With the user in focus
Understand your target audience
- To design digital customer experiences effectively, we also need to understand how other aspects come into play. For example, the physical experience of visiting a shoe store, meeting with your bank before buying a house, or standing in a ski lift line in heavy snowfall with a growling stomach. And how your business and organization can meet these customer needs.
- When we design a service, we move through different phases. We search for facts and insights, create a holistic view through object-oriented UX, and then work on developing a prototype that visualizes the service. This allows us to quickly test our ideas with real users.
- You can use all or just some of the steps and methods we apply, depending on the type of service being developed and its complexity. Service design is a highly adaptable framework.
Design is a process
- We follow a design process according to the five steps outlined below:
1. Research
There are various ways to gain an understanding of the current situation and users’ needs. We primarily use focus groups and in-depth interviews.
It is important to conduct these types of studies correctly to ensure that the responses we receive are reliable and valid.
Curious about how good research is conducted?
Check out this video from Google2. Customer journey mapping
Customer journey mapping is a great way to visualize how a customer uses and experiences a service today or how the ideal design of a service should look.
Customer journey mapping can be used as a method both on a broad strategic level for your entire digital business and on selected parts, such as an app or a specific section of a website.
Whant to know more about Customer journey mapping?
Watch this film from PlaybookUX.3. Service Blueprint
Service blueprints are essentially an extension of the customer journey map, visualizing what happens (or needs to happen) within your organization for everything to work smoothly. We add the concept of “back stage,” which refers to mapping out your roles, processes, and support systems necessary to deliver your service to the customer.
A service blueprint should not be confused with a system overview or solution architecture, even though it includes a technical layer. However, a service blueprint is invaluable when developing a solution proposal for the service being designed.
Would you like to learn more about Service Blueprints?
Check out this video from PlaybookUX.4. UX Prototype
A crucial step in your service design process is developing a UX prototype.
This allows us to test the prototype with real users and confirm that we have designed a service that meets their needs.
A UX prototype focuses on what should be included and where it should be placed, rather than how it should be designed graphically.
Would you like to learn more about prototyping?
Watch this video from PlaybookUX.5. UI / Digital design
Once the UX prototype is validated and tested, it’s time to create the visual interface that users will interact with. This is often referred to as UI – user interface.
At this stage, color, shapes, icons, and typography become crucial. This is where we align a functional design with your brand and the experience you want to convey through your design language.
We also often develop a design system, which includes guidelines and rules for how icons, elements, colors, fonts, etc., should be used across all your digital interfaces and channels. The advantage of having a design system is that it ensures a consistent brand experience across all channels.
Would you like to learn more about digital design?
Watch this video from DesignCourse.
Would you like to learn more about service design?
Have a coffee with Nick, and he’ll tell you more about how we work with our customers.
Nick Lindblom UX-designer +46709104591 nick.lindblom@ninetech.com