Treat your clients like they’re lazy. On the surface this may not seem like the compliment that it is, nor a strategy that drives a company, such as ReferOn, forward week by week.
The premise, however, is a relatively simple one. This centres around the need for eradicating pain points and easing navigation to enable precious time to be directed elsewhere.
Speaking to SBC News, Head of Product, Vlad Bondarenko, elaborates on the above; addressing in detail just why UX is perhaps an afterthought that needs to be brought front and centre of the industry’s mind.
SBC News: Why is the user experience such a critical component for affiliate platforms, and how can they drive efficiencies?
Vlad Bondarenko: One thing that resonates with me is people ignore design that ignores people, this is a quote from Frank Chimero, author of The Shape of Design.
This topic is an after thought in many affiliate tracking solutions. We are going another path and we are trying to consider design as a part of the system, one of the main pillars so that the client can feel at home.
Most importantly, if that client is going somewhere else and using another system that they always have in mind ‘why is this not like ReferOn?’
That’s UX, that’s design, that’s patterns and that’s recognisable things that ReferOn can provide.
SBCN: What are the biggest problems that you see when assessing different UXs on affiliate platforms? Is there a common trend that you see platforms get wrong?
VB: I think that there are three things. Clarity of data, consistency and contextual and actionable insights. Clarity of data is everything. It’s all about how we show, see, work with and manage data.
If you see a certain metric, you should understand what it means and what it shows, and if that is displayed in one place, it should be the same everywhere else by default. It’s very easy, but somehow in other solutions this can be impacted by technicalities.
You should see one metric in the report, which could be called commission, for example. However, you will literally see another number in the same report but with a different breakdown and that’s unexplainable, but that’s consistency of data. You need to expect what you want to see.
Another point is actionable insights. It’s all about actions. If you are on screen assessing the data you will see the ID, and you will want to assign a reward plan as an action based on that.
You assign the manager and you want to take some easy steps, the most important reason why is due to contextual insights. This is because you see the context, you see the ID and you shouldn’t copy that.
It shouldn’t go to any other plane, you need to be able to conduct everything at that particular screen. This intentional laziness is what I call it, because I’m a lazy person. My product should be built by a lazy person for lazy guys.
This is the only thing which I want to bring into the system. It should be very easy to navigate. As my designer once said, ‘I want the client to land in ReferOn and to swim through it without any guessing, without any issues, etc’.
That’s what the clarity of data and what consistency of data means.
The last thing is consistency. If one part of the system works in a specific way, all other parts should work the same, because the pattern of managing something across the system should be the same.
If you are doing some things on one screen, you should be able to proceed and to continue doing the same use cases on the other.
This is consistency. Because the predictable experience of using the system is very important.
SBCN: Why do you consider the UX a ‘hidden factor’? Do you think that it is often overlooked and disregarded compared to other aspects?
VB: We are trying to build habits. I think the interface of a system in general is like a series of dots that are connected. You can do some larger changes in one part, and some quick actions, such as IDs, assigned manager or rewards plans, in another.
I think the hidden factor is that often you can try to overcomplicate the system. You need to try and create the system in a way that spreads similarity across it. That’s probably the hidden factor in everything.
SBCN: How can ReferOn help affiliate platforms optimise their UX?
VB: As I have previously touched on, we are trying to build a habit for everyone. It’s like using Google Sheets or Photos. You want to upload photos and use the system by yourself.
It’s very important to build this experience. That’s what we are trying to do. I want people who are logging into other systems asking themselves ‘why is this not like ReferOn’.
I think that’s the important thing. We can help the industry make predictable experiences. I think that’s how we can help the industry to move forward.
SBCN: What is the biggest piece of advice you’d have for any affiliate platform looking to drive efficiency through UX?
VB: Treat your clients as lazy, because they are lazy. They don’t want to take unnecessary steps. They don’t want to click and go through the system wasting time. Just treat your clients as lazy.
They’re lazy, but that’s not bad. It’s really useful if they have more time to spend on the actual value they are bringing to the industry. Affiliate managers should be able to search for affiliates to speak to VIP guys etc.
They shouldn’t be afraid of starting a new campaign that takes around one hour. They should start the campaign easily, fast, and efficiently. That’s the most important thing.
