User Experience for B2B Platforms

💎 Accessibility For Designers Checklist (PDF: https://lnkd.in/e9Z2G2kF), a practical set of cards on WCAG accessibility guidelines, from accessible color, typography, animations, media, layout and development — to kick-off accessibility conversations early on. Kindly put together by Geri Reid. WCAG for Designers Checklist, by Geri Reid Article: https://lnkd.in/ef8-Yy9E PDF: https://lnkd.in/e9Z2G2kF WCAG 2.2 Guidelines: https://lnkd.in/eYmzrNh7 Accessibility isn’t about compliance. It’s not about ticking off checkboxes. And it’s not about plugging in accessibility overlays or AI engines either. It’s about *designing* with a wide range of people in mind — from the very start, independent of their skills and preferences. In my experience, the most impactful way to embed accessibility in your work is to bring a handful of people with different needs early into design process and usability testing. It’s making these test sessions accessible to the entire team, and showing real impact of design and code on real people using a real product. Teams usually don’t get time to work on features which don’t have a clear business case. But no manager really wants to be seen publicly ignoring their prospect customers. Visualize accessibility to everyone on the team and try to make an argument about potential reach and potential income. Don’t ask for big commitments: embed accessibility in your work by default. Account for accessibility needs in your estimates. Create accessibility tickets and flag accessibility issues. Don’t mistake smiling and nodding for support — establish timelines, roles, specifics, objectives. And most importantly: measure the impact of your work by repeatedly conducting accessibility testing with real people. Build a strong before/after case to show the change that the team has enabled and contributed to, and celebrate small and big accessibility wins. It might not sound like much, but it can start changing the culture faster than you think. Useful resources: Giving A Damn About Accessibility, by Sheri Byrne-Haber (disabled) https://lnkd.in/eCeFutuJ Accessibility For Designers: Where Do I Start?, by Stéphanie Walter https://lnkd.in/ecG5qASY Web Accessibility In Plain Language (Free Book), by Charlie Triplett https://lnkd.in/e2AMAwyt Building Accessibility Research Practices, by Maya Alvarado https://lnkd.in/eq_3zSPJ How To Build A Strong Case For Accessibility, ↳ https://lnkd.in/ehGivAdY, by 🦞 Todd Libby ↳ https://lnkd.in/eC4jehMX, by Yichan Wang #ux #accessibility

Here's another way AI can help you tell better stories; by building PERSONAS the same way science fiction writers do. 🚀📝 I love N.K. JEMISIN. This is a page from her MasterClass on writing science fiction stories, world-building & developing characters. I use her "Character-Building Framework" to help me write better prompts when I’m working with #AI. Why? While using AI as a storytelling assistant over the last 12 months, I've worked on hundreds of scripts. One thing I've discovered is that AI responds really well when you give it a PERSONA to work with; one which is structured similar to how authors like N.K. Jemisin, J.K. Rowling or Arthur C. Clarke create characters for their stories. Imagine that the person you most need to influence in your next business presentation is a CHARACTER in your story... You need 10 basic elements when you’re creating a character in a story: 🗺️ DEMOGRAPHICS -Age -Race -Gender 🏢 OUTER LIFE -Role -Job -Status -Power ♥️ INNER LIFE -Goals -Fears -Weaknesses -Desires ⬇️ The next time you’re prompting an AI - maybe a #LLM such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Llama… ❌ DON’T SAY “I am writing a pitch for the CEO of a large telco company…” ✅ DO SAY “I am writing a pitch for the CEO of a large global telco company based in the UK. She is British, age 48, works in London and lives in a small village in the Cotswolds with a young family…. [DEMOGRAPHICS] …She is responsible for creating the vision and strategic objectives for a global telco with 50,000 employees. She studied mathematics at Cambridge University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. She appears to have an ENTJ personality type…. [OUTER LIFE] … Her ambition is to grow her business revenue by 15% and increase the EBITDA margins of the company. She has only been in her job 6 months and (according to a recent interview) she is still working hard to build trust and confidence across her leadership team. She is worried that morale is low among her employees, with many of them anxious about how technology will impact their jobs. She wants to demonstrate empathy for her employees, and champion a more competitive spirit across the organisation. She is on a mission to encourage everyone to become more innovative, by embracing AI in a meaningful and productive way.” [INNER LIFE] ⬇️ [DEMOGRAPHICS] + [OUTER LIFE] + [INNER LIFE] ⬇️ Generic (persona) prompts create generic results. 🤯 But the power of a good "Persona Prompt" (like my detailed 181-word version above) can be the difference between failure and success, when you're collaborating with AI for your next important business presentation. Try it yourself... I guarantee you'll be surprised at the results. 🤩 “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” - Arthur C. Clark (Author of 2001: A Space Odyssey)

Here's one of the biggest unlocks to me staying a solopreneur forever.   AI agents are getting all the focus, but one of the big enablers for me isn't AI running workflows, it's AI having the expertise in area's I don't.   I use the projects feature of my GPT subscriptions *religiously*   I've crafted several persona's that are dedicated to serving me in key areas I need support, but don't have expertise.   They're like an executive team for all the things I can't and don't want to outsource or have to hire for.   These persona's are constantly refined through the needs of the business, and they're constantly kept up to date on business context that gives them much tighter and more relevant responses.   Here's all the persona's I use:   Marketing Expert: I use this all the time for marketing strategy, building campaigns, and thinking through content partnerships.   Account Executive: Helps me write proposals and do everything I need to enable my sales activities.   Copy writer: Probably my most frequently used one. Great for LinkedIn post refinement or long form newsletter writing.   Comp expert: My thought partner on everything to do with spreadsheet algorithms or comp best practices.   Legal Expert: What I use for preliminary review of legal docs and basic refinements. Crucially, it helps me understand risk on various things I am working on.   Head of People: Arguably one of the most important personas for me when everything I do is in service of the Head of People.   This persona gives me the ability to sense check or even generate concepts related to the challenges a Head of People is going through. It's like customer research on tap.   Great for chaining GPT prompts based on context provided by this persona.   AI personas won’t replace every hire, but they’ll stretch any solo operator further than headcount ever could.   Which role would you hire first on your AI team?

Don’t Automate Complexity... Simplify and Error-Proof Instead When problems arise, it’s tempting to think automation is the magic fix. But automating a broken or complex process just means you’re speeding up the production of errors. The smarter approach? Simplify the process and error-proof it (Poka Yoke) before thinking about automation. Here’s why simplification often beats automation and how you can apply it. Why You Should Simplify Before Automating: 1️⃣ Faster, Cheaper Improvements Simplifying a process through standardization and removing unnecessary steps often solves problems more quickly and at a lower cost than automation. 2️⃣ Avoid Automating Waste If your process is full of waste (like waiting, overprocessing, or rework), automating it only speeds up inefficiency. Fix the process first, then think about automation. 3️⃣ Built-In Error Proofing With Poka Yoke solutions (like jigs, fixtures, or guides), you can design processes to prevent errors from happening in the first place—without needing expensive sensors or software. 4️⃣ Flexibility and Adaptability Simplified processes are easier to adjust and improve, while automated systems can be rigid and costly to change once implemented. How to Simplify and Error-Proof a Process: 🔍 Map the Current Workflow: Identify unnecessary steps, bottlenecks, and areas prone to errors. ✂️ Eliminate Waste: Remove any steps that don’t add value to the product or service. 📋 Standardize Work: Create clear, repeatable instructions that everyone can follow. 🔧 Introduce Poka Yoke: Physical Error-Proofing: Use jigs, fixtures, or alignment guides to prevent incorrect assembly. Visual Cues: Use color-coded labels or visual templates to guide operators. Sensors or Alarms: Only when needed, use low-cost technology to detect errors in real time. Example of Simplification and Poka Yoke in Action: A warehouse team was dealing with frequent errors when picking products for orders. Instead of implementing a costly automated picking system, they: 1. Introduced a color-coded bin system (Poka Yoke) to help operators select the correct items. 2. Simplified the picking route to reduce unnecessary walking and waiting time. Result: Picking errors dropped by 80%, and productivity increased by 15%—all without expensive automation. When to Consider Automation: Once the process is simplified and stabilized with minimal variation, automation can enhance speed and efficiency. But it should support an optimized process, not mask its problems.

Google’s AI Mode is quietly rewriting how B2B visibility works. Kevin Indig’s new usability study of AI Mode (link to the Growth Memo edition in comments) confirms what many of us suspected. ‼️ User behavior has shifted far more radically than most brands realize. • 88% of users focus on the AI-generated text first. • Clicks to external sites are close to zero in informational queries. • Inline links (within the text) outperform citation icons by 27%. • And the single strongest influence on what users trust or buy? Brand familiarity. This matters because in B2B tech, we’ve built visibility frameworks on a model that’s disappearing, where organic search drove discovery, evaluation, and conversion through content journeys. In AI Mode, those journeys now happen inside the SERP. Your content may never get the click. Your brand will. That means two strategic shifts for tech marketers: 1. From keywords to entities.        AI Mode surfaces “trusted sources,” not optimized pages. If your brand isn’t seen as authoritative in its category, you’re not even in the conversation.    E-E-A-T signals and entity consolidation are becoming the real distribution levers.     2. From traffic to trust.        Measuring success by CTR or sessions will soon look archaic. The new KPI is in-SERP visibility, how often your brand appears (and is quoted) inside AI Mode responses. Think of it as brand-level share of voice across machine-generated outputs.     The takeaway for B2B growth leaders is uncomfortable but clear: ‼️ Stop fighting for page-one rankings that no longer drive the behavior you’re optimizing for. Start investing in the brand authority that determines whether AI Mode quotes, cites, or ignores you. AI Mode kills weak brands. Don't be that brand.

Wondering why your marketing efforts aren’t delivering as expected? Here are 3 key areas to evaluate when it comes to brand consistency: → Is your visual identity cohesive across all platforms? → Does your messaging align with your core values? → Are you communicating consistently with your audience? A few months ago, I had a conversation with our marketing team about the importance of consistency. Is every touchpoint with our audience reinforcing the brand image we want? Here’s what we realized: → Some brands fail to create any consistency (yes, it's as bad as it sounds) → Many brands are consistent on one or two platforms but not across the board → Only a few brands truly master consistent branding across all channels and touchpoints Inconsistent branding can undo all the hard work you've put into your marketing strategy over time. Don’t let it happen to you. So ask yourself these questions to ensure you’re keeping your brand consistent: 1) Is my visual branding uniform across all platforms? → Review your logos, colors, fonts, and imagery across websites, social media, and print materials. Are they aligned? 2) Is my messaging consistent with my brand's voice? → Does your brand voice match the tone and message across every platform, from emails to social posts? 3) Am I engaging consistently with my audience? → Evaluate how often and in what ways you’re interacting with your audience. Keep these questions in mind and take action where needed to ensure your brand consistency stays on track!

Why does the top of the PhonePe app have no CTA? At first glance, the top section of the PhonePe home screen features a bold promotional banner, like “Get up to ₹1000 Cashback”, but doesn’t include an immediate, prominent CTA. Let's understand why PhonePe has done that 👇 🟣 1. Visual Hierarchy (Gestalt Principle) The banner occupies the most visually dominant area, establishing an immediate focal point. By placing a singular, high-impact message at the top, the design leverages visual hierarchy to draw attention before overwhelming the user with options. The absence of clutter or multiple buttons ensures that the user's eye settles on what matters: the offer itself. 🟣 2. Von Restorff Effect (Isolation Effect) This principle states that items that stand out are more likely to be remembered. By isolating the banner and avoiding button clusters or competing CTAs, PhonePe gives its promotional content maximum impact and recall. Users are more likely to notice and remember the cashback offer precisely because it’s not buried among other actions. 🟣 3. Aesthetic-Usability Effect Clean, uncluttered design is often perceived as more trustworthy and easier to use—even if functionality is temporarily hidden. By avoiding immediate CTAs, the design taps into user psychology: users may interpret the experience as calm, premium, and intentional, especially important in fintech where trust is key. 🟣 4. Priming (Cognitive Bias) The promotional banner acts as a visual primer—subtly guiding user intent without direct instruction. For example, seeing “₹1000 Cashback” at the top primes users to seek out credit card bill payment, even before they encounter the actionable option below. 🟣 5. First Impression Heuristics The top half of any screen defines the emotional tone of the app. Instead of jumping straight into utility, PhonePe uses this space to establish value, offers, and relevance. This is particularly effective in driving re-engagement or frequency of use, by reminding users of benefits before they act. Do share your thoughts! #UXDesign #ProductManagement #MobileUX #UserExperience #DesignThinking #ProductManager #ProductDesign #UIUX #Design #PhonePe

Why Buyer Personas Are Often Useless (Unless You Do Them Right) Buyer personas. Every marketer talks about them, but how many of us actually use them to drive real results? Too often, buyer personas are treated as an exercise in check-box marketing: Create a template, fill in some basic demographics, and call it a day. But this is a recipe for wasting time and burning calories. The real power of buyer personas lies in the depth of insight they provide about the emotional, psychological, and behavioral triggers of your target audience. When done right, personas become your roadmap for everything—product decisions, messaging, marketing strategies, and sales enablement. But when done wrong, they’re useless. So, how should you approach Buyer Personas? 1. Go Beyond Demographics It’s easy to create personas based on age, job title, and income. But that’s not what actually drives a purchase decision. You need to understand why your customers buy your product—what pain points are they solving, what motivates them, and what stands in their way. 2. Focus on Behavior and Needs Instead of just a “one-size-fits-all” persona, segment by behavior and customer journey stage. Are they early-stage prospects or ready to buy? How do they interact with your product? Behavior speaks volumes. 3. Constantly Evolve Your personas shouldn’t be static! The market, technology, and customer needs evolve—so should your personas. Continuously gather feedback from your users, sales teams, and customer support. Buyer personas done right can drive growth, shape product development, and create hyper-targeted marketing strategies. But done poorly? They’re just another file on the shelf. #growthmarketing #buyerpersonas #marketing

Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day everyone! It's a great day to remind people, that, accessibility is the responsibility of the whole team, including designers! A couple of things designers can do: - Use sufficient color contrast (text + UI elements) and don’t rely on color alone to convey meaning. - Ensure readable typography: support text resizing, avoid hard-to-read styles, maintain hierarchy. - Make links and buttons clear and distinguishable (label, size, states). - Design accessible forms: clear labels, error help, no duplicate input, document states. - Support keyboard navigation: tab order, skip links, focus indicators, keyboard interaction. - Structure content with headings and landmarks: use proper H1–Hn, semantic order, regions. - Provide text alternatives for images, icons, audio, and video. - Avoid motion triggers: respect reduced motion settings, allow pause on auto-play. - Design with flexibility: support orientation change, allow text selection, avoid fixed-height elements. - Document accessibly and communicate: annotate designs, collaborate with devs, QA, and content teams. Need to learn more? I got a couple of resources on my blog: - A Designer’s Guide to Documenting Accessibility & User Interactions: https://lnkd.in/eUh8Jvvn - How to check and document design accessibility in your mockups: a conference on how to use Figma plugins and annotation kits to shift accessibility left https://lnkd.in/eu8YuWyF - Accessibility for designer: where do I start? Articles, resources, checklists, tools, plugins, and books to design accessible products https://lnkd.in/ejeC_QpH - Neurodiversity and UX: Essential Resources for Cognitive Accessibility, Guidelines to understand and design for Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Autism and ADHD https://lnkd.in/efXaRwgF - Color accessibility: tools and resources to help you design inclusive products https://lnkd.in/dRrwFJ5 #Accessibility #ShiftLeft #GAAD

You have to speak the same language without saying the same words. That is how a ‘brand consistency’ is built I onboarded a client recently who had been working on her socials through 3 different agencies. But after almost a year, she felt like something was missing or there’s something just not right. That’s when she reached out to me. And the main problem was a very inconsistent brand presence. The website felt high-end. But the LinkedIn posts sounded like a generic “growth hacker.” The newsletters looked overly sophisticated, But Instagram felt like an afterthought and more so casual. Obviously when 3 different agencies are going to handle 3 different platforms, maintaining a consistent tonality becomes a major challenge. Especially when brand doesn’t have a solid foundation. This inconsistency doesn’t just look unaligned but also creates a disconnect from your audience that slowly chips away your perceived value. We started working on her LinkedIn first and later her Instagram, website and newsletters as well. And what did we do? On LinkedIn we positioned her with authority but kept accessible. On Instagram, we maintained the visual language but simplified the messaging. On the website, we brought depth, showcasing expertise without overwhelming. In emails, we carried the same tone as conversations: personal, valuable, intentional. And even in DMs, we protected the brand voice (because that’s part of the experience too). When done right, your audience feels the same trust, familiarity, and confidence, no matter where they meet you. Platform aesthetics may change. Personality doesn’t. If you’re serious about building a consistent, premium brand presence across LinkedIn, Instagram, Website, and Email, let’s talk. Because building an online brand is not just mindless posting. #aashified #linkedin #brand