Ward Andrews is the founder and CEO of “Drawbackwards,” which is one of the leading design firms in the Phoenix, Arizona area. He and his team work to dissolve complexity and create simplicity for customer experience and software product teams around the globe.

He is a member of the Honors Faculty at Arizona State University. There, he teaches Design Entrepreneurship and helps students form creative disciplines to develop real products and launch real companies.

Ward is my former business partner. He and I were Co-Founders of Families.com. Together, we helped grow site members to 300k in just 18 months. This family-centric social community was then sold in 2007, only two years after launching the company.

Ward has held many other roles such as a Design Director and Internet Strategist at Fisher, and a Creative Director for Rhino Internet. Some of the brands he’s worked with to improve their design, UI (user interface), and UX (user experience) include American Express, Choice Hotels, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sony, Intel, General Dynamics, Insomniac Games, and GoDaddy. Projects he’s worked on have received Addy, Prisma, and Emmy awards. Through CX and software product work, he has created over $1 billion in value through cost savings and new revenue growth (Source: Drawbackwards).

Here are three strategies Ward shared in our interview for implementing and improving effective user experience design:

Start with “Why”

I asked Ward if logos are important for small businesses, and if so, what are some dos and don’ts of creating a logo. Ward said many people get hung up over logos. “You don’t even need a logo!” he said. “In a way, they do matter, but in another way, they don’t.”

Ward shared the Simon Sinek teaching: “Start with the why.” “Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY” (Source: Simon Sinek).

The “why” should be at the center of everything a business or individual does. Then, there are concentric circles around “why” for “how” and “what.” Ward explained that a logo design should come at the end when talking about the “what.” Not that the logo isn’t important, but he said, “all I’m saying is not start with the logo. Start with the why. And the logo will be a result of the why, but it is a what.”

When individuals or businesses have a great why, people connect with it and give credibility or trust to the business or individual. Ward presented a great question, “If people don’t know why a business exists, why buy from them?” If there’s no why, then it can take away from the credibility, trust, or connection that individuals can build with a business.

Now, after the “why” and “how” have been figured out, then it’s ok to start thinking about the “what” and logo, which are actually very important. Because the why has already been figured out, then the logo should tell the story of the why. “Do the why work first before doing the logo work,” Ward said. Once that’s done, the color, fonts, etc. will then be able to carry weight and meaning to people.

This is how to create a powerful logo. Start with the why.

Improve User Experience & Interface

Design Mistakes in User Interface

Ward’s daughter was old enough to drive and had to go through the process of getting her learner’s permit. In order to do so, she had to sign up on a particular web interface. She said to Ward, “Dad! You would think that something everyone in the public needs to use would be really well designed and simple.” Unfortunately, it was not, and this is how many interfaces are executed.

“The Experience Success Ladder”

Ward created a framework called “The Experience Success Ladder” to improve experience and interfaces. This ladder includes 5 parts: Functional, Usable, Comfortable, Delightful, and Meaningful, which helps them to better measure a business’s success and credibility. It also allows them to see where products, services, and experiences fall on the ladder一on the higher end or lower end. “We find that people who are loyal to products and brands gravitate to experiences that are on the higher end of the ladder and not the lower end,” Ward said.

Their team did a lot of work with Choice Hotels’ brands such as Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn, Rodeway Inn, and others. They would go in and redesign the booking workflow which was used by each brand. They redesigned the booking so that there was less friction in the buying process.

One Objective

Many companies create funnels that try to do too many things and are too distracting. Instead, Ward helps his clients create simplified sales funnels where the visitor does one thing at a time with a clear objective.

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