His view of the scope of design reflects the motivation for this collection.

This collection is highly valuable because it helps to reflect how we are solving problems and how we might achieve different outcomes by adopting and following different processes.

You can find more information at the DDO website or download the book as a PDF directly.

It contains the elements to Human-Centered Design, a process used for decades to create new solutions for multi-national corporations. This toolkit has been designed to hear the needs of smallholder farmers in new ways, create innovative solutions to meet these needs, and deliver solutions with financial sustainability in mind.

While many elements of the toolkit are specifically tailored towards the specific questions one faces when innovating with and for smallholder farmers, it is a valuable collection that makes the sometimes vague human centered design process more concrete and therefore transferable and reproducible.

What I really like about this toolkit is that it differentiates between the design team and the facilitators. I think this differentiation and the active nomination of facilitators is one of the unique aspects in design processes and the transfer of design knowledge.

I see a lot of potential to create Human Centered Design Toolkits a specific company and certain industries. It is really helpful to narrow the focus and create a human centered design toolkit for the automotive industry, telecommunications industry or financial service industry.

More information about the toolkit

[via Nick Marsh]

]]> http://www.customer-experience-labs.com/2008/12/15/human-centered-design-toolkit-from-ideo/feed/ 0 http://www.customer-experience-labs.com/2008/11/18/developing-better-value-propositions-using-the-nabc-framework/ http://www.customer-experience-labs.com/2008/11/18/developing-better-value-propositions-using-the-nabc-framework/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:30:44 +0000 Bernhard Schindlholzer http://www.customer-experience-labs.com/2008/11/18/developing-better-value-propositions-using-the-nabc-framework/ Remarkable customer experiences are the result of delivering greater than expected value to your customers. Every kind of organization – from start-ups to multinationals – have to continuously create and deliver value propositions that not only exceed the customers’ expectations but which are also greater than that of the competition.

Read more on Developing better Value Propositions using the NABC Framework…

Remarkable customer experiences are the result of delivering greater than expected value to your customers. Every kind of organization – from start-ups to multinationals – have to continuously create and deliver value propositions that not only exceed the customers’ expectations but which are also greater than that of the competition.

When designing for remarkable customer experiences designers are often confronted with countless innovative ideas that need to be synthesized and bundled into dedicated value propositions. While the concepts of customer value and value propositions are admittedly a bit abstract (see “A Framework for Creating Customer Value”), the NABC (Need, Approach, Benefit, Competition) framework can help to better understand and sharpen the value proposition of your product or service. The framework has been developed by Curtis Carlson and William Wilmot and has been summarized in their book “Innovation – The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want”.

To sharpen your value proposition they suggest to answer the following four questions:

1. What is the important customer and market Need?

2. What is the unique Approach for addressing this need?

3. What are the specific Benefits per costs that result from this approach?

4. How are the benefits per costs superior to the Competition’s and the alternatives?

Here is an example how to apply the framework to describe the value proposition of a video-on-demand system.

Need: Movie rentals represent a $5 billion business opportunity that you currently cannot access. The only parts of rentals that people really dislike are the obligation to return the tapes plus late fees. Customers find that it is inconvenient and wastes time.

Approach: We have developed a system that allows you to provide videos on demand to your customers using your cable system, with access to all the movies of Blockbuster. Our approach makes use of one of your currently unused channels, with no changes to your system. In addition, you do not need to invest any capital. Each movie costs your customers $6.99, the same cost as a rental at a video store.

Benefits per costs: You will receive $5 of new revenue per movie rented, with a margin of 20% after paying for the movie costs. Your customers will have all the pause and fast forward functions of a VCR when watching the movie, and they do not have to return the movie when done. Late fees are gone. We estimate you could capture a market share of 20%.

Competition: Our system is patented, and it is the only one to include all of these features. Online rentals represent new competition for both you and us, but they have a handling-cost disadvantage of 75 cents per tape. Sending videos back is inconvenient, plus they cannot provide spontaneous purchases.

To improve your own value proposition, use these sentences as a starter to describe it.

Need: My customer’s needs are …

Approach: My approach to satisfy that need is ….

Benefit: The Benefits per costs of my approach are …

Competition: My benefits per costs are superior to the competition and alternatives because …

More information about the discipline “Value Creation” and the other four disciplines “Important Needs”, “Innovation Champions”, “Innovation Teams” and “Organizational Alignment” can be found in the book “Innovation – The 5 Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want”.

Image courtesy of mandolux

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These different objectives require different user research methods and selecting the right method is very often a complicated task (i.e. should you do an ethnographic field study or a focus group to get inspiration for new product features?).

Christian Rohrer has written an article in Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox with the title "When to Use Which User Experience Methods" which helps in selecting the right user experience research method.

Modern day user experience research methods can now answer a wide range of questions. Knowing when to use each method can be understood by mapping them in 3 key dimensions and across typical product development phases. [...] These three dimensions are Attitudinal vs. Behavioral, Qualitative vs. Quantitative and Context of Website or Product Use.

Especially interesting is the chart that illustrates where several popular user research methods appear along these dimensions:

Additionally the proposed guidelines differentiate between the different phases of product development suggesting typical methods for the strategize, optimize and assess phases in product development.

If you are looking for more information about user research methods you can find more information in the article "The 13 Most Popular Methods for User-Centered Design" as well as in "An Overview of Market Research Methods for Innovation Development".

Read the complete article.

Photo courtesy of Roebot

The initial question is: Who is your customer?. This is not always obvious since there are many actors involved in the purchase and use of a certain product or service. Yet five main roles can be identified that exist in many purchasing situations. Often several, sometimes all of these roles might be conducted by the same individual but recognizing the needs and requirements of each separately leads to potential areas for service design.

The following figure shows the most common roles that customers represent.

Here is a short description of the single roles:

• Initiator: The individual who initiates the search for a solution to the customer’s problem.
• Influencer: Individuals who have some influence on the purchase decision.
• Decider: Taking into consideration the views of the initiator and influencer some individual will make the decision as to which product or service should be purchased.
• Purchaser: The individual who is actually paying for the product or service
• User: The individual who finally consumes the product or service

It is important to understand that in any buying situation various actors can and will influence the buying decision and they will also be – either active or passive – experiencing a product and service and should therefore be considered when designing the overall “brand experience”. If different individuals undertake these roles, it is necessary to develop individual and differentiated services to satisfy the different needs and requirements.

The standard example for this is a visit to a theme park with children. The initiator might be the child that saw an advertising on TV, while the decider and purchaser are the parents. While it is important to design a great experience for children at a theme park, it might be even more important to focus on the experience of parents because ultimately they will decide and pay for the next trip to Disneyland.

The different roles become even more apparent in a business-to-business context. One classic example is the Hilti Fleet Management. Hilti offers differentiated services for the purchaser of the drilling machines and does not focus solely on the user of the drilling machines.

We’ll manage your tools so you can manage your business.
For a fixed monthly fee, Hilti provides you with a new fleet of tools.
During the usage time, there is only one monthly invoice for all your tools that covers absolutely all costs (including repair). Plus — at the end of the usage period — your fleet will be renewed with the latest generation of Hilti tools. Based on your needs, you select the type and quantity of tools.

Your benefits from Hilti Tool Fleet Management:
Full transparency & reliability

• Instant access to your complete tool inventory
• Easy accounting and cost allocation
• All tools labeled with your company logo plus inventory code / job reference possible.
• Exclusive Internet portal to track your tool fleet, order tools and consumables and arrange tool repair pick-ups

Applying this simple pattern can help identify areas for innovative products and services which in the end contribute to a remarkable customer experience.

In this study the authors surveyed more than 100 experienced practitioners of UCD with at least three years of experience and who considered UCD as their primary job. The following table shows the key results of the survey (Ranging from 1 to 5, from the most important to the least important method):

The following links provide more information about the individual user centered design practices, collected from various sources.

Field Studies: The Best Tool to Discover User Needs (by User Interface Engineering)

The most valuable asset of a successful design team is the information they have about their users. When teams have the right information, the job of designing a powerful, intuitive, easy-to-use interface becomes tremendously easier. When they don’t, every little design decision becomes a struggle. Field studies get the team immersed in the environment of their users and allow them to observe critical details for which there is no other way of discovering.

Requirements Analysis – Characteristics of Good Requirements (by The University of Queensland)

Requirements analysis is a tool that can be used to ensure that designers capture all the whole-of-life needs of the product or system from the perspectives of all the stakeholders – the acquirer, the operator, the user, the maintainer and those who refurbish or dispose of the it at the end of it life. At the end of the process, the designers are left with a document listing the system requirements for a product design. From this document they can base much of their subsequent work.

Iterative User Interface Design (by Jacob Nielsen)

Redesigning user interfaces on the basis of user testing can substantially improve usability. In four case studies, the median improvement in overall usability was 165% from the first to the last iteration, and the median improvement per iteration was 38%. Iterating through at least three versions of the interface is recommended, since some usability measures often decrease in some versions if the usability engineering process has focused on improving other parameters.

Usability Evaluation (by Jean Scholtz, National Institute of Standards and Technology)

User-centered evaluations are accomplished by identifying representative users, representative tasks, and
developing a procedure for capturing the problems that users have in trying to apply a particular software
product in accomplishing these tasks. During the design/testing/development cycle of software
development, two types of user evaluations are carried out.

Task analysis methods (by UsabilityNet.org)

Task analysis analyses what a user is required to do in terms of actions and/or cognitive processes to achieve a task. A detailed task analysis can be conducted to understand the current system and the information flows within it. These information flows are important to the maintenance of the existing system and must be incorporated or substituted in any new system. Task analysis makes it possible to design and allocate tasks appropriately within the new system. The functions to be included within the system and the user interface can then be accurately specified.

Using Focus Groups for Evaluation (by The University of Arizona)

Focus groups were originally called “focused interviews” or “group depth interviews”. The technique was developed after World War II to evaluate audience response to radio programs (Stewart & Shamdasani, 1990). Since then social scientists and program evaluators have found focus groups to be useful in understanding how or why people hold certain beliefs about a topic or program of interest.

A focus group could be defined as a group of interacting individuals having some common interest or characteristics, brought together by a moderator, who uses the group and its interaction as a way to gain information about a specific or focused issue.

Heuristic Evaluation (by Usability Body of Knowledge)

A usability evaluation method in which one or more reviewers, preferably experts, compare a software, documentation, or hardware product to a list of design principles (commonly referred to as heuristics) and list where the product does not follow those principles.

Interviews (by UsabilityNet.org)

The interview is a method for discovering facts and opinions held by potential users of the system being designed. It is usually done by one interviewer speaking to one informant at a time. Reports of interviews have to be carefully analyzed and targeted to ensure they make their impact. Otherwise the effort is wasted.

Using Prototypes (by SAP Design Guild)

Prototypes can help to evaluate design alternatives at any stage of the development process. Here three approaches are introduced: storyboards, paper prototyping, and HTML prototyping. A listing of pros and cons is given for the prototyping approaches in order to facilitate the decision of which is best for your requirements.

User survey for design (by UsabilityNet.org)

User surveys are a means of finding out how the software or web site is likely to be used by a specific set of users, and who these users are likely to be. The answers user surveys provide must be relevant to the issues that are important to the design team. User surveys are traditionally carried out by post, but increasingly, the Internet is used for this purpose.

Expert reviews (by Cognitis)

Expert reviews are an opportunity for the design team to obtain the perspectives of designers who have been outside the development process. There is probably no single more cost-effective way to improve the quality of a product.

Perform Card Sorting (by Usability.gov)

Card sorting is a way to involve users in grouping information for a Web site. Participants in a card sorting session are asked to organize the content from your Web site in a way that makes sense to them. Participants review items from your Web site and then group these items into categories. Participants may even help you label these groups.

What is a Participatory Design workshop? (by Information & Design)

A Participatory Design (PD) workshop is one in which developers, business representatives and users work together to design a solution. PD workshops give users a voice in the design process, thus increasing the probability of a usable design.

“Market research methods for innovation development (via archive.org)” is a paper written by Dennis List from the University of South Australia which looks at the variety of established and emerging market research methods for researching innovations. The methods are grouped into (1) understanding customers, (2) idea generation, (3) concept testing and (4) estimating market size, growth and composition. The methods for each group are:

Understanding customers

• Empathic Design
• Observation
• Customer visits
• Ethnography
• Alien interviewing
• ZMET (Metaphor Elicitation)
• Codiscovery conference
• Information acceleration

Generating Ideas

• Brainstorming and synectics
• Templates of product change
• Morphological analysis
• TRIZ
• Nominal group technique (NGT)
• Scenario planning
• Lead users
• Secondary research
• Lateral Thinking
• Ignoring customers

Concept Testing

• Storyboarding
• Customer Idealized Design
• Charrette
• Usability testing
• Consumer clinics
• A-B testing (formal experiments)
• Consensus groups
• House of Quality / QFD

Estimating market size, growth and composition

• Test marketing
• Delphi method
• Expeditionary marketing
• Tracking surveys
• Simulation
• Forecasting
• Monitoring, response techniques

Each of the methods is explained briefly and limitations are discussed. Most important the article provides further references for each of the methods.

Download the full paper via archive.org.