do not want it to reach the top and bottom of the element, which is why its height is equal to calc(100% - .3lh).

Note the use of padding in the inline direction, which is required to avoid text running into the ribbon’s folds.

Masking The Folded Parts

Now, it’s time to introduce a CSS mask. If you look closely at the design of the ribbon, you will notice that we are cutting triangular shapes from the sides.

We have applied a triangular shape on the left and right sides of the ribbon. Unlike the backgrounds, they repeat every two lines, giving us the complex repetition we want.

Imagine for a moment that those parts are transparent.

That will give us the final shape! We can do it with masks, but this time, let’s try using conic-gradient(), which is nice because it allows us to create triangular shapes. And since there’s one shape on each side, we’ll use two conical gradients — one for the left and one for the right — and repeat them in the vertical direction.

mask:
  conic-gradient(from 225deg at .9lh, #0000 25%, #000 0) 
    0 1lh / 50% 2lh repeat-y,
  conic-gradient(from 45deg at calc(100% - .9lh), #0000 25%, #000 0) 
    100% 0 / 50% 2lh repeat-y;

Each gradient covers half the width (50%) and takes up two lines of text (2lh). Also, note the 1lh offset of the first gradient, which is what allows us to alternate between the two as the ribbon adapts in size. It’s pretty much a zig-zag pattern and, guess what, I have an article that covers how to create zig-zag shapes with CSS masks. I highly recommend reading that for more context and practice applying masks with conical gradients.

Masking The Ribbon’s Ends

We are almost done! All we are missing are the ribbon’s cut edges. This is what we have so far:

We can fill that in by adding a third gradient to the mask:

mask:
  /* New gradient */
  linear-gradient(45deg, #000 50%, #0000 0) 100% .1lh / .8lh .8lh no-repeat,

  conic-gradient(from 225deg at .9lh, #0000 25%, #000 0) 
   0 1lh / 50% 2lh repeat-y,
  conic-gradient(from 45deg  at calc(100% - .9lh), #0000 25%, #000 0) 
   100% 0 / 50% 2lh repeat-y;

That linear gradient will give us the missing part at the top, but we still need to do the same at the bottom, and here, it’s a bit tricky because, unlike the top part, the bottom is not static. The cutout can be either on the left or the right based on the number of lines of text we’re working with:

We will fill in those missing parts with two more gradients. Below is a demo where I use different colors for the newly added gradients to see exactly what’s happening. Use the resize handle to see how the ribbon adjusts when the number of lines changes.

Styling The Second Ribbon

The second ribbon from the demo — the green one — is a variation of the first ribbon.

I am going a little bit faster this time around. We’re working with many of the same ideas and concepts, but you will see how relatively easy it is to create variations with this approach.

The first thing to do is to add some space on the top and bottom for the cutout part. I’m applying a transparent border for this. The thickness needs to be equal to half the height of one line (.5lh).

h1 {
  --c: #d81a14;

  border-block: .5lh solid #0000;
  padding-inline: 1lh;
  background: linear-gradient(var(--c) 80%, #0000 0) 0 .1lh / 100% 1lh padding-box;
}

Note how the background gradient is set to cover only the padding area using padding-box.

Now, unlike the first ribbon, we are going to add two more gradients for the vertical pieces that create the folded darker areas.

h1 {
  --c: #d81a14;

  border-block: .5lh solid #0000;
  padding-inline: 1lh;
  background:
    /* Gradient 1 */
    linear-gradient(var(--c) 80%, #0000 0) 0 .1lh / 100% 1lh padding-box,
    /* Gradient 2 */
    linear-gradient(#0000 50%, color-mix(in srgb, var(--c), #000 35%) 0) 
     0 0 / .8lh 2lh repeat-y border-box,
    /* Gradient 3 */
    linear-gradient(color-mix(in srgb, var(--c), #000 35%) 50%, #0000 0) 
     100% 0 / .8lh 2lh repeat-y border-box;
}

Notice how the last two gradients are set to cover the entire area with a border-box. The height of each gradient needs to equal two lines of text (2lh), while the width should be consistent with the height of each horizontal gradient. With this, we establish the folded parts of the ribbon and also prepare the code for creating the triangular cuts at the start and end of the ribbon.

Here is an interactive demo where you can resize the container to see how the gradient responds to the number of lines of text.

Applying only the conic gradients will also hide the cutout part, so I have to introduce a third gradient to make sure they remain visible:

mask:
  /* New Gradient */
  linear-gradient(#000 1lh, #0000 0) 0 -.5lh,
  /* Left Side */
  conic-gradient(from 225deg at .9lh, #0000 25%, #000 0) 
   0 1lh / 51% 2lh repeat-y padding-box,
  /* Right Side */
  conic-gradient(from 45deg at calc(100% - .9lh), #0000 25%, #000 0) 
   100% 0 / 51% 2lh repeat-y padding-box;

And the final touch is to use clip-path for the cutouts at the ends of the ribbon.

Notice how the clip-path is cutting two triangular portions from the bottom to make sure the cutout is always visible whether we have an odd or even number of lines.

This is how the final code looks when we put everything together:

h1 {
  --c: #d81a14;

  padding-inline: 1lh;
  border-block: .5lh solid #0000;
  background: 
    linear-gradient(var(--c) 80%, #0000 0)
      0 .1lh / 100% 1lh padding-box,
    linear-gradient(#0000 50%, color-mix(in srgb,var(--c), #000 35%) 0)
      0 0 / .8lh 2lh repeat-y border-box,
    linear-gradient(color-mix(in srgb, var(--c), #000 35%) 50%, #0000 0)
      100% 0 / .8lh 2lh repeat-y border-box;
  mask:
    linear-gradient(#000 1lh, #0000 0) 0 -.5lh,
    conic-gradient(from 225deg at .9lh,#0000 25%,#000 0)
     0 1lh/51% 2lh repeat-y padding-box,
    conic-gradient(from 45deg at calc(100% - .9lh), #0000 25%, #000 0)
     100% 0 / 51% 2lh repeat-y padding-box;
  clip-path: polygon(0 0, calc(100% - .8lh) 0,
    calc(100% - .4lh) .3lh,
    100% 0, 100% 100%,
    calc(100% - .4lh) calc(100% - .3lh),
    calc(100% - .8lh) 100%, .8lh 100%, .4lh calc(100% - .3lh), 0 100%);
}

I challenged you to find a way to reverse the direction of the first ribbon by adjusting the gradient values. Try to do the same thing here!

It may sound difficult. If you need a lifeline, you can get the code from my online collection, but it’s the perfect exercise to understand what we are doing. Explaining things is good, but nothing beats practicing.

The Final Demo

Here is the demo once again to see how everything comes together.

See the Pen Responsive multi-line ribbon shapes by Temani Afif.

Wrapping Up

There we go, two more ribbons that build off of the ones we created together in the first article of this brief two-part series. If there’s only one thing you take away from these articles, I hope it’s that modern CSS provides us with powerful tools that offer different, more robust approaches to things we used to do a long time ago. Ribbons are an excellent example of a long-living design pattern that’s been around long enough to demonstrate how creating them has evolved over time as new CSS features are released.

I can tell you that the two ribbons we created in this article are perhaps the most difficult shapes in my collection of ribbon shapes. But if you can wrap your head around the use of gradients — not only for backgrounds but masks and clipping paths as well — you’ll find that you can create every other ribbon in the collection without looking at my code. It’s getting over that initial hurdle that makes this sort of thing challenging.

You now have the tools to make your own ribbon patterns, too, so why not give it a try? If you do, please share them in the comments so I can see your work!

Further Reading On SmashingMag

• “Create Responsive Image Effects With CSS Gradients And aspect-ratio,” Stephanie Eckles
• “Inspired Design Decisions With Alexey Brodovitch,” Andrew Clarke
• “Gradients, Blend Modes, And A Really Cool Hover Effect,” Preethi Sam
• “A Deep CSS Dive Into Radial And Conic Gradients,” Ahmad Shadeed

In recent years, augmented reality has emerged as a transformative force, reshaping the way we interact with the digital field. Defined as the integration of virtual elements into our physical environment, it enriches our sensory experiences by overlaying digital information onto the real world. So, it’s no wonder the technology has successfully made its way to web design. 

In this article, we’ll explore the rise of augmented reality technology in web design and the intricacies of its integration into the realm of web engineering.

Understanding Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) stands at the intersection of the physical and digital realms, offering a dynamic and interactive overlay of computer-generated information onto our perception of the real world. Unlike virtual reality (VR), which immerses users in entirely virtual environments, AR enhances the existing reality by supplementing it with simulated sensory inputs.

Computer simulation effects are achieved through the utilization of specialized hardware, such as AR-enabled devices like smartphones, tablets, or dedicated headsets. These devices employ an array of sensors, cameras, and algorithms to detect and analyze the surrounding environment, allowing for the seamless integration of virtual objects, graphics, and animations.

AR technology not only recognizes and tracks physical surfaces and objects but also adjusts virtual elements in real time to align with changes in the user’s perspective. Such a dynamic interaction creates a remarkably immersive experience, enabling users to perceive digital content in a way that feels natural and intuitive.

Historical Context of Augmented Reality

The concept of AR can be traced back to the 1960s when computer scientist Ivan Sutherland introduced the world to the first head-mounted display system known as the “Sword of Damocles.” This rudimentary device laid the foundation for immersive computing experiences. 

In the 1990s, Boeing researcher Tom Caudell coined the term “Augmented Reality” while working on a project that utilized head-mounted displays to aid assembly line workers by overlaying digital information onto physical objects. This marked a significant milestone in AR’s development, as it demonstrated its potential to enhance human capabilities in real-world environments.

The integration of AR into web design is a testament to the rapid advancement of technology. The creation of computer simulation software development kits (SDKs) and frameworks, such as Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore, has streamlined the process of creating AR applications. These platforms provide a robust set of tools and APIs, allowing developers to build virtual experiences with relative ease.

Recently, web technologies have also evolved to support AR integration. WebAR, a subset of AR, leverages standard web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and WebGL to deliver simulations directly through a web browser. This eliminates the need for users to download dedicated apps, making virtual effects more accessible and user-friendly.

The Intersection of AR and Web Design

Traditionally, websites have been limited to two-dimensional interfaces, relying on text, images, and videos. AR revolutionizes this paradigm by introducing a new dimension to web design. It empowers designers to create interactive and engaging experiences that bridge the gap between the virtual and physical worlds.

When a user accesses an AR-enabled site, the browser utilizes the device’s camera and sensors to scan and interpret the surroundings. Virtual objects or information are then superimposed onto the live video feed, creating a composite view that seamlessly blends the real and virtual worlds. As such, AR extends the boundaries of interaction by allowing users to engage with content in three dimensions, within their own physical space.

AR-powered web design offers a wide array of applications across various industries. From e-commerce platforms allowing customers to visualize products in their own space to educational websites providing interactive learning practices, the potential for simulated reality to enhance user engagement and satisfaction is boundless. 

Moreover, this tech enables businesses to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive online landscape, providing a unique and memorable user experience that sets them apart.

While the adoption of AR in web design can be transformative, successfully implementing it requires expertise. It’s crucial for businesses to hire web developers who are skilled in integrating AR functionalities seamlessly into websites. With the right team of developers, companies can ensure that their AR-enabled websites provide an optimal user experience, maximizing the potential of this innovative technology.

AR Benefits in Web Design

By 2025, 25% of leading brands are expected to make computer simulations an integral part of their website interfaces which is no wonder since AR integration into web design offers a host of advantages that enhance user experiences and give businesses a competitive edge.

Enhanced Engagement and Interactivity

One of the primary benefits companies will reap by incorporating virtual effects into interface design is the increased level of engagement and interactivity it provides for users. Interactive elements prove to increase user engagement by nearly 50% and boost user retention rates by 60%.

• Immersive Experiences: AR transforms static content into dynamic, interactive materials. Users can engage with virtual objects, explore products, and interact with digital elements in their physical environment. Such increased interactivity fosters a deeper level of engagement compared to traditional web interfaces.
• Spatial Awareness: The tech provides users with a sense of spatial context by overlaying simulated content onto their physical surroundings. Spatial awareness enables users to visualize how products or information relate to their real-world environment, enhancing comprehension and decision-making.
• Gamification and Entertainment: Computer simulation introduces gamification elements, turning interactions into playful experiences. This can be particularly effective for educational platforms, marketing campaigns, and entertainment websites, encouraging user participation and enjoyment. iGaming development also harnesses the power of computer simulation. By introducing gamification elements, turns user interactions into enjoyable and playful experiences.
• Dynamic Feedback: AR offers real-time feedback based on user interactions. For example, in a virtual dressing room scenario, users can see how different clothing items fit and move as they adjust their position, providing immediate and valuable insights.

Personalized User Experiences

In 2023, over 68% of web designers view user experience as a top priority when developing sites. In the meantime, AR-driven web design allows for tailored experiences that cater to individual preferences and needs, which, in turn, greatly amplifies overall user interest and experience. Here is how it’s achieved.

• Product Visualization: In e-commerce, AR enables users to visualize products in their own environment before making a purchase. This individualized approach enhances confidence in product selection and reduces the likelihood of returns.
• Customizable Content: Simulated reality can adapt content based on user behavior, preferences, and location. For instance, a travel website can offer personalized recommendations and information about local attractions using virtual overlays.
• User-Centric Learning: Educational platforms can use AR to create custom learning practices, adapting content to the user’s pace, learning style, and level of understanding. This fosters a more effective and engaging learning environment.
• Accessibility Features: In the context of e-commerce and magento security services, AR can also enhance user accessibility features. AR can be used to provide customized accessibility options, matching users with specific needs. For example, the tech can assist visually impaired users by providing audio descriptions of visuals.

Competitive Advantage and Brand Differentiation

AR in web design is a powerful tool for businesses to be at the forefront of innovation and stand out in a crowded digital landscape. 

• Memorable User Experiences: Offering AR-enhanced experiences sets a brand apart and leaves a lasting impression on users. This unique and memorable interaction can lead to increased brand loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals. And over 92% of consumers are attracted by word-of-mouth referrals more than by other types of ads.
• Innovative Brand Image: By adopting computer simulations, a brand showcases a forward-thinking and tech-savvy image. This perception of innovation can attract tech-savvy audiences and position the brand as a leader in its industry.
• Market Differentiation: In competitive markets, AR can be a game-changer. It provides a distinct value proposition that competitors may not offer, giving the business a competitive edge.
• Increased Conversion Rates: The interactive and personalized nature of virtual experiences can lead to higher conversion rates. Users who engage with AR are more likely to make informed decisions and complete desired actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service. 

Use Cases for AR in Web Design

Offering multiple benefits to businesses, AR integration in web design finds diverse applications across different industries. Many bigger brands have already embraced this trend in their websites to provide a unique browsing experience to their users. 

• Ikea Place: Ikea’s AR application allows users to visualize how furniture and home accessories would look and fit in their own spaces before buying the items. By using the camera on a mobile device, customers can place virtual objects in their real environment, allowing for a more accurate assessment of scale and style.
• Sephora Artist: Sephora’s AR tool enables customers to try on makeup virtually. They can experiment with different shades of lipstick, eyeshadow, and other cosmetics. The simulated reality technology maps facial features and overlays virtual makeup products, providing a realistic representation of how they would look in reality.
• Converse Shoe Try-On: Converse’s computer simulation allows consumers to virtually try on different shoe styles, providing an interactive and personalized shopping experience. By scanning their feet using a mobile device camera, customers can see how various Converse shoe models fit and look on their own feet.
• Google Maps Live View: This feature integrates AR to help users navigate through cities and find their destinations more easily. By utilizing a smartphone camera, Live View superimposes directional arrows and location markers onto the real-world environment, providing visual cues for navigation.
• Air Jordan 3D Shoe Model: Nike introduced an AR experience that enables users to explore the Air Jordan III model in detail, including its design history and unique features. By scanning a QR code, users can place a 3D model of the shoe in their environment and interact with it through gestures and touch.
• BMW iVisualizer: An AR tool from a renowned automaker allows customers to explore and customize their dream car models in real-world conditions. They can use their mobile device or tablet to project life-sized virtual BMW models into their surroundings for a detailed examination of design elements.

To Conclude

Augmented Reality is poised to reshape web design, delivering unprecedented levels of interactivity, engagement, and personalization. As tech continues to advance, web creators have the opportunity to lead the way in creating innovative and immersive digital experiences that will shape the future of the online landscape. By staying informed, embracing new technologies, and prioritizing user-centric design, they can play a crucial role in this exciting evolution.

Featured image by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash

The post The Rise of Augmented Reality in Web Design appeared first on noupe.

For those involved in digital and physical product development or leadership, consider a Voice of Customer (VoC) program. A VoC program systematically gathers and analyzes customer insights, channeling user opinions into actionable intelligence. VoC programs use surveys, analytics, interviews, and more to capture a broad range of customer sentiment. When implemented effectively, a VoC program transforms raw feedback into a roadmap for strategic decisions, product refinement, and service enhancements.

By proactively identifying issues, optimizing offerings for user satisfaction, and tailoring products to real-time demand, VoC programs keep companies ahead. Moreover, in a world of fleeting consumer loyalty, such programs build trust and enhance the overall brand experience. VoC has been a standard CX practice that UX and product teams can utilize to their advantage. We’ll focus on VoC for digital products for this article. However, the methods and lessons learned are equally applicable to those working with physical products.

Successful product teams and User Experience (UX) practitioners understand that customer feedback is invaluable. It guides decisions and fosters innovation for products and services. Whether it’s e-commerce platforms refining user interfaces based on shopper insights or social media giants adjusting algorithms in response to user sentiments, customer feedback is pivotal for digital success. Listening, understanding, and adapting to the customer’s voice are key to sustainable growth.

The role of UX research in capturing the Voice of the Customer

UX research serves as the bridge that spans the chasm between a company’s offerings and its customers’ perspectives. UX research plays a pivotal role in capturing the multifaceted VoC. Trained UX researchers transform raw feedback into actionable recommendations, guiding product development and design in a direction that resonates authentically with users.

Ultimately, UX research is the translator that converts the diverse, nuanced VoC into a coherent and actionable strategy for digital companies.

Setting Up A Voice Of Customer Program

Overview Of Steps

We’ve identified six key steps needed to establish a VoC program. At a high level, these steps are the following:

1. Establishing program objectives and goals.
2. Identifying the target audience and customer segments.
3. Selecting the right research methods and tools.
4. Developing a data collection framework.
5. Analyzing and interpreting customer feedback.
6. Communicating insights to stakeholders effectively.

We’ll discuss each of these steps in more detail below.

Establishing Program Objectives And Goals

Before establishing a VoC program, it’s crucial to define clear objectives and goals. Are you aiming to enhance product usability, gather insights for new feature development, or address customer service challenges? By outlining these goals, you create a roadmap that guides the entire program. You will also avoid taking on too much and maintain a focus on what is critical when you state your specific goals and objectives. Specific objectives help shape research questions, select appropriate methodologies, and ensure that the insights collected align with the strategic priorities of the company.

You should involve a diverse group of stakeholders in establishing your goals. You might have members of your product teams and leadership respond to a survey to help quantify what your team and company hope to get out of a VoC. You might also hold workshops to help gain insight into what your stakeholders consider critical for the success of your VoC. Workshops can help you identify how stakeholders might be able to assist in establishing and maintaining the VoC and create greater buy-in for the VoC from your stakeholders. People like to participate when it comes to having a say in how data will be collected and used to inform decisions. If you come up with a long list of goals that seem overwhelming, you can engage key stakeholders in a prioritization exercise to help determine which goals should be the VoC focus.

Identifying The Target Audience And Customer Segments

Once you create clear objectives and goals, defining the target audience and customer segments will be important. For example, you decide your objective is to understand conversion rates between your various customer segments. Your goal is to increase sign-up conversion. You would want to determine if your target audience should be people who have purchased within a certain time frame, people who have never made a purchase, people who have abandoned carts, or a mix of all three.

Analytics can be critical to help create shortcuts at this point. You might start by looking at analytical data collected on the sign-up page to identify age gaps to set the target audience to understand why that specific age gap(s) are not signing up, whether there is evidence certain segments are more likely to abandon carts, and which segments are less likely to visit your site at all. Then, based on these clear objectives and goals, as well as identifying a target audience and customer segment, you could select the right research method and tools to collect data from the audience segment(s) you’ve identified as critical to collect feedback from.

Selecting The Right Research Methods And Tools

The success of a VoC program hinges on the selection of appropriate research methods and tools. Depending on your objectives, you might employ a mix of quantitative methods like surveys and analytics to capture broad trends, along with qualitative methods like user interviews and usability testing to unearth nuanced insights. Utilizing digital tools and platforms can streamline data collection, aggregation, and analysis. These tools, ranging from survey platforms to sentiment analysis software, enhance efficiency and provide in-depth insights.

The key is to choose methods and tools that align with the program’s goals and allow for a holistic understanding of the customer’s voice.

Your UX researcher will be critical in helping to identify the correct methods and tools for collecting data.

For example, a company could be interested in measuring satisfaction with its current digital experience. If there are currently no metrics being captured by the company, then a mixed method approach could be used to try to understand customers’ current attitudes towards the digital experience at a large scale and then dive deeper at a smaller scale after analyzing the survey. The quantitative survey could contain traditional metrics to measure people’s feelings like Net Promoter Score (NPS), which attempts to measure customer loyalty using a single item and/or System Usability Scale (SUS), which attempts to measure system usability using a brief questionnaire, and then based on the data collected, would drive the types of questions asked in a qualitative interview.

To collect the survey information, an online survey tool could be used that can draft and calculate metric questions for you. Many tools have integrated analysis that allows users to do statistical analysis of quantitative data collected and light semantic reviews on qualitative data. You can share the survey data easily with your stakeholder groups and then shape an interview protocol that will allow you to reach out to a smaller group of users to get deeper insight into the findings from the survey.

Developing A Data Collection Framework

Collecting feedback requires a structured approach to ensure consistency and reliability. Developing a data collection framework involves creating standardized surveys, questionnaires, and interview protocols that gather relevant information systematically. A well-designed framework ensures you capture essential data points while minimizing biases or leading questions. This framework becomes the backbone of data collection efforts, enabling robust analysis and comparison of feedback across various touchpoints and customer segments.

Your data collection framework should include the following:

• Objectives and research questions.
• Data sources, whether it’s surveys, user interviews, website analytics, or any other relevant means.
• Data collection methods with an emphasis on reliability and validity.
• A robust data management plan. This includes organizing data in a structured format, setting up appropriate storage systems, and ensuring data security and privacy compliance, especially if dealing with sensitive information.
• Timing and frequency of data collection, as well as the duration of your study. A well-thought-out schedule ensures you gather data when it’s most relevant and over a suitable time frame.
• A detailed data analysis plan that outlines how you will process, analyze, and draw insights from the collected data.

Analyzing And Interpreting Customer Feedback

Collecting data is only half the journey; the real value lies in analyzing and interpreting the data collected. This involves processing both quantitative data (such as survey responses) and qualitative data (such as open-ended comments). Data analysis techniques like sentiment analysis, thematic coding, and pattern recognition help distill valuable insights.

These insights unveil customer preferences, emerging trends, and pain points that might require attention. Your UX researcher(s) can take the lead, with assistance from other team members, in helping to analyze your data and interpret your findings. The interpretation phase transforms raw data into actionable recommendations, guiding decision-making for product improvements and strategic initiatives.

Communicating Insights To Stakeholders Effectively

The insights derived from a VoC program hold significance across various levels of the organization. Effectively communicating these insights to stakeholders is critical for driving change and garnering support. Presenting findings through clear, visually engaging reports and presentations helps stakeholders grasp the significance of customer feedback. Additionally, highlighting actionable recommendations and illustrating how they tie back to strategic objectives empowers decision-makers to make informed choices. Regularly updating stakeholders on progress, outcomes, and improvements reinforces the ongoing value of the VoC program and fosters a culture of customer-centricity within the organization.

Key Components Of A Successful Voice Of Customer Program

Building A Culture Of Feedback Within The Organization

A successful VoC program is rooted in an organizational culture that prioritizes feedback at all levels. This culture begins with leadership setting the example by actively seeking and valuing customer opinions. When employees perceive that feedback is not only encouraged but also acted upon, it fosters an environment of collaboration and innovation. This culture should extend across departments, from marketing to development to customer service, ensuring that every team member understands the role they play in delivering exceptional experiences. By integrating customer insights into the company’s DNA, a feedback culture reinforces the notion that everyone has a stake in the customer’s journey.

Start small and incorporate research activities into product development to start harnessing a user-centric approach. Develop reports that showcase the business purpose, findings, and recommendations that can be presented to the product development team and stakeholders, but also to other departments to show the value of VoC research. Lastly, provide opportunities to collaborate with other departments to help them incorporate VoC into their daily activities. As a result, a culture of incorporating a VoC program becomes reinforced.

There are many ways you can go about building this culture. Some specific examples we’ve used include facilitating cross-product or cross-discipline meetings to plan research and review findings, workshops bringing together stakeholders from various lines of business or roles to help shape the research agenda, and perhaps most importantly, identifying and utilizing a champion of insights to promote findings throughout the organization. Ideally, your champion would hold a position that allows them to have exposure horizontally across your business and vertically up to various key stakeholders and members of leadership. Your champion can help identify who should be attending meetings, and they can also be utilized to present findings or have one-off conversations with leadership to promote buy-in for your culture of feedback.

Implementing User-friendly Feedback Mechanisms

For a VoC program to thrive, feedback mechanisms must be accessible, intuitive, and seamless for customers. Whether it’s a user-friendly feedback form embedded within an app, a chatbot for instant assistance, or social media channels for open conversations, the channels for providing feedback should reflect the digital preferences of your audience. These mechanisms should accommodate both quantitative and qualitative inputs, enabling customers to share their experiences in a manner that suits them best. A key element here is the simplicity of the process; if users find it cumbersome or time-consuming to provide feedback, the program’s effectiveness can be compromised.

Encouraging Customer Participation And Engagement

Engaging customers is essential for gathering diverse perspectives. Incentivizing participation through rewards, gamification, or exclusive offers can increase engagement rates. Moreover, companies can foster a sense of ownership among customers by involving them in shaping future offerings. Beta testing, user panels, and co-creation sessions invite customers to actively contribute to product development, reinforcing the idea that their opinions are not only valued but directly influence the company’s direction. By making customers feel like valued collaborators, a VoC program becomes a mutually beneficial relationship.

Integrating Feedback Into The Decision-making Process

Customer feedback should not remain isolated; it needs to permeate the decision-making process across all departments. This integration demands that insights gathered through the VoC program are systematically channeled to relevant teams. Product teams can use these insights to refine features, marketers can tailor campaigns based on customer preferences, and support teams can address recurring pain points promptly. Creating feedback loops ensures that customer opinions are not only heard but also translated into tangible actions, demonstrating the organization’s commitment to iterative improvement driven by user insights.

Continuous Improvement And Iteration Of The VoC Program

A VoC program is a journey, not a destination. It requires a commitment to continuous improvement and adaptation. As customer behaviors and preferences evolve, the program must evolve in tandem. Regularly reviewing the program’s effectiveness, incorporating new data sources, and updating methodologies keep the program relevant. This also includes analyzing the program’s impact on KPIs such as customer satisfaction scores, retention rates, and revenue growth. By iterating the program itself, businesses ensure that it remains aligned with changing business goals and the ever-evolving needs of their customers.

Best Practices And Tips For An Effective VoC Program

Creating Clear And Concise Surveys And Questionnaires

The success of a VoC program often hinges on the quality of the surveys and questionnaires used to collect feedback. To ensure meaningful responses, it’s essential to design clear and concise questions that avoid ambiguity. Keep the surveys focused on specific topics to prevent respondent fatigue and make sure that the language used is easily understandable by your target audience. Utilize a mix of closed-ended (quantitative) and open-ended (qualitative) questions to capture both statistical data and rich, contextual insights. Prioritize brevity and relevance to encourage higher response rates and more accurate feedback.

Monitoring Feedback Across Multiple Channels

Customer feedback is shared through diverse channels: social media, email, app reviews, support tickets, and more. Monitoring feedback across these channels is essential for capturing a holistic view of customer sentiment. Centralize these feedback streams to ensure that no valuable insights slip through the cracks. By aggregating feedback from various sources, you can identify recurring themes and uncover emerging issues, allowing for proactive responses and continuous improvement. Note we have focused on digital products. However, if there is a physical component of your experience, such as a brick-and-mortar store, you should be collecting similar feedback from those customers in those settings.

Incorporating User Testing And Usability Studies

Incorporating user testing and usability studies is important to help evaluate an experience with users. While upfront activities like in-depth user interviews can articulate users’ desires and needs for an experience, they do not help evaluate the updated experience. Findings and recommendations from user testing and usability studies should be incorporated into development sprints or backlogs. This will ensure that the experience consistently considers and reflects the VoC.

Ensuring Privacy And Data Security In The VoC Program

As you talk to users and develop your VoC program, you will constantly be collecting data. The data that is shared in reports should always be anonymous. Additionally, creating documentation on how to collect consent and data policies will be very important. If data is not stored properly, you could face penalties and lose the trust of participants for future VoC activities.

Challenges Of Starting A Voice Of Customer Program

If you are committed to starting a VoC program from scratch and then maintaining that program, you are likely to encounter many challenges. Gaining buy-in and commitment from stakeholders is a challenge for anyone looking to establish a VoC program. You’ll need to commit to a concerted effort across various departments within an organization. Securing buy-in and commitment from key stakeholders, such as executives, managers, and employees, is crucial for its success. Without their support, the program may struggle to gain traction and achieve its goals.

Resources are always an issue, so you’ll need to work on securing adequate funding for the program. Establishing and maintaining a VoC program can be a costly endeavor. This includes the cost of software, training, and staff time. Organizations must be prepared to allocate the necessary resources to ensure the success of the program.

Allocating sufficient time and resources to collect, analyze, and act on feedback: collecting, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback can be a time-consuming process. Organizations must ensure that they have the necessary staff and resources in place to dedicate to the VoC program.

Case Study: Successful Implementation Of A VoC Program

We worked with a large US insurance company that was trying to transform its customers’ digital experience around purchasing and maintaining policies. At the start of the engagement, the client did not have a VoC program and had little experience with research. As a result, we spent a lot of time initially explaining to key stakeholders the importance and value of research and using the findings to make changes to their product as they started their digital transformation journey.

We created a slide deck and presentation outlining the key components of a VoC program, how a VoC program can be used to impact a product, methods of UX research, what type of data the methods would provide, and when to use certain methods. We also shared our recommendations based on decades of experience with similar companies. We socialized this deck through a series of group and individual meetings with key stakeholders. We had the benefit of an internal champion at the company who was able to identify and schedule time with key stakeholders. We also provided a copy of the material we’d created to socialize with people who were unable to attend our meetings or who wanted to take more time digesting information offline.

After our meetings, we fielded many questions about the process, including who would be involved, the resources required, timelines for capturing data and making recommendations, and the potential limitations of certain methods. We should have accounted for these types of questions in our initial presentation.

One large component of enhancing the customer’s digital experience was implementing a service portal. To help better understand the needs and desires of users for this service portal, we started with executing in-depth user interviews. This first VoC activity helped to show the value of VoC research to the business and how it can be used to develop a product with a user-centric approach.

Our biggest challenge during this first activity was recruiting participants. We were unable to use a third-party service to help recruit participants. As a result, we had to collect a pool of potential participants through the sales division. As mentioned before, the company didn’t have much exposure to VoC work, so while trying to execute our VoC research and implement a VoC program, any time we worked with a division in the company that hadn’t heard of VoC, we spent additional time walking through what VoC is and what we were doing. Once we explained to the sales team what we were doing, they helped with providing a list of participants for recruitment for this activity and future ones.

After we received a list of potential participants, we crafted an email with a link to a scheduling tool where potential participants could sign up for interview slots. The email would be sent through a genetic email address to over 50+ potential participants. Even though we sent multiple reminder emails to this potential list of participants, we could only gather 5–8 participants for each VoC activity.

As we conducted more VoC activities and presented our findings to larger audiences throughout the company, more divisions became interested in participating in the VoC program. For example, we conducted unmoderated concept testing for a division that was looking to redesign some PDFs. Their goal was to understand customers’ needs and preferences to drive the redesign process. Additionally, we also helped a vendor conduct usability testing for the company to understand how user-friendly an application system was. This was one way to help grow the VoC program within the company as well as their relationship with the vendor.

We needed to do more than foster a culture of gathering customer feedback. As we began to execute the VoC program more extensively within the company, we utilized methods that went beyond simply implementing feedback. These methods allowed the VoC program to continue growing autonomously.

We introduced a benchmarking survey for the new portal. This survey’s purpose was to gauge the customer experience with the new portal over time, starting even before the portal’s release. This not only served as a means to measure the customer experience as it evolved but also provided insights into the maturation of the VoC program itself.

The underlying assumption was that if the VoC program were maturing effectively, the data gathered from the customer experience benchmarking survey would indicate that customers were enjoying an improved digital experience due to changes and decisions influenced more by VoC.

Next, we focused on transferring our knowledge to the company so the VoC program could continue to mature over time without us there. From the beginning, we were transparent about our processes and the creation of material for a VoC activity. We wanted to create a collaborative environment to make sure we understand the company’s needs and questions, but also so the company could understand the process for executing a VoC activity. We accomplished this in part by involving our internal champion at the company in all of the various studies we conducted and conversations we were having with various business units.

We’d typically start with a request or hypothesis by a division of the company. For example, once the portal is launched, what are people’s opinions on the new portal, and what functionality should the business focus on? Then, we would craft draft materials of the approach and questions. In this case, we decided to execute in-depth user interviews to be able to dive deep into users’ needs, challenges, and desires.

Next, we would conduct a series of working sessions to align the questions and ensure that they still align with the company’s goals for the activity. Once we had all the materials finalized, we had them reviewed by the legal team and began to schedule and recruit participants. Lastly, we would conduct the VoC activity, synthesize the data, and create a report to present to different divisions within the company.

We started the transfer of knowledge and responsibilities to the company by slowly giving them some of these tasks related to executing a VoC activity. With each additional new task the company was in charge of, we set additional time aside to debrief and provide details on what was done well and what could be improved upon. The goal was for the individuals at the company to learn by doing and giving them incremental new tasks as they felt more comfortable. Lastly, we provided documentation to leave behind, including a help guide they could refer to when continuing to execute VoC activities.

We concluded our role managing the VoC program by handing over duties and maintenance to the internal champion who had worked with us from the beginning. We stayed engaged, offering a few hours of consulting time each month; however, we were no longer managing the program. Months later, the program is still running, with a focus on collecting feedback on updates being made to products in line with their respective roadmaps. The client has used many of the lessons we learned to continue overcoming challenges with recruiting and to effectively socialize the findings across the various teams impacted by VoC findings.

Overall, while helping to build this VoC program, we learned a lot. One of our biggest pain points was participant recruitment. The process of locating users and asking them to participate in studies was new for the company. We quickly learned that their customers didn’t have a lot of free time, and unmoderated VoC activities or surveys were ideal for the customers as they could complete them on their own time. As a result, when possible, we opted to execute a mixed-methods approach with the hope we could get more responses.

Another pain point was technology. Some of the tools we’d hoped to use were blocked by the company’s firewall, which made scheduling interviews a little more difficult. Additionally, some divisions had access to certain quantitative tools, but the licenses couldn’t easily be used across divisions, so workarounds had to be created to implement some surveys. As a result, being creative and willing to think about short-term workarounds was important when developing the VoC program.

Conclusion

Building a successful VoC program is an ongoing effort. It requires a commitment to continuously collecting, analyzing and acting on customer feedback. This can be difficult to sustain over time, as other priorities may take precedence. However, a successful VoC program is essential for any organization that is serious about improving the customer experience.

We’ve covered the importance of VoC programs for companies with digital products or services. We recommend you take the approach that makes the most sense for your team and company. We’ve provided details of starting and maintaining a VoC program, including the upfront work needed to define objectives and goals, targeting the right audience, choosing the right methods, putting this all in a framework, collecting data, data analysis, and communicating your findings effectively.

We suggest you start small and have fun growing your program. When done right, you will soon find yourself overwhelmed with requests from other stakeholders to expand your VoC to include their products or business units. Keep in mind that your ultimate goal is to create a product that resonates with users and meets their needs. A VoC program ensures you are constantly collecting relevant data and taking actionable steps to use the data to inform your product or business’s future. You can refine your VoC as you see what works well for your situation.

Additional Voice of Customer Resources

• “7 tips for an effective voice of the customer program,” Lucia Chung
  Blog post with tips on effective VoC.
• “Three books that highlight the importance of the Voice of the Customer,” Taoufik Massoussi
  Article with a brief review of three books on VoC

Overcomplicating content is understandably bad for readership. It uses unnecessary time and resources that your team could use on more beneficial tasks. However, it’s an easy trap to fall into if your content team isn’t aware of ways to simplify output. Content production can be streamlined with a few simple steps, and your audience will be more likely to engage with the content you put out.

The Importance of Carefully Crafted Content

Whether it’s a blog post, social media update, marketing campaign, or business presentation, the quality of your content can make or break its impact. Well-thought-out content for your blog and beyond ensures clarity, relevance, and resonance with your target audience, helping to convey information more effectively and engage readers or viewers on a deeper level. It also reflects the credibility and professionalism of the creators or organization behind it. 

Careful attention to language, tone, and style in your content can foster trust, convey expertise, and ultimately drive desired actions or outcomes. To an audience that is constantly inundated with information, content that is meticulously crafted stands out, capturing attention, and leaving a lasting impression. 

Thus, the importance of investing time and effort into crafting content cannot be overstated, as it has the power to influence, inform, and inspire. The trick is to also make that content easy to create and consume.

Methods of Streamlining Content

To produce high-quality content consistently and efficiently, you’ll have to do a little prep work. Whether you’re a business content creator looking to maximize your output or a marketer seeking to optimize your team’s workflow, the following strategies will allow you to create compelling content that captures your audience’s attention without sacrificing quality or creativity. 

From content planning and research to writing, editing, and distribution, you should employ these practical approaches to streamline every stage of the content creation process. 

Practice Clear Communication

Keeping lines of communication open, internally and externally, allows for a freer exchange of information and, thus, easier content production. Proper communication ensures everyone involved in the content creation process understands the objectives, target audience, messaging, and desired outcomes. 

By fostering a culture of transparency and effective communication, you can minimize misunderstandings, reduce the need for revisions, and avoid unnecessary delays. 

Clear communication also aids in aligning creative visions interdepartmentally, enabling content creators to work more cohesively toward a common goal. Whether it’s clarifying project requirements, providing constructive feedback, or establishing well-defined workflows, prioritizing clear communication can significantly enhance content production, resulting in more concise, impactful, and on-brand deliverables.

Keep Your Audience in Mind

While optimizing internal workflows, also keep in mind the target audience of your business content. Rather than trying to cater to everyone, create ideal audience member profiles and craft content that will appeal to them. 

This audience-centric approach guides your decisions at every stage of content creation — from topic selection and tone to formatting and distribution channels. This will provide you and your content team with a clearer direction and bring in a readership that is most aligned with your company goals. Plus, you’ll be creating content your audience actually wants to read.

Limit Use of Jargon

Within your company and even your specific industry, certain terms are commonly understood. However, that’s not always the case for everyone who wants to access and gain from your content. Learn to recognize when your content is using jargon that is too technical, causing a barrier to entry and less engagement overall. 

Jargon negatively affects readership, preventing readers from being able to understand more complex topics even with their best efforts. People typically don’t want to add the extra task of clicking off of your article to learn what a term means, and this inevitably draws attention away from your content anyway. 

To recognize when you’re using jargon, try picking out industry-specific terms that aren’t widely used or mean something else in different contexts. You could also try polling your audience on social media or through email blasts to see how many of them recognize certain terms and phrases. 

Of course, there’s a time and place for jargon. It is mostly used to streamline communication between parties that will automatically understand industry terms. Industries tend to invent new words along with innovations, because there may not have been terms for those applications in the past. 

Further, industries assign terms to complex parts of their processes to delineate them from other applications of similar processes. For example, PPC campaigns are what most people would refer to as paid advertisements — but marketers know this abbreviation and can use it to more clearly define the type of ad they’re talking about. 

Thus, if you’re producing technical content, internal communications, or highly specific information, industry-specific jargon can certainly have a place. Otherwise, you will want to take those recognized terms and replace them in everyday content. 

A lack of jargon is a signal of intelligence because you’re careful enough to recognize the needs of your audience and can explain complex terms with easy-to-understand language. Then, you can link to jargon-filled content if a reader is interested in diving deeper into a subject. This even streamlines your internal linking structure, making the creation of a content funnel a no-brainer.  

Conduct Keyword Research

Keyword research is a solid tactic to figure out how people are searching for business topics you want to write about. This is another way to delineate jargon from simplistic terms. Use tools like SEMrush and Moz to analyze the monthly search volume for terms surrounding your content topics, and use those keywords to guide your content. 

This doesn’t mean to stuff keywords into your content haphazardly. Instead, streamline your content workflow by using keywords to guide you in the right direction. Write naturally, and variations of keywords will help your content show up in search results organically.

Have a Content Plan

Having a well-structured content plan is pivotal for simplifying business content creation. This serves as a strategic roadmap that outlines what content needs to be created, when, and for whom. By meticulously mapping out your content strategy, you can ensure that your messaging is cohesive, consistent, and aligned with your business objectives. 

A proactive approach streamlines the content creation process by reducing the time spent brainstorming ideas and deciding on topics. It also allows for better resource allocation, helping you assign tasks and responsibilities more efficiently. 

Moreover, having a detailed plan helps you stay ahead of deadlines and maintain a steady flow of content, preventing last-minute rushes or content gaps. Ultimately, having an idea of how you want your business content to flow not only simplifies the creation process but also enhances the overall quality and impact of your business’s communication efforts.

Featured image by Cup of Couple

The post Unlocking Success: Simplifying Business Content for Marketers appeared first on noupe.

2023 is almost over, and the new fonts are still coming thick and fast. This month, we’ve found some awesome variable fonts, some revivals, and one or two novelty fonts to get you through the holiday promotion work. Enjoy!

2023 is almost over, and the new fonts are still coming thick and fast. This month, we’ve found some awesome variable fonts, some revivals, and one or two novelty fonts to get you through the holiday promotion work. Enjoy!

When the web first entered the public consciousness back in the 90s, it was primarily text-based with minimal design elements — not through choice; the technology to build engaging experiences simply didn’t exist. Back then, a dancing baby gif was cutting edge.

Back in the early 2010s, it was nearly impossible to avoid ribbon shapes in web designs. It was actually back in 2010 that Chris Coyier shared a CSS snippet that I am sure has been used thousands of times over.

And for good reason: ribbons are fun and interesting to look at. They’re often used for headings, but that’s not all, of course. You’ll find corner ribbons on product cards (“Sale!”), badges with trimmed ribbon ends (“First Place!”), or even ribbons as icons for bookmarks. Ribbons are playful, wrapping around elements, adding depth and visual anchors to catch the eye’s attention.

I have created a collection of more than 100 ribbon shapes, and we are going to study a few of them in this little two-part series. The challenge is to rely on a single element to create different kinds of ribbon shapes. What we really want is to create a shape that accommodates as many lines of text as you throw at them. In other words, there is no fixed dimension or magic numbers — the shape should adapt to its content.

Here is a demo of what we are building in this first part:

Sure, this is not the exact ribbon shape we want, but all we are missing is the cutouts on the ends. The idea is to first start with this generic design and add the extra decoration as we go.

Both ribbons in the demo we looked at are built using pretty much the same exact CSS; the only differences are nuances that help differentiate them, like color and decoration. That’s my secret sauce! Most of the ribbons from my generator share a common code structure, and I merely adjust a few values to get different variations.

Let’s Start With The Gradients

Any time I hear that a component’s design needs to be repeated, I instantly think of background gradients. They are perfect for creating repeatable patterns, and they are capable of drawing lines with hard stops between colors.

We’re essentially talking about applying a background behind a text element. Each line of text gets the background and repeats for as many lines of text as there happens to be. So, the gradient needs to be as tall as one line of text. If you didn’t know it, we recently got the new line height (lh) unit in CSS that allows us to get the computed value of the element’s line-height. In our case, 1lh will always be equal to the height of one line of text, which is perfect for what we need.

Note: It appears that Safari uses the computed line height of a parent element rather than basing the lh unit on the element itself. I’ve accounted for that in the code by explicitly setting a line-height on the body element, which is the parent in our specific case. But hopefully, that will be unnecessary at some point in the future.

Let’s tackle our first gradient. It’s a rectangular shape behind the text that covers part of the line and leaves breathing space between the lines.

The gradient’s red color is set to 70% of the height, which leaves 30% of transparent color to account for the space between lines.

h1 {
  --c: #d81a14;

  background-image: linear-gradient(var(--c) 70%, #0000 0);
  background-position: 0 .15lh;
  background-size: 100% 1lh;
}

Nothing too complex, right? We’ve established a background gradient on an h1 element. The color is controlled with a CSS variable (--c), and we’ve sized it with the lh unit to align it with the text content.

Note that the offset (.15lh) is equal to half the space between lines. We could have used a gradient with three color values (e.g., transparent, #d81a14, and transparent), but it’s more efficient and readable to keep things to two colors and then apply an offset.

Next, we need a second gradient for the wrapped or slanted part of the ribbon. This gradient is positioned behind the first one. The following figure demonstrates this with a little opacity added to the front ribbon’s color to see the relationship better.

Here’s how I approached it:

linear-gradient(to bottom right, #0000 50%, red 0 X, #0000 0);

This time, we’re using keywords to set the gradient’s direction (to bottom right). Meanwhile, the color starts at the diagonal (50%) instead of its default 0% and should stop at a value that we’re indicating as X for a placeholder. This value is a bit tricky, so let’s get a visual that illustrates what we’re doing.

The green arrow illustrates the gradient direction, and we can see the different color stops: 50%, X, and 100%. We can apply some geometry rules to solve for X:

(X - 50%) / (100% - 50%) = 70%/100%
X = 85%

This gives us the exact point for the end of the gradient’s hard color stop. We can apply the 85% value to our gradient configuration in CSS:

h1 {
  --c: #d81a14;

  background-image: 
    linear-gradient(var(--c) 70%, #0000 0), 
    linear-gradient(to bottom left, #0000 50%, color-mix(in srgb, var(--c), #000 40%) 0 85%, #0000 0);
  background-position: 0 .15lh;
  background-size: 100% 1lh;
}

You’re probably noticing that I added the new color-mix() function to the second gradient. Why introduce it now? Because we can use it to mix the main color (#d81a14) with white or black. This allows us to get darker or lighter values of the color without having to introduce more color values and variables to the mix. It helps keep things efficient!

We have all of the coordinates we need to make our cuts using the polygon() function on the clip-path property. Coordinates are not always intuitive, but I have expanded the code and added a few comments below to help you identify some of the points from the figure.

h1 {
  --r: 10px; /* control the cutout */

  clip-path: polygon(
   0 .15lh, /* top-left corner */
   100% .15lh, /* top right corner */
   calc(100% - var(--r)) .5lh, /* top-right cutout */
   100% .85lh,
   100% calc(100% - .15lh), /* bottom-right corner  */
   0 calc(100% - .15lh), /* bottom-left corner */
   var(--r) calc(100% - .5lh), /* bottom-left cutout */
   0 calc(100% - .85lh)
  );
}

This completes the first ribbon! Now, we can wrap things up (pun intended) with the second ribbon.

The Second Ribbon

We will use both pseudo-elements to complete the shape. The idea can be broken down like this:

1. We create two rectangles that are placed at the start and end of the ribbon.
2. We rotate the two rectangles with an angle that we define using a new variable, --a.
3. We apply a clip-path to create the triangle cutout and trim where the green gradient overflows the top and bottom of the shape.

First, the variables:

h1 {
  --r: 10px;  /* controls the cutout */
  --a: 20deg; /* controls the rotation */
  --s: 6em;   /* controls the size */
}

Next, we’ll apply styles to the :before and :after pseudo-elements that they share in common:

h1:before,
h1:after {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  height: .7lh;
  width: var(--s);
  background: color-mix(in srgb, var(--c), #000 40%);
  rotate: var(--a);
}

Then, we position each pseudo-element and make our clips:

h1:before {
  top: .15lh;
  right: 0;
  transform-origin: top right;
  clip-path: polygon(0 0, 100% 0, calc(100% - .7lh / tan(var(--a))) 100%, 0 100%, var(--r) 50%);
}

h1:after {
  bottom: .15lh;
  left: 0;
  transform-origin: bottom left;
  clip-path: polygon(calc(.7lh / tan(var(--a))) 0, 100% 0, calc(100% - var(--r)) 50%, 100% 100%, 0 100%);
}

We are almost done! We still have some unwanted overflow where the repeating gradient bleeds out of the top and bottom of the shape. Plus, we need small cutouts to match the pseudo-element’s shape.

It’s clip-path again to the rescue, this time on the main element:

clip-path: polygon(
    0 .15lh,
    calc(100% - .7lh/sin(var(--a))) .15lh,
    calc(100% - .7lh/sin(var(--a)) - 999px) calc(.15lh - 999px*tan(var(--a))),
    100% -999px,
    100% .15lh,
    calc(100% - .7lh*tan(var(--a)/2)) .85lh,
    100% 1lh,
    100% calc(100% - .15lh),
    calc(.7lh/sin(var(--a))) calc(100% - .15lh),
    calc(.7lh/sin(var(--a)) + 999px) calc(100% - .15lh + 999px*tan(var(--a))),
    0 999px,
    0 calc(100% - .15lh),
    calc(.7lh*tan(var(--a)/2)) calc(100% - .85lh),
    0 calc(100% - 1lh)
);

Ugh, looks scary! I’m taking advantage of a new set of trigonometric functions that help a bunch with the calculations but probably look foreign and confusing if you’re seeing them for the first time. There is a mathematical explanation behind each value in the snippet that I’d love to explain, but it’s long-winded. That said, I’m more than happy to explain them in greater detail if you drop me a line in the comments.

Our second ribbon is completed! Here is the full demo again with both variations.

You can still find the code within my ribbons collection, but it’s a good exercise to try writing code without. Maybe you will find a different implementation than mine and want to share it with me in the comments! In the next article of this two-part series, we will increase the complexity and produce two more interesting ribbon shapes.

Further Reading On SmashingMag

• “Art Direction For The Web Using CSS Shapes,” Andrew Clarke
• “Take A New Look At CSS Shapes,” Rachel Andrew
• “Creating Responsive Shapes With Clip-Path And Breaking Out Of The Box,” Karen Menezes
• “New CSS Features That Are Changing Web Design,” Zell Liew