**4. New concepts in m-Commerce app design**

In order to explore concept designs for under-exploited sectors of the UX Design Paradigm Framework, design briefs for both seductive and passive brand communication apps are presented alongside an exploration of how the concepts may be designed.

In creating retail apps, there are seven principles that direct the designer through a wellplanned brief [40].

In his exceptional Ted Talk, Lee [41] discusses how anything we interact with must be considered an experience. Naturally our engagement cannot be a single experience, and so the designer must turn to the five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. It is not enough to excel in one category. After all, a sports car that looks incredible won't sell well if the engine sounds like nails in a grinder. When designing for the five senses, the strength of a combined approach is worth more than the sum of its parts. This is all very well for the industrial designer, but how can this possibly translate to the 2D world of a smartphone app? For that,

Reimagining m-Commerce App Design: The Development of Seductive Marketing through UX

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47

With any virtual product, the materials (or in this case technology) available to the designer are of upmost importance. Since introducing iOS11 [31], augmented reality is a feature natively available for designers to use and exploit in their creations. Coupled with an ever increasing sophistication of connected home items the designer need not be limited to the technology in the phone. With smart TVs, Speakers, Virtual Assistance, Security Systems, and cross device play compatibilities (etc.) they can instead play with interaction of the human in their entire environment. Consider the smartphone less as a single gateway, but more as a controller or portal to launch a full range of sensual experiences in the users' environment. To the seductive communicator, one must imagine a household filled with smart enabled

Finally, let's turn to the look and style of the app. Here there can be no absolutes presented since any two brands in the same market sector (let's say Pepsi and Coca-Cola) will have unique branding materials. So how can we approach the style of a seductive app when everything from typography to colour is intrinsically linked to the particular brand? The answer is 'truth'. It is essential that everything the user interacts with is true to the core brand message. Let's stay inside the realm of Fashion retail and consider the example of the luxury brand Gucci. Vogue [42] describes the brand as *'retro made modern … jewel-coloured ruffled readyto-wear garments… girly, geeky, gloriously decorated… deliciously colourful'*. This is one we are invited to imagine belonging to a *'bespectacled beret-wearing girl staying over at her boyfriend's place, taking a little overnight bag and not bothering to unpack the night before, and so the morning after, things are a little crinkled, a little imperfect'.* Collide this with the necessities of luxury fashion – high quality, exclusivity, and trend leading amongst others [17] – and images form in the mind. I would name this 'the emotions connected with the highest quality second hand charity shop New York'. You get the picture. Any experience we create must above all else be true to these emotions we imagine while reading the description above. For example, an app that delivers a virtual reality fashion show set in London's Brick Lane, shot on a 1970s TEAC HC-100 as the sun goes down (accompanied by the sound of Captain Beefheart's *Trout Mask* 

) would communicate the brand very well. However, a slick catwalk in a pure white,

cold, and stark expanse (set to the sound of Chelsea Wolfe's *Hiss Spun*) would be in complete contrast to the brand. Thus this scenario would not communicate the brand's emotions and visions effectively. Therefore, the designer must always put the core emotional imagery and

story of the brand before any experience, no matter how seductive.

I recommend every reader immediately visits YouTube to experience these artists in full.

we need to consider the materials we have at our disposal.

devices.

*Replica*<sup>3</sup>

3


All seven steps of the Design brief are essential in any commercial venture (particularly #2 – Budget and Schedule). But in exploring new paradigms, our focus can afford to be more limited than when developing in the real world. Therefore the concept designs within this chapter focus on objectives and goals, scope, materials, and look and style. Other elements may be considered brand associated or universal to a degree that while influential, shall be left to the reader to imagine further creative opportunities.

#### **4.1. Seductive brand communication**

#### *4.1.1. The design brief*

The objectives and goals of a seductive brand communication app should be to nothing short of deep visceral immersion that plays like entertainment. Through this the app instils positive brand association into the subconscious of the user to promote purchase behaviours. In short, the seductively brand communication app is to be an advert the consumer wants to engages with. This concept may sound a little alien to some. After all, why would anyone choose to be part of an advert when so much of technology has been to rid our lives of adverts? However you do not have to search hard to find examples of voluntary advert engagement. Amsterdam's Heineken Experience (a tour of the old Heineken beer brewery. Here, cues of tourists line up to walk through what is part museum to the history of the brand, part entertainment, and full brand communication. Guides brandishing free promotional souvenirs show off with pride the historic medals the beer won for excellence of taste. They show the purity of ingredients and direct guests into fully immersive 360° simulations of the brewing process. All of this is before entering the exhilarating football history recreation and possibly the trendiest bar in all of Amsterdam; accompanied throughout with brand appropriate house music. In a nutshell, every visitor is paying to be advertised through every medium. Through this, Heineken are ensuring future purchases of their beer, and all for the modest price of €18 to the tourist. If the brand communication experience is seductive enough, they will cue round the corner and still pay for it.

In his exceptional Ted Talk, Lee [41] discusses how anything we interact with must be considered an experience. Naturally our engagement cannot be a single experience, and so the designer must turn to the five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. It is not enough to excel in one category. After all, a sports car that looks incredible won't sell well if the engine sounds like nails in a grinder. When designing for the five senses, the strength of a combined approach is worth more than the sum of its parts. This is all very well for the industrial designer, but how can this possibly translate to the 2D world of a smartphone app? For that, we need to consider the materials we have at our disposal.

In creating retail apps, there are seven principles that direct the designer through a well-

**3. Target audience** – Who is the primary user of the product, and to what degree are other

All seven steps of the Design brief are essential in any commercial venture (particularly #2 – Budget and Schedule). But in exploring new paradigms, our focus can afford to be more limited than when developing in the real world. Therefore the concept designs within this chapter focus on objectives and goals, scope, materials, and look and style. Other elements may be considered brand associated or universal to a degree that while influential, shall be left to the

The objectives and goals of a seductive brand communication app should be to nothing short of deep visceral immersion that plays like entertainment. Through this the app instils positive brand association into the subconscious of the user to promote purchase behaviours. In short, the seductively brand communication app is to be an advert the consumer wants to engages with. This concept may sound a little alien to some. After all, why would anyone choose to be part of an advert when so much of technology has been to rid our lives of adverts? However you do not have to search hard to find examples of voluntary advert engagement. Amsterdam's Heineken Experience (a tour of the old Heineken beer brewery. Here, cues of tourists line up to walk through what is part museum to the history of the brand, part entertainment, and full brand communication. Guides brandishing free promotional souvenirs show off with pride the historic medals the beer won for excellence of taste. They show the purity of ingredients and direct guests into fully immersive 360° simulations of the brewing process. All of this is before entering the exhilarating football history recreation and possibly the trendiest bar in all of Amsterdam; accompanied throughout with brand appropriate house music. In a nutshell, every visitor is paying to be advertised through every medium. Through this, Heineken are ensuring future purchases of their beer, and all for the modest price of €18 to the tourist. If the brand communication experience is seductive enough, they

**2. Budget and schedule** – How much will it cost and when must it be delivered?

**4. Scope of the project** – The explicit criteria the product must meet to be successful.

**6. Overall look and style** – How should the product appear to the user?

**1. Objectives and goals** – What is product trying to achieve?

**5. Materials** – What do the designers have to work with?

**7. Any do not's** – What should be avoided at all costs?

reader to imagine further creative opportunities.

will cue round the corner and still pay for it.

**4.1. Seductive brand communication**

*4.1.1. The design brief*

user groups important to its design?

planned brief [40].

46 Marketing

With any virtual product, the materials (or in this case technology) available to the designer are of upmost importance. Since introducing iOS11 [31], augmented reality is a feature natively available for designers to use and exploit in their creations. Coupled with an ever increasing sophistication of connected home items the designer need not be limited to the technology in the phone. With smart TVs, Speakers, Virtual Assistance, Security Systems, and cross device play compatibilities (etc.) they can instead play with interaction of the human in their entire environment. Consider the smartphone less as a single gateway, but more as a controller or portal to launch a full range of sensual experiences in the users' environment. To the seductive communicator, one must imagine a household filled with smart enabled devices.

Finally, let's turn to the look and style of the app. Here there can be no absolutes presented since any two brands in the same market sector (let's say Pepsi and Coca-Cola) will have unique branding materials. So how can we approach the style of a seductive app when everything from typography to colour is intrinsically linked to the particular brand? The answer is 'truth'. It is essential that everything the user interacts with is true to the core brand message. Let's stay inside the realm of Fashion retail and consider the example of the luxury brand Gucci. Vogue [42] describes the brand as *'retro made modern … jewel-coloured ruffled readyto-wear garments… girly, geeky, gloriously decorated… deliciously colourful'*. This is one we are invited to imagine belonging to a *'bespectacled beret-wearing girl staying over at her boyfriend's place, taking a little overnight bag and not bothering to unpack the night before, and so the morning after, things are a little crinkled, a little imperfect'.* Collide this with the necessities of luxury fashion – high quality, exclusivity, and trend leading amongst others [17] – and images form in the mind. I would name this 'the emotions connected with the highest quality second hand charity shop New York'. You get the picture. Any experience we create must above all else be true to these emotions we imagine while reading the description above. For example, an app that delivers a virtual reality fashion show set in London's Brick Lane, shot on a 1970s TEAC HC-100 as the sun goes down (accompanied by the sound of Captain Beefheart's *Trout Mask Replica*<sup>3</sup> ) would communicate the brand very well. However, a slick catwalk in a pure white, cold, and stark expanse (set to the sound of Chelsea Wolfe's *Hiss Spun*) would be in complete contrast to the brand. Thus this scenario would not communicate the brand's emotions and visions effectively. Therefore, the designer must always put the core emotional imagery and story of the brand before any experience, no matter how seductive.

<sup>3</sup> I recommend every reader immediately visits YouTube to experience these artists in full.

#### *4.1.2. The concept: beyond the smart home environment*

So what should a seductive brand communication app? The answer is multiplicity. The crux here is that seductive interaction cannot be a universal concept. While one person may find exultant bliss of Mozart's operatic symphony, a similar person may feel a comparable (if altered) experience in the throes of a Cannibal Corpse's death metal concert. As the excellent journalistic observer Malcolm Gladwell [43] testified, there are no perfect products that will be revered by all. Instead, there can only be a suit of items catering to the range of personal preferences which people emotionally feel, yet cannot completely describe. By establishing multiple experiences, the chance of the consumer connecting at a deep level with at least one is increased.

But what about experiencing the stories and ethos of what is ultimately a very visual industry. An augmented reality app may allow the user to watch the latest runway show from the comfort of their own home. Here, the user is adopting their smart device as a portal to this virtual world. Connected to Coco, the lighting level, colour, and intensity can be set automatically to match that of the show. All of this is while the room's surround sound speakers perfectly deliver the high quality sound missing from conventional video media in 2018. Navigation through such a device can be through both traditional touch and through Coco. You want to buy the dress shown and matching accessories? Then just ask Coco and the garments appear on the Smart TV on the wall. Home atmospherics, smartphone, and television are no longer single points of contact but a connected arrangement in the symphony of brand delivery. However such examples may be limited. While the user would be engaging in the home at all times, shopping with the brand (no matter how entertaining and game-like) can only be an

Reimagining m-Commerce App Design: The Development of Seductive Marketing through UX

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75749

49

Gone are the days of watching live TV in favour of online streaming of films and media on demand. Chanel could release a curated media app for the smart TV platform. In this app each movie, TV show, or documentary is chosen for its complimentary qualities to the core brand story. For example, in 2017 Burberry produced a short film titled *'The Tale of Thomas Burberry*' [46], a romanticized and stylised version of the brands founder and his passion for style. Not only would a curated media platform allow for seductive media to be delivered to the home without effort, but each film selected builds upon these emotions and images. With such a media outlet, every evening of entertainment can be suitably sophisticated, intelligent, and stylised to reflect the values and aesthetics of the Chanel brand. Also, linking with Coco means the user would never have to guess which lighting setting or sound EQ is the most appropriate. This is because Coco would know the setting for each room and film, and set it accordingly. While Google or Amazon may match these features, their universal and playful attitude would be at clear odds to the more sophisticated and elegant approach that Coco can

This concept is in every way feasible with the technology of 2018, and is thus limited regarding its full potential. I therefore encourage every reader to imagine how this story can be evolved and pushed further with new technology that cannot at present be envisioned.

Compared to the highly evocative world of seductive brand communication, you can be forgiven for assuming that passive communication can only be a poor cousin. However the continued prevalence of books in a world where Hollywood has delivered stimulating visuals for over 100 years holds credence to the idea that passive presentation is not dead. To consider passive brand communication in apps is therefore to uncover and celebrate its unique strengths to a commercial advantage. So what is the objective in building such apps? When pure sales are the goal, the answer is simple. This is to start a direct and explicit connection between the customer and the brand ideas with no interactivity getting in the way. But when

occasional interaction. Therefore we need to expand the concept further.

deliver.

**4.2. Passive brand communication**

*4.2.1. The design brief*

The designer therefore has to choose between creating a single, complex app delivering a cornucopia of experiences, or a suit of apps each one tuned to a single purpose. While there are merits to both options, I hold that when several highly engaging experiences are combined into one platform compromises must be made. Therefore, to keep the experience as unfettered as possible, a suit of immersive and seductive experiences is the most suitable for fulfilling the brief. Therefore, consider how a seductively involving app might function in practice.

Fashion retail focuses on delivering in-store atmospherics that communicate the brand's impression [44]. The first concept is brand-appropriate atmospherics in the home. From thermostats to blinds, lighting, doors, music, and personal assistants, smart technology is becoming ever more pervasive within our home environments. Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Siri (for example) seeks to connect all of our appliances and environment features together in one ecosystem. However, when all appliances are connected by one of three ubiquitous virtual assistants, uniqueness and exclusivity (key concepts for fashion retail) are lost [45]. Let us then imagine an app by Chanel installed onto the smart home hub (e.g. Apple TV) that controls your environment.

When interacting with your Chanel Smart Home, every room has a microphone and speaker. This allows you to ask the Chanel Virtual Assistant (let us call her Coco) anything at any time. Not only is Coco equipped with the latest in machine learning to mimic human personality, the tone of voice (and the assistant's accent) is set to mimic the tone of voice appropriate for the Chanel brand. Whenever a question is asked, Coco needs to make assumptions to fit the moment. For example, asking Coco to play relaxing music is to balance the user's learnt preference with the style appropriate with the Chanel brand. Taking this further, the lighting in the room can be set to automatically fit the time of day and mood of the music, delivering the perfect ambience. This lighting and background music can know who is home and their schedule. This allows the user to enter the home and step into a predetermined ambience through smart lighting, connected sound systems, and automated temperature. In short, the elegance and sophistication with which the house is managed allows the user to not just wear the Chanel clothing, but to live within the Chanel world. By focusing on the smart home, the user interaction is not through screens or keys, but through ubiquitous voice at all times. Given the right level of sophisticated interaction design, the user is constantly interacting, constantly engaging, and at every turn being seduced by the brand.

But what about experiencing the stories and ethos of what is ultimately a very visual industry. An augmented reality app may allow the user to watch the latest runway show from the comfort of their own home. Here, the user is adopting their smart device as a portal to this virtual world. Connected to Coco, the lighting level, colour, and intensity can be set automatically to match that of the show. All of this is while the room's surround sound speakers perfectly deliver the high quality sound missing from conventional video media in 2018. Navigation through such a device can be through both traditional touch and through Coco. You want to buy the dress shown and matching accessories? Then just ask Coco and the garments appear on the Smart TV on the wall. Home atmospherics, smartphone, and television are no longer single points of contact but a connected arrangement in the symphony of brand delivery. However such examples may be limited. While the user would be engaging in the home at all times, shopping with the brand (no matter how entertaining and game-like) can only be an occasional interaction. Therefore we need to expand the concept further.

Gone are the days of watching live TV in favour of online streaming of films and media on demand. Chanel could release a curated media app for the smart TV platform. In this app each movie, TV show, or documentary is chosen for its complimentary qualities to the core brand story. For example, in 2017 Burberry produced a short film titled *'The Tale of Thomas Burberry*' [46], a romanticized and stylised version of the brands founder and his passion for style. Not only would a curated media platform allow for seductive media to be delivered to the home without effort, but each film selected builds upon these emotions and images. With such a media outlet, every evening of entertainment can be suitably sophisticated, intelligent, and stylised to reflect the values and aesthetics of the Chanel brand. Also, linking with Coco means the user would never have to guess which lighting setting or sound EQ is the most appropriate. This is because Coco would know the setting for each room and film, and set it accordingly. While Google or Amazon may match these features, their universal and playful attitude would be at clear odds to the more sophisticated and elegant approach that Coco can deliver.

This concept is in every way feasible with the technology of 2018, and is thus limited regarding its full potential. I therefore encourage every reader to imagine how this story can be evolved and pushed further with new technology that cannot at present be envisioned.
