Today’s post is about what I’ve just added in the glossary under “User Immersion” — hey, by the way, if you don’t know about the glossary, it’s an article that’s alive. Along the following years, it will be updated with whatever terms we’ll feel like explaining or coin (for instance, “
User immersion is what any experience should be aiming for. When a user is immersed, they’re probably deploying more than one sense into what was prepared for them.
They’re focusing on the experience and, depending on their personality, will isolate their awareness from the outer world more or less. It draws the most part of their attention and they don’t “buy into” the story given. They are part of it — could lead to an echo chamber among the groups of people developed around the experience.
Yes, they tend to create groups when the belief becomes strong.
The process of peer-sharing is a side-effect of them being immersed. That happens thanks to a base of utilitarian value but what springboards that is the mix of simplicity, beautiful looks and social value (social proof, co-op factor, validation bias etc.)
On a darker note, if we were to compare the company to a cult, an immersed user would be their acolyte (that’s an extreme example though). Wherever they see adverts, social media mentions or simply their product, they’re drawn onto them like a magnet — that’s a side-effect of proper equity building.
On the B2B side, effects are of a lesser degree given the audience. However, user immersion can exist in a way that still captures their senses and deploys the social value dimension, minus the acolyte bit.
As always, the practical bit
Examples:
- Apple — people camping in tents for days in order to buy their products
- Supreme in the fashion industry — same queues as Apple but to a lesser degree
- Adidas/Nike — fist fights starting at sneaker releases
- Intercom — the business-to-consumer chatting standard
- Zoom — webinars, virtual events, business video call standard
- Adobe — the full toolbox for creatives
- Stripe — go-to payment processor, stress-proof and bullshit-free
- MailChimp
- WeTransfer
- Amazon’s Alexa
- Religions…? Hey, we don’t wanna get into that
Look man , we’re just building a SaaS business… What are you talking about?
What I’m saying is this: just because it’s B2B it doesn’t mean we should actually think businesses are communicating to businesses. It’s still about the humans behind it and we know it — we just tend to forget it.
That means those humans have their emotions, feelings, opinions as well. The message I’m conveying is not about manipulating them — far from it. When we know the people behind the businesses, then we can do exactly what other companies have done in the B2C world (what I’ve noted above).
Just because very few have properly done it in this realm it doesn’t mean no one can do it. Just that there’s a high entry point for the first that do.
And no, it doesn’t have to look like this.
In A Nutshell
Companies (even B2B) can immerse their users/target audience into their product or their experience.
About Ch Daniel
I run chagency, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. We’re building a credo around this belief.
If I’ve brought you any kind of value, follow me and get in touch here: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email
I’ve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times – check it out at chdaniel.com/app
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Cover image credit: Domenico D’Alisa
