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SXSW 2012: The visual interface is now your brand

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SXSW 2012: The visual interface is now your brand

Mar. 21, 2012

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Business Technology

Like it or not, the digital world has changed at a wicked pace and more and more interactions between companies and customers now happen via an interface. Careful consideration of the software's design is of paramount importance to any company wishing to grow their customer base or loyalty. At the center of this change sits the user experience, which has become a huge influence in how customers perceive a company's brand. Traditional marketing principles and practices aren’t effective in software. So how do you create an experience that is usable, desirable, and still stands out? Myers, an interface and brand specialist in design, marketing, and development for 16 years, will highlight the differences of software from other forms of media, you’ll gain insight for creating a truly unique experience that guides executives and teams, and can influence your company’s culture. You’ll learn new techniques such as defining the ideal experience, exploring first impressions with visual language studies, and designing signature interactions. These techniques build a memorable experience that’s hard for your competitors to mimic and your customers will fall in love with.

Director, Product Design

Like it or not, the digital world has changed at a wicked pace and more and more interactions between companies and customers now happen via an interface. Careful consideration of the software's design is of paramount importance to any company wishing to grow their customer base or loyalty. At the center of this change sits the user experience, which has become a huge influence in how customers perceive a company's brand. Traditional marketing principles and practices aren’t effective in software. So how do you create an experience that is usable, desirable, and still stands out? Myers, an interface and brand specialist in design, marketing, and development for 16 years, will highlight the differences of software from other forms of media, you’ll gain insight for creating a truly unique experience that guides executives and teams, and can influence your company’s culture. You’ll learn new techniques such as defining the ideal experience, exploring first impressions with visual language studies, and designing signature interactions. These techniques build a memorable experience that’s hard for your competitors to mimic and your customers will fall in love with.

Business Technology

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SXSW 2012: The visual interface is now your brand

The visual interface is now your brand › Nick Myers @nickmyer5 #SXvisuibrand
What I’ll be talking about Visual design and the interface How to create unique digital experiences Engaging customers How user experience can inﬂuence the brand
More customer interactions are now digital More customer interactions are now digital
User experiences have improved User experiences have improved
Products are now more usable Products are now simpler
Expecta5ons are now higher Expectations are now higher
Expecta5ons are now higher Expectations are now higher
Expecta5ons are now higher We’re a spoiled bunch! “ Expectations for mobile website speed increased from 58% in 2009 to 71% in 2011 for websites to load as quickly, almost as quickly or faster on their mobile phone compared to the computer they use at home. Nearly 60% of web users say they expect a website to load on their mobile phone in 3 seconds or less.
People’s expecta5ons are constantly Expectations are constantly being redeﬁned being redeﬁned
But compe55on is now more fierce Competition is now greater. Intuitive and simple are not enough to differentiate www.flickr.com/photos/retrocactus/4949516534/
Design is now more strategic Design is more strategic
How do we respond to higher expectations, massive challenges, and also stand out?
What is brand? First…
A strong brand creates compe55ve A strong brand creates competitive advantage advantage
Brands are deﬁned by a customer’s Brands are deﬁned by a customer’s experience experience
User experience now has a greater inﬂuence on the brand User experience now has a greater inﬂuence on the brand As of Dec 2011, Facebook received 2.7 billion likes and comments per day.
4 key factors that elevate your digital brand Software We need new methods is diﬀerent to exceed expectations Organizations must User experience should understand customers inﬂuence brands
Software is diﬀerent
Many companies are now software makers Many companies are now software makers GE is now the 14th largest +  GE software provider in the world +  Thomson Reuters +  NetApp
SoFware is not fashion Software is not fashion http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/ham-hock/3698805401/
Visual design sets expectations, but experience must deliver Visual design sets expecta5ons, but the experience must deliver
Software needs to feel timeless Software needs to feel timeless 2001 2009
Digital products are more complex Digital products are more complex
The visual system must be more precise
There are fewer opportuni5es to Fewer opportunities to present an identity present an iden5ty
The identity lives in the details The identity lives in the details
Most importantly, we’re designing for people ﬁrst But too much personality interferes with the experience
Screens are smaller Screens are smaller and projected to overtake larger screens in the next few years
The interface is fading The interface is fading www.ﬂickr.com/photos/kjd/537496939/
Mo5on and interac5on now have Interactions + motion have greater inﬂuence on the experience greater inﬂuence on the experience (Clear app)
Deﬁning and creating a memorable experience
First, you must understand Understand the problem Business objectives User needs Brand guidelines
Workshops help deﬁne the experience more vividly
Images bring life to the conversation and guide an ideal experience
The experience is deﬁned The experience is deﬁned
Why is this diﬀerent? Brand messaging is one-way communication. Experience attributes consider the customer’s User needs perspective and context and is two-way + context communication Brand messaging Business goals
Explore the visual language Explore the visual language
Ini5al impressions Ini5al impressions
Abstract visual studies from behavior Abstract visual studies from real behavior
Explore iden5ty in context We’re creating identities for the interface
Explore the behavioral language Explore the behavioral language
Signature interac5ons can Signature interactions can diﬀerentiate and add delight diﬀeren5ate and delight
Customers remember, and share the Amazingly good Amazingly bad amazingly good and amazingly bad experiences www.ﬂickr.com/photos/cote/4675658738/
Design patterns aren’t memorable
Conﬂict between unique and usable Conﬂict between unique vs. usable
How to create signature interac5ons Signature interaction: core experience, generate as a team, style, prototype
Signature interac5ons are no value if Remember: You can’t reach the top of the pyramid without a solid foundation other founda5onal needs aren’t met
It’s easy to be diﬀerent, but it’s diﬃcult to be beYer
Connecting with customers
Only a deep understanding of our customers builds passion and brand loyalty Only a deep understanding of our customers builds passion and brand loyalty
Inspira5on from ecosystems and permaculture Permaculture help designers model a ﬁnal design based on an observation of how ecosystems interact.
Modern “permanent culture” is a system design tool A way of looking at the whole system or problem. And trying to ﬁx what’s broken.
1 of Holmgren’s 12 design principles 1 of Holmgren’s 12 design principles “ Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
Let’s look at an organiza5on Let’s look at an organiza5on
Many of us are organiza5on Let’s look at an stuck in the middle Many of us are stuck in the middle
This was especially true of engineers This was especially true of engineers
All the ac5on is happening at the edges of your organiza5on All the ac5on is happening on the edges
Eﬀec5ve product teams operate close to the edge Eﬀec5ve product teams in large companies operate closer to the edge
Touchpoints are at the edges Touchpoints are at the edges
The center is blind to the edges Staying in the center keeps you blind
And tensions grow between marke5ng and product teams And tensions grow between marke5ng and product teams
Brand guidelines are centrally created Brand guidelines are center-‐focused
Surveys are narrowly focused Surveys are narrow views
TiVo’s survey doesn’t collect insight of what I want or need
Marke5ng segmenta5on is sales-‐driven Market segmenta5on tools are sales-‐ focused even if personas are created
Usability tes5ng happens inside in a fabricated environment Usability tes5ng is inside because it’s oFen in a fabricated environment and it’s really only beneﬁcial for valida5on
And focus groups are just one big party in the middle And focus groups are just one big party in the center
Even social media is a thin connec5on to the outside Even social media is a fabricated connec5on between a company and customers
To truly understand customers you need to seek them out To truly understand customers you need to seek them out and visit them in their natural environments
Seeing is believing Seeing is believing
Sharing insight from the edges is a powerful method of focus Personas’ true value is to bring focus to your organiza5on about what’s important to your customers
If you truly understand your users’ needs you can transform an industry If you can see and understand the edges you can speak with authority
And if you value the margins your organiza5on will innovate And have greater inﬂuence on the experience of each product
Creating a culture of user experience in your company through leadership
What it takes What it takes 1.  Leadership 2.  Process 3.  Principles 4.  Tools 5.  People 6.  Education 7.  Collaboration 8.  Communication
Change is hard! Metro has taken years of eﬀort Change is hard (is there a willingness to change?)
Execu5ves are more involved Executives see the value in UX
We need UX leaders to transform companies User experience needs leadership
Design principles foster change Design principles foster change
Why design matters Video credit: Energy Energy
Principles are used everywhere: UX, HR, training, legal, ID badges Principles are now everywhere at Citrix •  Onboard training •  Legal •  Etc.
Mark Templeton, Citrix’s CEO, speaks of their importance regularly •  Onboard training •  Legal •  Etc.
The results for Citrix
UI guidelines inspire people to adopt a UI guidelines can inspire product teams to adopt a new system new system
Development tools are cri5cal to craFing the right experience Development tools are most useful
Standards improve the baseline expecta5ons and share design ra5onale Standards improve the baseline expecta5ons and share design ra5onale
But, standards can be one of the biggest obstacles to innova5on
Prac5ce Fusion’s web-‐based EMR
Give teams freedom to change
Collabora5ng to create the ideal experience is the best leadership you can give Collabora5ng to create the ideal experience is the best leadership you can give
And the best thing marketers can do is spend 5me with product teams And the best thing marketers can do is spend 5me with product teams
A process driven by the edges increases the chance of success A process designed with users in mind increases the chance of success
A process driven by the edges increases the chance of success A process designed with users in mind increases the chance of success
The iPad design is now inﬂuencing their web soFware
A few things to remember…
Value the margins of your organization
Visit the edges to understand user needs
Stop championing your brand, start championing your user
Drive your brand through user experience.
› Continue the conversation… @nickmyer5 #SXvisuibrand cooper.com/journal
Contact Cooper for strategy + design User research, domain Product strategy and Interaction design Research, and analysis service strategy and service design Visual design Prototyping and Education and and branding development mentoring +1 415 267 3500 business@cooper.com

Editor's Notes

My name is Nick Myers, I’m a managingdirector at Cooper.I’m here to talk about how:The interface is now your brand.
I’d like to talk to you today about the current challenges we face today: Considerations for visual design as it applies to the interface; How user experience can influence your brand; How we can create better experiences by connecting better with users and customers; And wrap up with some ideas for creating unique and memorable experiences.
The digital world has changed at a wicked pace.More customer interactions are now digital. Software serves us everywhere. User experience design influences more of these interactions every day. And a company’s brand sits at the center of this change.
Computers used to be clunky, large, uninviting and complex.
Now we use simpler, more useful products that do some magical things like connecting with people over video chat when we can’t be there in person. The bar has been raised and we’re now living in a future we didn’t imagine possible many years ago.
This is my wife, Caroline and here she is connecting with family and friends in her home town for her own baby shower she couldn’t attend. It was pretty amazing to see her participate in a way that wasn’t imaginable just ten years ago. As a result of these innovations she now has very high standards for these technical products.She hates how TiVo doesn’t record her programs right. Her Dell laptop seems to break all the time. She even hates her iPhone. Whenever her iPhone fails, she blames me, “You designer people need to fix the user experience.” she says or “you need to tell your people.” I kindly remind her that I didn’t invent the iPhone, as much as I’d like to say I did, but she doesn’t care.
It’s not just my wife though.We see it in many industries at Cooper: new professionals entering the field such as doctors, nurses, financial advisors, IT admins, employees in large companies expect more.
Just last year a poll conducted with mobile phone users found that 71% of users expected mobile websites to load as fast as or faster than their home computers. Just think about that for a moment. Isn’t it amazing how far we’ve come? And yet, we’re still not satisfied. Amazing.Source: http://www.compuware.com/d/release/592528/new-study-reveals-the-mobile-web-disappoints-global-consumers
This is largely because our expectations are being redefined every day. What was one exceeding our highest expectations are now meeting our basic needs lower in the pyramid. And so we have to now aim higher on the pyramid.Source: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/04/26/designing-for-a-hierarchy-of-needs/
There are now more than 500,000 apps in the App store and that’s just for oneplatform. Less than 100 of those apps appear on the iTunes homepage at any one time. Unless you have heavy investment you need a great product with a great user experience to be noticed.http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/05/app-store-500k/
Companies believe that user experience is important thanks to the achievements of companies like Apple. Everyone wants the iPhone of their industry. Design is now more strategic but companies haven’t figured out how to drive their brand through user experience or truly differentiate in this new world.
How do we respond to higher expectations, bigger challenges, and also stand out?
Before we consider these questions, it’s worth defining what brand means…
David Aaker, a professor at Haas and leader in brand strategy says, “A company’s brand is the primary source of its competitive advantage.”
The folks at Lippincott Mercer say, That it’s the sum of the customer’s experience with relevant products or company.
So a customer’s experience defines the brand. As more customer interactions become digital we have greater influence on the brand perception.And if that experience is handled well, it can become a key factor in elevating your brand.Consider the formidable Facebook like button. Potentially the most lucrative icon ever created. According to Facebook’s recent IPO, in Dec 2011, Facebook received an average of 2.7 billions likes and comments per day.
Next, I’m going to talk about these four factors that can elevate your brand in the digital world: Software is different from other forms of media; In this competitive landscape we need new methods to stand out; Organizations need to really understand who their customers at a deeper level; User experience should influence brand.
Software is different.
Many companies are now software makers. GE is one such company that has transitioned to become one of the biggest software makers in the world.
Software isn’t fashion. Visual design has purpose in software design. It must support the behavior.
And the experience must deliver or else people will leave.
Software should be designed with an eye towards timelessness. It often takes at least 18 months to be built. And some software lives without an update for up to 20 years.
Digital products are often more complex and dense. Designers need a greater understanding of the product to be successful and provide value.
With added complexity, we must rely on a strong visual system, clear visual hierarchy, and organized information.
There are fewer opportunities to present a visual identity.
A software’s identity lives in the detailsThe design can be more unique when focused on the minute elements like: icons, controls, texture, interactions, and the edges. We don’t always have the luxury of using typefaces, photography or color to help define a brand and we deal with more constraints.
Most importantly, we’re designing for people first. That means understanding the needs of the people using our products and their goals.
Screens are getting smaller. There’s less space to work with.
With the change to more gesture-based interfaces we’re losing even more chance to create a visible identity.
Meaning interactions and motion have more influence over the emotional experience.
Let’s talk next about creating a memorable experience with software.
As designers, we can’t create a great experience without first fully understanding the problem. Understand the company’s business goals and opportunities, user needs, and the company’s existing brand goals.But the conversation is not rich enough to create a unique experience.
For our clients, workshops can facilitate conversations about the experience for those not comfortable answering blank questions about visualdesign and interaction design.We show images of software products, brands, and other experiences and ask people to rate the ones that they most want to be like or not be like.
This helps the team to discuss what attributes are inherent in these other experiences that are meaningful for the experience we’re defining. The end result is often a huge cloud of ideas and words that sit on a spectrum from a poor experience to an ideal experience. The examples aren’t really what’s important. It’s the output of the discussion, the words, that help us define the experience.It brings teams together to learn and provide input to the experience. What I love most about this workshop is the connections that are made between people in product teams and marketing.Video: https://vimeo.com/37285340
The understanding we gain can help us define an ideal future-looking experience for our users and customers. Here’s an example of an experience attributes cloud that essentially drives the visual strategy, interaction design, and industrial design. These themes capture big ideas the experience should convey.The goal is to find a small set of words that are both meaningful, concise and authentic. Even with a small set of attributes it’s difficult to be all things equally. Usually just one idea stands above the rest.The attributes are principles that direct both the visual design, interaction design and industrial design where appropriate. There are many ways to represent visual design, there are even different ways to reflect interaction design and this guidance will help the team explore the experience.
Brand messaging is one-way communication. Experience attributes consider the customer’s perspective and context and is two-way communication.
Here are some examples of visual studies. Note the elements are different in these examples. The interface components are more reflective of the type of interface that this is likely to represent. Still these are abstracted screens.
And another collection of studies for an online retail service for home renovation and decoration. We explore the visual language early in our design process that center around the experience attributes.
The study leans more towards being quick and bold.
But what’s key here is that we’re exploring the brand and it’s application to the interface. This is a new way of designing identity systems.And we’re exploring better ways for customers to interact with brands.
And we’re creating a new brand language of behavior.
Signature interactions now influence a product’s identity. Interactions are becoming memorable.Coverflow is a great example of a signature interaction. It’s commonly recognized as an Apple invention and is used in numerous products and applications. Other companies have used this same interaction pattern but customers perceive this as unimaginative. It’s now an Apple signature interaction.
Why are these memorable? We must think of them in terms of experiences. Customers remember amazingly good experiences and amazingly bad experiences. Signature interactions help products be more memorable.
While design patterns are useful for design and establishing a system they’re not memorable.
Signature interactions can be more difficult to use but they create enjoyment and desire.Myfriend bought a mini last year and gave me a ride home one night. Inside her car roof, she has mood lighting that changes color like it’s the inside of a nightclub. My friend was excited about the lights but recognized that it might be a bit distracting while driving.
Here are some example signature interactions that I quickly collected. Some of them are very familiar, some may be new. Some of them are very unique in behavior.Some are less unique interactions but have been designed in a visually unique way.Video: https://vimeo.com/37642114
Remember:We now have to aim for the top of the needs pyramid. You can’t meet the creative need if the foundations aren’t met.
The worst thing for you to take away from this presentation is to go home and start creating wacky ideas. The point is to get the foundation right first. Then you can leverage a usable product and elevate the experience to something people will fall in love with.
And to truly do that you need to understand the essence of the people you’re helping.
I’ve touched on this several times already but I want to explore this topic with you further today because I think it’s critical to how companies need to operate to hit that summit. Time and again I don’t see companies do enough to understand who their customers and users are. It’s one of the most effective ways to leapfrog your competition.
I’ve been working with product teams, marketing teams and users for a long time at Cooper and I want to share some observations. I’m going to draw from principles from permaculture to share theseobservations. I’m not much of a gardener but when I started reading about this I got excited. In the 70s, Holmgren created 12 design principles for permaculture.Permaculture on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PermacultureHolmgren’s 12 design principles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture#Holmgren.27s_12_design_principles(while I didn’t address this in this talk, it’s also worth reading about “Communities of Practice” where I first heard about this)
Permaculture, or permanent culture, is a system design tool for creating better environments.
One of these principles resonates perfectly. Here it is:“Use the edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place.”It’s quite astonishing that that he used the term “interface” 50 years ago not knowing the kind of meaning it has today.Two things stand out about this principle.Product teams for admired companies are working at the edges and propelling their company the fastest.The interesting insights you’ll observe are at the interface between you and you customers. The touchpoints.Holmgren's 12 design principlesThe core of permaculture has always been in supplying a design toolkit for human habitation. This toolkit helps the designer to model a final design based on an observation of how ecosystems interact.Observe and interact: By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need.Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.
Asan outsider, this is how I often experience an organization. From my earlier diagram, the brand sits at the center.
A vast majority of people are working in the center away from the edges.
This was especially true of engineers and Alan wrote about this in the phenomenal book, the Inmates are Running the Asylum many years ago.
But all the interesting stuff, the action, is happening at the interface between each company and its customers.
We are improving. Effective teams are operating closer to the edge and have a better sense for the interface.
All these touchpoints are at the edges. Where the interfacing is happening.
But the center is blind to the edges. It has no truly deep sense for what’s happening outside. And more often than not I see more marketing and branding teams right in the middle there.
And then I observe these tensions between product teams and marketing teams. Product teams feel they know their customers better than anyone else in the company. And they need to speak differently to them. And they want to create something different. And that’s often true. And marketing teams get to see a broad view of their organization, want to create a unified experience, but don’t know how to balance it against user goals. These are both very valid points of view.
The problem with brand guidelines is that they’re centrally focused. Savvy people know it’s not just about your logo. It’s also true that you design the identity at the touchpoints, but most companies haven’t transformed into thinking this way yet. And at best, the brand guidelines make our websites, intranets, advertising and traditional media look right but ignore the majority of customer interfaces.
Surveys give us only a glimpse into a small part of our customers’ lives. Instead, I see marketing teams use surveys, which are useful, but limited because they only help us know what people are interested in. They don’t help us understand who our users are and what truly motivates them. They help us understand what people want but they don’t help us understand the why or how. These questions are critical to creating better experiences.
TiVo sends me a survey frequently but it generally asked me the same questions every time. Questions that are basic, mostly demographic, and not useful for product teams. And I’ve stopped filling them out knowing that I’m not going to win that $500 Amazon certificate.
Additionally,Marketing is often concentrated on outreach. This is where they’re truly hitting the edges. But it’s only one part of the lifecycle so again tools like marketing segmentation only share a small view into they people they serve during only a small fraction of where customers interface with a company.
A lot of companies conduct usability testing to guide their designs. But users often enter a fabricated lab that’s not a real environment. And test out products that are faked experiences. I believe strongly in usability testing. But it’s a centralized approach that’s good for validation, not for understanding people nor creating new, innovative products or services.
And focus groups are just one big party in the middle. Again, happening very close to the middle where users are asked their opinion about designs. There are many downfalls with this approach and again it doesn’t lead to breakthroughs.
Social media has opened a lot of communication. Companies are doing a great deal to engage customers in 140 character conversation. But there’s still so much not being seen at the edges.
Everyone needs to reach outside, meet customers, observe them. We’ve been preaching this to programmers and product teams for years. I’ve been preaching for designers and visual designers to do more research. Now, I’m asking for marketers and brand leaders to do the same. I think this will help organizations operate a lot more effectively and design much better experiences.
I’ll always remember a project I worked on to create a telehealth system for sick patients at home. Most of them were elderly. And I’ll tell you, it was a very humbling experience. We visited home after home of participants who kept huge clusters of medicine. Many felt overwhelmed with instructions. Many were simply lonely and wanted to maintain connections to the outside world. Most people want to be treated with respect. Seeing is believing and there’s really no alternative method that could bring you close to understanding the needs of these people.
Personas’ true value is to bring focus to your organization about what’s important to your customers.
If you truly understand your users’ needs you can transform your business and create new industries.
And if you value the margins your organization will innovate.
Creating a culture of UX takes a lot.
And change is really really hard. Microsoft’s metro design was first seen in 2006 in the Zune. It’s taken 6 years to hit the desktop. And they still have a long way to go.
Mark Templeton is CEO of Citrix and he believes strongly in design.About 4 years ago he asked Catherine Courage to join him as VP of user experience.
And hiring Catherine high up in the organization began a shift in the company’s culture. And now that design is considered strategic it’s the responsibility of designers to step up and move their companies forward like Catherine’s been doing at Citrix.
She’s had many successes but one of them is truly impressive and something that I’m proud to have worked with her on. We created 5 design principles with Citrix that clearly communicate the value of design to Citrix. This was based on many workshops, lots of conversations and research across Citrix worldwide.
Of the many outcomes, Citrix created a video of the principles to broadcast why design matters.The video was created by Energy Energy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJT340fooKA
The principles are used everywhere at Citrix. We initially imagined them on posters, in communication. But their visibility grew and employees started making their own videos of products they loved. The principles show up on their security badges to remind everyone every day about their importance. And employees are trained on the importance of the principles. Even their legal teams use them to guide their work. True transformation has happened with the culture thanks to the leadership of Catherine and her team.
Mark has outlined design as one of his three top goals for the company the last three years. That’s really significant.
The Citrix product design team has grown significantly in the last three years to about 80 people.And Citrix has nearly doubled in share price since 2009. And Citrix products are winning awards.
We also created a UI system for Citrix.Thisis something we do for a lot of companies to define their unified system. They’re a very affective way to improve the overall brand perception of your company through interfaces. But I think we can do better.
Development tools are essential.Wecare deeply about the details and that means crafting the details of the code. Without attention to detail there’s a lot less value to the design.
And standards help improve the baseline. I love standards, I love consistency.
But they’re truly one of the biggest obstacles to innovation.Brandguidelines, visual guidelines, standards, can be used to manage the edges. If the groups at the edges are not able to innovate then we get nowhere. For example, we began working with a company in the last year. They’re positioned as passionate, innovative. And their main typeface is Arial. No questions asked. We must use that. I’m not a type snob like some. I love typefaces but have learned to be a bit more pragmatic with their use in digital design. But Arial is a font that not only doesn’t reflect their brand but speaks to the risks standards can bring.
The other story I’d like to talk about is Practice Fusion. They’re a company that delivers a web-based EMR to physicians across the country. Here’s their web-based product.
They’re doing amazing things here lead their company from the edges and through user experience design. Paul Willard, their chief marketing officer, first came to us and said he wanted us to create an iPad app that would be disruptive. And disrupt his web product. My first thought was wow, awesome. My second thought was, oh shit.
And Ryan Howard, their CEO collaborated heavily with us and the whole team to define the new product.
The marketing leaders were heavily engaged in the direction of the experience.
A process driven at the edges increases the chance of connecting with customers and building experiences they love.Video: https://vimeo.com/34875856
The result has been impressive. Doctors loved the new iPad app. And it’s now influencing Practice Fusion’s other products.
In closing. A few things to remember.
Value the margins of your organization.
Visit the edges to understand user needs.
Stop championing your brand, start championing your user.
Drive your brand through user experience.
I hope you enjoyed it.You can find me on twitter (@nickmyer5) or via the Cooper journal (www.cooper.com/journal).You can also follow Cooper via our twitter feed (@cooper).