It's not news that businesses across industries are trying to adapt to the millennial mindset of their customers. The problem is that, despite their best intentions, many of those businesses are missing the mark, and are left confounded by the inefficacy of their efforts.
Nowhere is this more true than in regards to technology. Businesses see today's consumers using things like social media, sophisticated software and cool, futuristic devices. They want to take part and capitalize off of that trend, and rightly so. But too often, the business initiatives that follow are more about keeping up with the Joneses than serving real people—customers end up with flashy apps that are ill-fitting to their needs, and businesses suffer the cost of investing in a product that nobody wants to use.
Taking the time to understand your customer and creating solutions built specifically for their needs is what Human Centered Design is all about. Your end user should always be at the center of any technology initiative, whether that's building a B2B app to unite disparate teams, a B2C app to cut customer support costs, or anything in between. At Summa, we have a Strategy & Design practice focused entirely on making sure businesses make the right decisions (and investments) for themselves and their customers.
To do that well, it takes a little more legwork than you'd expect. Research, user testing... we've even done ride-alongs in delivery trucks to really get to know our end-users' needs.
A great example of our approach is our recent work with a medical device manufacturer. Changing regulations are refocusing healthcare organizations on maintaining patient wellness—essentially, lowering costs for patients and providers via better preventative care and monitoring. Our client was interested in the ways telehealth technologies could help home healthcare providers monitor patient wellness and reduce the risk of ER visits in more cost-effective ways. Before investing in the initiative, however, the organization wanted to understand their customer and validate their hypothesis.
Our team conducted a survey of priority customers to gauge clinicians' sentiments around telehealth technologies, then synthesized that information into the following infographic:
By taking this step, our client gained a richer understanding of their priority customers' expectations and needs. Project managers have adopted our findings as a means to direct their business decisions around telehealth—this essential background information is enabling them to move forward with creating more intelligent, targeted, effective initiatives.
Once you understand the needs and behaviors of your end-users, you can more effectively spend your time and money creating targeted initiatives. Whether you're considering a new technology or just rethinking the way you work, a Human Centered Design approach can help you and your users get the most out of your initiative.
Learn how our Human Centered Design approach can guide your business to success.
To gain insights straight from your customers and reduce risk, our interdisciplinary teams dive into ambiguity to define problems and explore possibilities. We have confidence that through our focus on the people we’re designing for, and asking the right questions, we’ll find the answers together.
