Corporate User Experience (CUX)

Corporate User Experience (CUX): Consistent experiences as a strategic competitive advantage

What does corporate user experience mean?

In our daily work at BUSSE, we encounter an increasingly fragmented product environment for our customers - with a wide variety of devices, input media and usage scenarios. It is crucial for companies that their products not only work, but also feel coherent, intuitive and brand compliant.

In most cases, graphic elements such as logos, colors and layouts are precisely described in corporate identity style guides - but these only focus on print media and presentation on the web and at trade fairs. Some companies also have concrete product design style guides that specify certain geometric family features, the placement of logos and graphics on the products and, where applicable, other quality and surface features. Finally, the icons and the basic screen design of some software interfaces are also defined in a design system consisting of UI/UX components and behavioral rules, so that a consistent appearance is achieved across all systems.

What is not covered in any of these documents, however, is a strategic harmonization (or conscious price level-relevant categorization) of the entire product interaction in terms of operating concept, software and hardware. And the experience of actually using the products creates the strongest impression of quality and the strongest brand loyalty.

A strong corporate user experience (CUX) makes precisely this possible: it combines the consistency of a corporate design with the functional depth of the UX strategy and focuses on a consistent user experience across the entire product range. CUX means designing experiences that convey the same principles, the same language and the same brand identity regardless of the touchpoint before, during or after using a product and regardless of the product type and its individual user interface – may it be a touchscreen, hardkey or voice input.

 
UX guidelines & design principles

Based on the three cornerstones of brand identity, user needs and contextual conditions, UX principles are derived that serve as the conceptual backbone and basis for the design of all products and product touchpoints. So-called “corporate personas” can be used here, which depict typical, company-wide user profiles that are representative of central target groups and help to consistently adapt products to their needs.

Based on interaction principles, e.g. according to ISO 9241-210 & 110 or heuristics as rules of experience, it is thus possible to define company-wide which conditions must be met in order to achieve a system's task suitability, to what level of detail the self-description capability should be implemented, how customizability or controllability should be implemented or which operating philosophy and software structure best reflects the desired brand personality (e.g. “precise”, ‘accessible’, “competent”).

These guidelines can then be used as a basis for the development of new products, functions, interactions or touchpoints, applied company-wide and also validated in order to achieve a harmonized corporate user experience.

 
Cross HMI coherence - operating philosophy consistency in diversity

In practice, very different HMIs (Human Machine Interfaces) or user interfaces often come together within a company and its product world: a PC application for machine management, an embedded system with a rotary encoder on the machine, the touch application in the next product or at the sales stand at the trade fair, physical buttons in safety-critical contexts, or the service and maintenance app on the cell phone.

The aim of the CUX strategy is to create a consistent experience across this heterogeneity.

However, input media cannot be standardized across all products because their inherent advantages are right and important for the different systems. For example, touch displays are ideal for visual orientation, dynamic content and scalability. Hardkeys and haptic operating elements, on the other hand, can be advantageous for glove operation, blind operation (e.g. in vehicles, machines) or where robustness against moisture, dust or cold is required. Depending on the context of use and product, multimodal interfaces can of course also be used: e.g. touch + voice control or touch + joystick, etc.

In the corporate user experience, design principles are developed that lead to a consistent brand experience across all input media. This starts with how individual components are integrated and designed, from the display frame to the rotary pushbutton, how system structures and navigation paths and models are designed, how user guidance or system feedback is designed and implemented and, of course, how overall systems are visually designed.

 
Corporate User Experience Guidelines

Consistent behavior does not happen by chance - it must be planned and maintained in a modular way. In corporate user experience guidelines, we develop rules and elements and components to create a common brand experience across all levels. From UI/UX components (such as hard keys, digital buttons, rotary encoders, sliders and much more), to behavioral patterns (how does an element react to touch/movement, timeout, errors? ), states & feedback (active / inactive, loaded / not loaded, successful / faulty) through to motion & micro-animations (recognizable movement patterns), we develop elements that are standardized not only visually and in their hedonic quality, but also behavior-based and in their pragmatic quality, whether they are software or hardware components for products or other user touchpoints.

It can also help to define specific “corporate personas” across all products, which can be used to derive the basic expectations and requirements of typical users.

 
Tonality & microcopy

UX writing is another aspect that we use to create holistic brand experiences. Microcopy refers to smaller texts that are used within a digital interface: from button labels, error messages, form instructions, tooltips and loading displays to onboarding texts. However, the voice output of a system or the spoken text in a YouTube video is also an example in which the tonality creates a certain character. A uniform brand image can be created through comprehensibility (plain language, no technical terms without explanation), brand language (precise vs. playful, neutral vs. encouraging) and consistency (e.g. do not refer to “confirm” once as ‘OK’, once as “save”). With the help of a language guide, a UX writing library and a collection of examples for tonality cases (e.g. “How does a warning sound with us?”), a uniform brand image can also be generated here.

 
Accessibility & inclusion

A holistic CUX takes different abilities and usage options into account. In this way, a guideline and set of rules can be created company-wide that regulates the consideration of visual impairments in all touchpoints, defines color contrasts and text sizes according to WCAG, regulates haptic feedback, voice commands or screen reader compatibility.

 
CUX along the entire user journey

A company creates a brand-typical experience right from the unboxing and initial commissioning stages with the packaging structure, onboarding, emotionalization and product presentation, which then continues in the operation of the products and ends in the operation of maintenance apps, installation of updates, remote interfaces and integrated instructions and help.

 
Strategic benefits for companies

Consistent brand experiences increase recognition value and lead to stronger brand loyalty at all touchpoints. By using corporate user experience guidelines and libraries, new developments or redesigns can be developed cost-efficiently, faster and more uniformly with fewer errors. Application rules can also be scaled more easily when the product portfolio is expanded and new products, platforms or interfaces are added if a feature is based on a clear rule. Customer satisfaction increases thanks to more intuitive operation and lower training costs, while standardized processes simplify service processes and optimize product support.

Implementation of a CUX strategy

How can companies start the transformation process step by step in order to implement a uniform corporate user experience? In everyday life, individual products are often developed one after the other and the corporate user experience can be created slowly, piece by piece, but is constantly changing and evolving due to the lack of a holistic view of the single product development process. Alternatively, a corporate user experience can also be developed as a whole, which is then rolled out piece by piece.

1. UX audit of all existing products & interfaces (incl. service processes) as well as style guides and design systems

2. Analysis of the existing corporate identity and corporate personas and formulation of holistic user needs

3. Consideration of relevant norms & standards to be taken into account

4. Derivation of CUX principles and formulation of guidelines on operating philosophies, system structures, user journey specifications, accessibility specifications, linguistic tonalities, etc.

5. Development of a design and interaction system (incl. cross-HMI coherence rules) for HMI interfaces

6. Rollout of the guidelines and systems in various products, toolkits, templates and training courses

7. CUX governance & evaluation: reviews, KPI measurement, user feedback

Corporate user experience is not a cosmetic exercise, but a strategically effective corporate management tool. In a world where users switch between touchscreens, hard keys, voice interfaces and apps, a consistent CUX creates trust, recognizability and efficiency - across all products and touchpoints.

As a design agency, we help companies to not only define their CUX, but to live it systematically: from packaging to user interface to maintenance.