16 Aug Unlock Digital Potential with User-Centric Design

Posted at 18:49h in China Insights, Sem categoria by

Mobile-first, multi-sensory and real-time interaction: Digitalization has been pushing brands to improve their omnipresence across channels in order to meet the ever-evolving consumer needs. Discover how companies can stay agile and competitive in their digital product design by adopting a user-centric approach.

Over the past years, digitalization has been on the top list of companies, with the majority building their competitive edge by leveraging innovative digital services and technologies. However, we see some fatigue from consumers and companies need to step back to rethink how to maximize the value creation of digital products by continuously taking users’ perspective into consideration.

A Lack of consumer’s perspective might harm many efforts

We find that brands are often attracted by the subversive effect of the new technology whereas they overlook users’ perspectives and may face issues when it comes to providing innovative digital initiatives:

Focus on technology/business rather than user’s needs:

It is critical for the success of digital products to embed users’ needs into the design and development process, whereas we notice that the idea of innovation is often driven by technological breakthroughs or business demands, neglecting user’s needs.

Lack of user journey mapping especially in real use cases:

Few companies have mapped user journeys when designing digital products, ending up losing track of consumer data or failing to create synergy across brand’s different channels.

Failure to reach users at the right touchpoint within the ecosystem:

In many cases, companies fail to reach their users at the right time and at the right touchpoint, which might lead to the inadequate performance of the digital products.

Involving users at the right timing of innovation is essential

Successful early adopters of user-centric design think that user experience begins at the very start of an idea and goes all the way through the lifetime of their product/services. Based on the official definition, User Experience(UX) is “A person’s perceptions and responses resulting from the use and/or anticipated use of a product, system or service.1”.

At EY-Fabernovel, we believe that involving users at the right timing of innovation is essential and the user-centric design might be the best fit for company’s digital products to be

A structured approach to user-centric design

To leverage the full potential of user-centric design, business need to embrace this approach from the outset of digital product development  as enablers of evolving business objectives and consumer experience optimization. At EY-Fabernovel, we recommend a four-stage framework that highlights the role of users in company’s digital product development.

1. Strategy & Design

Implementing a new consumer approach requires investments and collective intelligence. The success of these initiatives depends on the coordination between different stakeholders in the organization. Fabernovel has accompanied clients in successfully launching multiple cross-geographic and cross-BU collaborations.

In the strategy & design phase of digital product development, a successful user-centric design will enable brands to scope out their solutions efficiently by: 

  • Defining target users: Building solid understanding of example user with Persona which includes key information about who they are, their motivations, preferences, pain points or any other information.
  • Understanding actual consumer journey: Visualizing how a user interacts with a product/service using the consumer journey map, which is commonly represented as a timeline of all touch points between a user and a product/service.

Case study 1: Understanding consumer behavior with user interview

EY-Fabernovel supported a luxury brand in the UX strategy aimed at incorporating consumer insights into the design and development of an innovative digital product and ensuring the alignment of the user expectation with the final achievement of the envisioned business objective.

Solution:

  • Diagnosis & Alignment: Gathering and analyzing internal information and material on the current status of the project, business objectives, etc
  • Participant recruitment: Defining user segments and reaching out targeted users
  • User interview: Conducting user interviews and testing benchmarked products
  • Report & recommendation: Analyzing user’s behavior, mapping out user journey and identifying their expectations and needs for client’s digital products

Key result:

  • 11 UI/UX design aspects concluded for improvements 
  • 3 consumer tasks selected to test the user flow

2-3. Test, Improve & Rollout

Once the MVP product is ready, companies also need to ensure that the core features are usable and can be seamlessly integrated into consumer journey before rolling out product at scale by:

  • Testing digital products with target users: Conducting usability testing to uncover problems in real case and identify potential areas for improvement
  • Prioritizing requirements: Organizing workshops to define the priority of tasks based on qualitative user feedback or quantitative initial data before upgrading UI/UX design of the digital product

Case study 2: Improve the performance of digital product with usability testing

EY-Fabernovel helped a luxury brand optimize the UI/UX design of an innovative digital product in order to provide value-add services to customers and to achieve the business objectives.

Solution:

  • Diagnosis & Alignment: Gathering and analyzing internal information and material on UI/UX flow, initial statistics, business objectives, etc
  • Participant recruitment: Defining user segments and reaching out targeted users
  • Usability testing: Testing sessions conduction of the digital product
  • Report & recommendation: Analyzing user’s behavior, pain points and expectation, and providing recommendations on UI/UX elements

Key result:

  • Launch of upgraded version of digital product with 15 UI/UX elements updated 
  • Approximately 40% of barrier in the user flow removed after upgradation

4. Adopt at scale

At the post-launch phase, companies need to analyze, learn and iterate by:

  • Tracking tangible metrics: Collecting various quantitative data with tools such as Google Analytics based on business objectives to evaluate whether their UX strategy is working. The metrics could include page visits, conversion rate, engagement time, etc.
  • Applying Lean methodology: The Design Sprint process simplifies communication among different stakeholders and boosts the user experience most efficiently.

Case study 3: Improve UX of digital products with data monitoring and design update 

EY-Fabernovel helped a famous auction house improve the online bidding experience.

Solution:

  • Metrics tracking: Tracking specific data over time through the analytical application, then defining what UX features need to be delivered in the upcoming Sprint.
  • Design sprint: Preparing a Design Sprint, ensuring the client’s expectations have been set for this Sprint, then running a Design Sprint to validate a new product feature in several days.
  • Design system: Gathering all reusable functional elements and user flows as valuable resources.

Key result:

  • Over 40 design sprints delivered to improve the product
  • Over millions-of-dollars bids placed via WeChat Mini Program

Fabernovel was born from Design Thinking 20 years ago, designing & building solutions that solve user pain points. Our design studio is expert in Art Direction, Graphic Design, UI/UX Design and Design Thinking.

EY Fabernovel’s Design Services

BUSINESS DESIGN

  • Discovery research (Focus Group / Panel)
  • Usability research
  • Design Benchmark & Auditing
  • Customer Journey Mapping

CREATIVE

  • Brand Book & Visual Identity
  • Campaign Creative
  • Games
  • AR / VR

SOLUTION DESIGN

  • Website & WeChat Mini Program Design& Revamp
  • Omnichannel Product Design
  • User Interfaces
  • Design A/B testing
  • Prototypes
  • No Code / Low Code Design

To tailor-make your digital products, contact us at: meet_shanghai@fabernovel.com

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