Product experience:4 pillars to design it for digital channels
By Enrico Giubertoni
Trusted by
Worldline
Alba Leasing
L'Erbolario
3M
Product experience is the complete experience the buyer persona has of your product, both in the physical store and in digital channels. It is precisely in digital channels that this experience must be redesigned and communicated through a screen, knowing that some dimensions, such as touch, smell and in some cases hearing, are altered.
Four pillars are necessary to redesign product experience in digital channels, the channels that must reproduce a sensation through other communication systems (the figure of speech called synaesthesia). Synaesthesia alone is not enough: the consumer in fact produces systems of conceptual processing of the emotions about the product, and the four pillars answer those systems:
Perception: anticipate the experience of the product.
Learning: discover and learn.
Relationship: share.
Repetition: live it again.
A digital marketing strategy that answers all four obtains customers who return; one that answers only some of them obtains partial results.
The reason is simple. When most interactions happen online, the adoption of a product no longer depends only on its intrinsic features. It depends on the experience built around it, from the first image to the support after the purchase.
The sections below turn the four pillars into questions, then take them one by one with the concrete tools, and close with a table that summarises them.
Inside a digital strategy, the four pillars must answer these questions
Each pillar becomes a question your strategy must be able to answer.
The 4 pillars of digital product experience:
Perception
How does my strategy answer the need to anticipate the aesthetic and functional experience of using the product? In practice: how the target understands how to use the product and places it in context.
Learning
How far does my brand let people discover and learn uses and new techniques of use and of setting, which produce better and incremental results?
Relationship
How far do I encourage my target, or put it in a position, to share opinions and experiences about the product with other users or with the brand?
Repetition
How far do I give the customer the possibility to live again the positive experience of the first time, through a new purchase or continued use?
Perception: communicate the senses through a screen
The first pillar concerns perception. How do you transmit the tangible and intangible qualities of your product through a screen? The task is to make almost real what the user cannot touch or try physically.
This requires excellent work on:
Visuals: high quality images, demonstration videos, 360° views, augmented reality.
Evocative descriptions: texts that tell the benefits and the sensations of use, beyond the list of features.
Sound design, where relevant: audio can create an atmosphere or communicate specific qualities.
Good product design considers from the start how these sensory aspects will be communicated in digital channels. The work consists in building a bridge between the physical product (or the service) and its digital representation, and this bridge shapes the overall customer experience.
Learning and Relationship: make the evaluation easy
The second and third pillars are tied to the evaluation the user makes of the product and of the experience around it. From the user’s point of view, the evaluation works when information is easy to find and when there is an online community to talk with.
To obtain this:
Useful content: guides, tutorials, detailed FAQ and blog articles that show how to use the product at its best (Learning).
Spaces to share: user reviews, forums, question and answer sections, or social media integrations where users exchange opinions and advice (Relationship).
Interaction with the brand: answer comments, take part in discussions, show that you listen to feedback.
This shared evaluation reinforces trust and delivers precious insights to improve product and design. The customer experience improves when users feel supported and part of a community.
Repetition: examples that make people return
The fourth pillar is Repetition: making the user want to repeat the experience. Concrete examples and success stories are strong levers for this objective.
An episode of my Italian-language podcast, #DigitalMarketingMentality, discusses a sector that is working intensively to redesign product experience for digital channels.
The example of the episode: I concentrate on the cosmetics sector, because it must transmit sensations and results by nature. I analyse how cosmetics companies use digital channels to overcome the physical barrier, with engaging experiences that lead to the purchase and, above all, to the new purchase. On the same sector you can also read my conversation on cosmetic product marketing.
Transferable to other sectors: the principles and tactics discussed (virtual try-on, interactive tutorials, online communities) apply to many contexts. A positive customer experience often leads to repetition.
From consumers to customers: the role of product experience
Perception, Learning, Relationship and Repetition are what consumers already look for online on their own. They search, evaluate, share.
The decisive point is this: if you do not offer this complete and satisfying experience, a competitor will.
An occasional consumer has little loyalty. A customer is a person who lived a product experience (and, more widely, a customer experience) positive enough to choose to return.
To obtain this transformation, your marketing and digital communication strategy must integrate the 4 pillars actively. A good product is the starting condition; then you design the whole experience around it, and you support the user in every moment of the interaction. This is the core of product experience marketing.
The 4 pillars of digital product experience
Pillar
Need of the target
How to answer online
Perception
Anticipate the aesthetic or functional experience of the product
How do you communicate the sensory qualities of a product online?
By making almost real what the user cannot touch: high quality images, demonstration videos, 360° views and augmented reality, descriptions that tell the benefits and the sensations of use and, where relevant, sound design. Good product design considers from the start how these aspects will be communicated in digital channels.
How do you build the relationship between users and the brand around a product?
By offering spaces to share, such as reviews, forums, question and answer sections or social media integrations, and by taking part as a brand: answer comments, join the discussions, show that you listen to feedback. This shared evaluation reinforces trust and delivers insights to improve the product.
Why does product experience turn a consumer into a customer?
An occasional consumer has little loyalty, while a customer is a person who had an experience positive enough to choose to return. Consumers already search, evaluate and share online on their own: if you do not offer a complete and satisfying experience, a competitor will.
