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Storytelling UX: Why Design & UX Experts Build Stories and Personas

Persona Device Mockup

Almost all businesses have a pretty good knowledge of their target audiences, but how does that information translate to the user experience on a website? User experience or UX experts can customize a platform to align with their needs.

UI and UX Experts: Why We Tell Stories

Storytelling UX is a valuable tool for brands are that are trying to better reach their audiences. At Blennd, our UI and UX experts utilize it from the very beginning through our in-depth discovery process. Our clients typically have a great understanding of who they want to reach, but after diving into their website analytics, we may see a disconnect. By gathering data on our clients’ target audience, user habits and how they need to learn about services to convert, our UX design experts can map out a full story and translate that into a highly effective path to success.

storytelling ux

Doing the Research

Shaping Characters

Creating a Story Board

Presenting Valuable Solutions

Setting a Mood

Doing the Research

UX experts tap into data to learn more about a business’ users and customers. Many businesses completely overlook the importance of analytics in running an effective website. Through tools like Google Analytics, heat mapping and more, we can determine the paths that consumers are (or are not) taking to purchase. We can pinpoint where people are dropping off out of confusion, lack of relevancy, or loss of interest -- and use that data to inform our new strategy. According to Gartner Research,

“UX research and associated testing methodologies uncover human insights that are essential for successful design, development and innovation initiatives. Increasingly, the value of understanding users, what they do and why they do it is seen as a differentiator for organizations. UX research identifies both the features and the designs that products or experiences should have to drive usage, customer satisfaction, loyalty and ROI.”

Case Study: Western Colorado University

These UX insights do more than increase user-friendliness and brand likability – they can be lucrative in every area of business. Before working with Blennd, our client Western Colorado University had never gathered user insights to inform their acquisition strategies. During our discovery process, we began tracking user patterns -- how they found the university, what they did when they landed on the website, and whether they converted (for example, filling out an application).

By integrating high-tech tracking, we were able to pivot marketing based on those documented patterns. With integrated analytics, Blennd was able to gain game-changing insights into the cost-per application, in turn reducing internal costs and boosting the efficiency of the school’s digital marketing efforts.

View Case Study

Shaping Characters

Understanding the audience is a crucial step in our website design process. We look at their demographics, values, and priorities when it comes to conversions, and then build complete personas to better understand the type people we are trying to communicate with. The next step in our process is organizing all of the data gathered from the research phase and shaping it into a story about our users. The magic comes in the execution, where our UX design experts build clear paths for these target customers to accomplish their goals as efficiently as possible.

Case Study: Cain Travel

When building a website for our client, Cain Travel, we drew personas that spoke to their primary business-to-business travel management audiences. The process of finding their story on the website began by heat mapping their current pages to understand what users were primarily doing when they clicked.

Through that mapping, we found that many of their new website visitors were not B2B clients, but people seeking their smaller, business-to-consumer services. By understanding their priorities as a business, and the actual targets they were trying to reach, the Blennd team knew to completely re-organize the website to draw in the customer base they were trying to grow the most. Learn more about uncovering untapped opportunities on B2B websites.

ux heat mapping stories

View Case Study

Creating a Story Board

Frequently, we find that websites that don’t have a strong UX strategy have a much higher rate of abandonment. That’s because users often drop off when they don’t immediately see the solution they are seeking. With the help of UX experts, businesses can stop guessing what their customer’s experience needs are, and instead implement a high-tech, data-driven website strategy that is designed to get serious results.

The Blennd team presents expert UX strategies by arranging them by persona and answering vital questions about what specifically they are looking for on the website -- why they need that product or service, and the page that they should be directed to, based on our research. That then translates into user flow charts, which informs things like sitemap and page layout.

Presenting Valuable Solutions

By taking such a deep dive into a brand’s digital vitals, understanding their audience’s patterns, and creating a new map for their customers, we develop a strong knowledge of our clients’ digital needs. We can then present other strategy recommendations to ensure success from the new site architecture.

For example, how to take advantage of their current website traffic through mobile, how to create more lead capture opportunities, or how to integrate more effective technology to accomplish their goals. We also ensure that clients have ongoing access to data through integrated analytics tools like google analytics. Once these features are sorted out and approved, we can begin moving into the design and development stages.

mobile ux design

Setting a Mood

All of the strategy knowledge must also be backed up by a strong sense of design – if the website doesn’t also look great, all of this is a waste. When creating a website, UX experts must have a clear understanding of the brand to create a consistent appearance and overall feeling.

At Blennd, we develop a brand style guide for clients to create consistency in brand writing, personality and of course, appearance. This is also where we lay out the crucial brand color pallets, fonts, logos and more. From there, our UX experts craft a design prototype and upon approval, we move into the development phase.


Utilizing UX Experts to Build Your Website Story

Nearly every business needs a website – but not all sites are created equal. Now, the process of finding your platforms’ full potential requires quite a bit more strategizing and expertise. With the help of strategic, storytelling UX, your business can unlock powerful insights, uncover an effective path to purchase for your digital presence, and also refresh your brand through beautiful website design. Businesses that harness the power of user experience and stay up-to-date with technology are the ones that will stay ahead in an increasingly digital world.

Get Ahead with Storytelling UX Experts

Does your business need a partner in building effective, storytelling UX? Blennd can help. Our team of UX experts design cutting-edge, beautifully crafted websites that speak to audiences and drive conversions.


Get in touch with Blennd today to see how we can transform your website into a powerful tool for your business. Contact Blennd today to get started on your next project.

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