Business design psychology has a much more significant impact on your customers than you may expect. The subtle design clues clients pick up on when they use your website, cloud software, or product paint a subconscious picture that can positively or negatively influence their future decisions. 

For example, custom branding your Onehub client portal creates a seamless experience between your website and the portal. When using your client portal, customers will subconsciously note that your company is professional and easy to work with, making them much more likely to stay engaged with your business.

We’re going to cover some of the psychological principles that make Onehub’s software design appealing to customers, and how you can make it even more effective with custom branding. 

Design principles that make Onehub simple to use

Human-centered design

Human-centered design is all about giving users thoughtfully designed products that make their lives easier. This is the entire basis of Onehub, which was born from the simple idea that business software shouldn’t be terrible to use. We created Onehub’s workspaces, virtual data rooms, and client portals to help people work together more efficiently and securely. 

We dedicated time to truly understanding the needs of our users, and we designed a platform that’s enjoyable to use, increases productivity, and keeps data secure. 

Mental models 

Good design guides a user to take the correct actions when using a product. Mental models are one of the ways designers are able to do this effectively. A mental model is your thought process about how something is going to work in the real world. You create mental models subconsciously using your past experiences and understanding of the world, and they help you make quick, informed decisions. 

Mental models are one of the psychological reasons Onehub requires little to no training to use. Our Workspaces are designed to be familiar. When your client logs in to your virtual data room, they’re not going to be disoriented. Their mental model will reference years of experience organizing files on their computers, and the user will immediately understand the basics of how to upload a file, download a folder, or share a file. 

Gestalt principles

Have you ever used a website or software that had you clicking around in a panic trying to get back to where you were? That’s a sign of poor design that didn’t account for gestalt theory.

Gestalt principles refer to the way humans perceive visual information. The human brain is always trying to categorize complex elements to make them simpler to understand quickly. It does this by analyzing features such as proximity, symmetry, and similarity. 

Onehub uses gestalt principles to make it simple for users to understand related elements at a glance. For example, the tabs that guide you through the Workspace are grouped closely together and have the same design to indicate that they’re all part of your top-level control. This lets users navigate Workspaces confidently and without any hassle. 

Hick’s law and Miller’s law

Some business software providers have a “more is better” approach, but this requires users to be trained on the software, leading to frustrating user experiences. Onehub embraces simplicity instead and follows both Hick’s law and Miller’s law.  

Hick’s law explains that the more options a person is presented with, the longer it will take them to make a decision. Miller’s law asserts that our immediate memory can only hold five to seven pieces of meaningful information. With these laws in mind, Onehub presents users with no more than seven menu options at a time. While we have a robust platform with many powerful features, they are presented in a streamlined design that’s easy to understand.

How you can use design psychology to improve your customer experience

While Onehub has done the heavy lifting in the design area, there are still steps you can take to further improve the user experience for your clients. Custom branding your cloud storage, client portals, digital Workspaces, and virtual data rooms is a great way to increase customer trust and engagement. 

Logo and brand colors

You can add your logo and brand colors to all of your Onehub Workspaces. Not only does this present a more professional look, it also has a big psychological impact on clients. Custom branding is one of those things that people don’t notice when you’ve done it, but they always notice when it’s missing. When customers sign in and see a branded digital workspace, they will instantly feel more confident in your business.

Workspace themes

Workspace themes allow you to set a default mode that you want to appear on every new Workspace. Themes include your logo, brand colors, and the pages that you want to be used. This means you only have to customize your design once, and then you can easily apply that look across all of your Onehub Workspaces. 

Custom domain and email

Creating a custom domain and email is a great way to maintain consistency and establish familiarity with clients. When your customers log in to your Workspace, they’ll see a domain name that they recognize. This creates a seamless experience between your website and your Onehub Workspace and ensures your customers are never confused about whether they’re in the right place.

Similarly, custom email addresses provide a comforting familiarity. When your clients receive an email notification from your Workspace, they’ll instantly recognize your custom email address. Without a custom email, your clients will receive a message from an address that looks like “workspace-123@reply.onehub.com,” rather than “hello@yourbusiness.com”. At first glance, an uncustomized email may not register as being from your company and could be ignored. 

White label

The white label option takes all of the benefits of custom branding to the next level. It removes all Onehub branding, so the Workspace, client portal, or virtual data room looks like it comes directly from your company rather than a third party. It’s the most professional option and provides the greatest user experience for your clients.

Psychology plays a huge part in good business design and user experience. Are you ready to give your employees and clients easy-to-use business software that makes their lives easier? Sign up today for Onehub’s free 14-day trial to see how much more productive your business can be. 

In today’s competitive marketplace, your business needs every advantage it can get to attract and retain customers. Client portals are an excellent way to provide the personalization, convenience, and customer service clients expect. They also keep you and your team organized and save time and money by streamlining workflows. 

What is a client portal?

A client portal, sometimes called a customer portal, is a secure login area on your website. When a client logs into the portal, they’re taken to a digital workspace that houses information specific to them. It’s an area where your customers can interact directly with your team, view files and tasks related to their projects, and see important documents related to your business such as FAQs. You can custom brand your client portal to make the transition from your website to the workspace seamless.

Why does your business need a client portal?

Client portal software offers many advantages for your business. They’re flexible tools that can adapt to any number of use cases. Below are some of the benefits you can expect from a customer portal. 

Improve customer satisfaction and retain clients

Clients have come to expect a certain level of personalization in their interactions with a company. When they log into Netflix, they expect to see movie recommendations that fit their interests. When they buy clothes online, they want to see customized outfit suggestions. And when they work with your company, they want easy access to the files and information that pertain to them. 

With client portals, you can dedicate digital workspaces to each of your customers. Within their personalized workspace, they’ll find files, tasks, messages, and updates that allow them to easily see invoices, project progress, or any other relevant information you want to make available. 

Your clients will love having a personalized digital workspace, and they will also appreciate the convenience of 24/7 access to their client portal. With a cloud-based portal such as Onehub, your customers can view their workspace at any time and from any device. 

Customers value personalization and convenience, and providing these through a client portal makes it clear that your company values their business and is responsive to their needs. 

Increase customer engagement

Many projects and deals require collaborative efforts between your customers and your team. For example, a Realtor needs their clients to upload important documents such as loan applications in a timely manner. If you don’t have a convenient way for clients to upload their documents securely, they are more likely to procrastinate on these tasks. 

With an organized and easy-to-use client portal, your clients can upload files, review and approve document updates, and respond to questions without any hassle. The easier you make the process, the more engagement you’ll get from your customers. And more engagement directly benefits your company’s bottom line. Engaged customers bring in 23% more revenue than less involved counterparts.

Share confidential information securely

Digital security is a top concern among businesses and customers. Data breaches are common occurrences these days, and customers are understandably concerned about the security of their personal information. 

You can ease those worries by providing your clients with a secure portal where they can upload files and share other types of information without fear of a data leak. Security varies across different client portal software, but with Onehub, you get security measures such as bank-level encryption, targeted roles and permissions, secure links, strong password enforcement, two-factor authorization, and much more.  

Easier to manage clients and collaborators

As your business grows, you need more advanced methods to manage your customers and their projects, deals, or orders. With a client portal, you can see all of your customers in one place, along with their respective contact information, files, workspace activities, and other details. A portal is much more organized and convenient than keeping track of everything in a spreadsheet or digital folders. 

A client portal allows you to invite new users; change permission levels; add, edit, delete, or hide files, send messages, assign tasks to employees or clients, view workspace activity, and so much more. It’s also a creative tool for managing contractors or freelancers that you’ve hired to work on specific projects for your clients. You can give these workers targeted access so they can only view the files and folders relevant to their tasks.

Saves time and reduces support costs

Client portals can save you and your team an enormous amount of time. Customers can use the portal to self-serve by accessing their files at any time. If they want to know when an invoice is due, if their loan application has been approved, or your company’s refund policy, they can find this information for themselves easily. This cuts down on the number of phone calls and emails your employees receive, so they’ll spend less time on customer service and more time on the work that makes your business profitable. 

Client portals also save time by providing a central location for customer information. Your employees won’t have to search through endless email threads looking for a specific file or constantly switch browsers and apps to create new files or send a message. It’s a one-stop-shop for everything related to your customers, providing your employees with a streamlined work process that supports productivity.

Create a seamless, branded experience

A custom-branded or white-labeled client portal provides a consistent experience for your customers. When they log into the portal from your site, they won’t see confusing third-party branding. It will look like an extension of your website, with your company logo, brand colors, and custom domain. 

This type of seamless user experience has a powerful impact on a customer’s subconsciousness. They may not be able to verbalize why, but they will feel confident that your business operates professionally and can be trusted. 

How do you create a client portal?

There are two main ways you can create a client portal: code one from scratch or use customer portal software. Coding a customer portal from scratch provides the most customization and flexibility, but it’s also time-intensive and requires a highly skilled (read: expensive) developer.

It’s much more common for companies to choose a third-party provider such as Onehub to meet their client portal needs. Onehub makes it fast and simple to create a custom-branded portal that will delight your clients.  

Onehub client portal features 

Below are just some of the useful features that come with Onehub’s client portal software. You can also watch our client portal in action with this demo video.  

• User-friendly interface that doesn’t require training to use
• Drag-and-drop file uploads
• Full-text search
• Version control
• File synchronization
• Two-factor authentication
• Bank-level encryption
• Secure file links
• Role-based permissions
• Audit trails to monitor activity
• High-quality previews
• Integrations with Google Drive, Microsoft Office Online, and DocuSign
• File and folder comments
• Tasks and messages
• Custom branding

In addition to these helpful features, we also provide new users with a free 14-day trial. We want you to have ample time to explore our client portals to see if they’re right for your business. Sign up for your free trial today. 

What is a client portal?

Client portals, or customer portals, are secure digital workspaces that companies use to share information, communicate, and collaborate with clients. Clients access this area by logging into the portal from your business website. 

Once they’ve logged in, your customers will be able to access the documents you’ve made available to them. They can see invoices, project updates, tasks, and so much more. The possibilities are endless and will depend on how your company prefers to work with clients.

What can client portal software do for your business?

Your customers want to have easy access to your team and the information they need. Client portals can function purely as a self-service area where your customers can view how-to guides and business policies, or it can be an interactive space where clients create tasks for your team, review and approve updates, and upload important assets. 

Improve the customer experience

Today’s customers have high expectations for the companies they work with. They want to feel like your business is accessible 24/7. You can give them that by using a client portal, and it won’t require any additional work for your employees. In fact, it will make their jobs easier by keeping client comments, requests, and project tasks all in one central location. 

There are countless other ways for clients to benefit from using a portal. If it’s 1 a.m. on a Tuesday, and your client wants to see the latest changes to a website mockup, they can do that without any direct interaction with your team. If they’re suddenly hit with inspiration about a project after hours, they can log in and leave a comment on the document it pertains to. This level of service creates happy clients, and happy clients are great for business. 

Remote access for your clients and your team

Client portals enable your employees and your customers to access the information they need from anywhere and at any time. This gives your team the ability to work remotely when needed without compromising their effectiveness, and it gives customers the 24/7 access they need in order to feel supported by your company. 

Secure file sharing

Many projects involve sensitive data such as financial details, company innovations, or medical information. This is the kind of data hackers would love to get their hands on. Many companies still share these types of files by email, but email is inherently vulnerable to attacks. When you share documents through your secure client portal, you and your clients know that the data is protected. It gives peace of mind to both parties and avoids costly data breaches or ransomware attacks.   

How do you find the best customer portal software?

Your company’s needs will determine the types of “extra” features you need in a client portal. However, there are some universally important aspects of client portals. 

Strong digital security 

Hackers love to target businesses because companies store an incredible amount of sensitive data. Ransomware attacks rose 158% in North America between 2019 and 2020, and this trend isn’t stopping. Strong security protocols are essential for any software you use, including client portals. 

Below, we cover some of the most important security measures to look for as you evaluate customer portal providers. 

256-bit encryption

Encrypting data such as files and communications makes them unreadable to hackers. The “256-bit” refers to the length of the key needed to decrypt a file. For 256-bit encryption, a hacker would have to try 2²⁵⁶ combinations to access the file through a brute force attack. There isn’t a computer on earth that’s fast enough to break this level of encryption. It would take billions of years, and we’re confident you would not be concerned about your business data by that time. 

Some client portal providers offer 128- or 192-bit encryption. These are also good options, but they don’t offer quite as much protection. Think about it in terms of a home safe compared to a bank vault. Consider the value of the data you’ll be storing and sharing through the portal, and choose the level of protection that will give you peace of mind.

Strong passwords and two-factor authentication

A weak password is a hacker’s best friend. If you feel confident that your employees will automatically create secure passwords for your company’s software, we urge you to reevaluate. Weak employee passwords are responsible for 80% of company data breaches. Instead of relying on your team to come up with passwords more secure than “abc123,” choose client portal software that can enforce strong password requirements. 

You can take your data security a step further and choose a provider that also offers two-factor authentication. As the name implies, this is a method of account authentication that requires two factors — traditional login credentials and an alternate verification method. The second factor is often a security code sent to a mobile device or email address; however, there are many other options such as a thumbprint, voice confirmation, or a security token. 

Two-factor authentication ramps up your account security by ensuring stolen passwords are useless. Without the second verification method, which is extremely difficult to get, a hacker won’t be able to access the account.

Advanced options for roles and permissions

Some files and features in your client portal might not be appropriate for all users to access. For example, if you upload a confidential report for your client’s accountant, you don’t want every user with client portal access to see it. 

To control this, you need to be able to set roles and permissions for your users. Look for providers that allow you to customize which users can access certain files, as well as features such as who can assign tasks, leave comments on files, or print documents.

Collaborative tools

To make the most of your client portal investment, find a provider that’s offering more than a simple online file repository. Look for features that will support collaboration and communication between your staff and your clients. 

File syncing and version control

File syncing allows users to work within the same file simultaneously. Changes made to the document are updated in real-time, so everyone is working with the same information. This is an essential feature to ensure you and your client are literally on the same page. 

File version control solves the problem of having multiple versions of the same file. We’ve all experienced the struggle of trying to find the most up-to-date version of a file or identifying that one small change that differentiates two file versions. File versioning keeps a history of the changes made to a document and makes it simple to revert to an older version if needed. This feature is a lifesaver for client collaborations.

Comments on files and folders

File storage is one of the main functions of a client portal, so the ability to leave comments on files and folders is a valuable feature. Without this context, it can be difficult to know which file a client’s question or comment is about. Commenting directly on the file or folder eliminates the need for time-consuming back-and-forth with the client to determine which file they meant.

Tasks

Businesses often choose to use client portals to simplify project collaborations with clients. Tasks support this collaboration by making it simple to manage project details. A client or employee can assign a task to a specific user and then track its progress to ensure it’s completed. This feature is especially helpful for complex projects with many moving parts. When you can assign tasks, there’s no need to worry about who is doing what or what’s left to be done. 

Custom branding and white labeling

Client portal software that has custom branding or white labeling options allows you to present customers with a secure digital workspace that looks professional and seamlessly integrates with your website. 

Taking the time to brand your client portal makes for a better customer experience that aligns with your company. It can be a jarring experience to land on a sign-in page or receive notifications that, at first glance, don’t appear to be from your company. Custom branding allows you to remove that potential confusion that could make clients hesitant to use this valuable software. 

The best custom branding options will include adding a logo and brand colors, branded emails and sign-in pages, and custom domains. A white label option will provide all of that functionality and will also remove any third-party branding from the portal. 

Intuitive interface

It’s important to choose a client portal with a user-friendly interface to get the greatest level of opt-in from your clients. Customers don’t want to spend hours training to use new software. If the design is overwhelming, they’re not going to use the portal and won’t be able to reap the many benefits it provides. 

When you’re evaluating client portal solutions, look for designs that are formatted in a familiar way. During your free trial (which should definitely be on your list of “must haves”), pay attention to how well you can intuitively use different features. Is it immediately obvious how to upload a file? Did you spend five minutes searching for a way to assign a task? Did you click around so much you couldn’t find your way back to the main dashboard? Let your initial experience within the portal determine whether it’s a good option for your staff and customers. 

Free trial

The best way to get a feel for how a client portal will work for your business is to take it for a test drive. Screenshots and demo videos are great, but they don’t compare to working directly with the software. A provider that is confident in the quality of their client portal will offer potential clients a free trial. Be wary of any client portal solution you have to pay to try out, or even worse, sign an up-front contract for. 

At Onehub, we firmly believe that a free trial is the only way to understand how well new software will work for your company’s unique needs. We offer a generous 14-day free trial and no long-term contract lockups because we’re confident that our client portal’s security, custom branding, user-friendly interface, and collaborative features will meet your needs. Sign up for your free trial today!