Design Thinking: a key approach for customer portals

07.02.2022
expert
Mark Chouadra
Senior UX Expert

Much more than a buzzword, Design Thinking is a user-centric approach to design and prototyping that encourages a continuous exchange between all the stakeholders in a solution: users, business specialists, products, techniques, managers and designers. From an operational point of view, Design Thinking "in the book" may seem intimidating: it implies a transformation of traditional processes for the design of solutions and their application maintenance. However, it is possible to extract some key principles that can be applied to a B2C project, without having to disrupt an existing organization.

1- User Research

The first strategic activity of Design Thinking is user research. Sociological in nature, it aims to better qualify customers: their habits, their possibilities, their expectations and their frustrations. It prioritizes the key scenarios to which a product or service must respond. It allows for a rationalization of services, products and information architecture, in line with what works for audiences. In the context of implementing a complex customer portal, this knowledge of the field allows for the segmentation of functionalities into coherent batches, with added value for the target audiences. At the same time, the Time-To-Market is accelerated and the planned evolutions can punctuate well-characterized communication campaigns.

2 - Design

The second strategic activity of Design Thinking is visual design. In the form of "sketched" representations of the screens and the flows between them, it gives shape to the vision of the project, with a minimal investment. It models the articulation of services and content by focusing on the essential. It is the perfect tool to free up creative intentions and ensure the coherence of the global vision, especially during evaluation workshops. In a second step, it passes the baton to detailed graphic design and then to interactive prototyping, essential for testing.

Sketched screens
UX_sketch_1
Sketched screens
UX_Sketch_2
Screen 1 2

3- User Testing

The third strategic activity is user testing. In reality, it is not very costly in relation to its added value. It solicits real customers to quickly identify flaws and opportunities in the designs, before any technical development. It is an activity that is often neglected by companies during the project development phase, for fear of questioning the work done. However, it is the reality-check that is bound to happen once the project is on the market. Integrated in the design phase, user tests make the difference between a good design and an objectively successful design.

 

Finally, Design Thinking reminds us that a project does not stop with its first iteration and delivery to market. It is a process of continuous improvement, a perpetual back and forth between innovation and feedback from the target audience.

Design_Thinking.png
Design_Thinking.png

Customer portals are complex and strategic projects. Under the guidance of a pragmatic approach inherited from Design Thinking, such as the one we deploy at ELCA, a B2C project is a concrete dialogue between the various trades, focused on the end customer and structured by design, which makes the companies' service proposal evolve for an increasingly vital adequacy to a new market reality.

Contact: Mark Chouadra

By continuing to browse this site, you accept the use of cookies or similar technologies whose purpose is to produce statistics on visits to our site (tests and measurement of visitor numbers, visit frequency, page views and performance) and to offer you content and promotions which will be of interest to you.

Our cookie policy has been updated. Please feel free to manage your preferences.

close
save

Manage your cookie preferences

Update your cookie preferences

Find out about the type of cookies stored on your device, accept or block them for the entire site, all services or on a service-by-service basis.

OK, accept all

Disable all

Visitor flow

These cookies provide us with insight into traffic sources and allow us to better understand our visitors anonymously.

(Google Analytics and CrazyEgg)

New

Sharing tool

Social media cookies allow content sharing on your preferred networks.

(ShareThis)

New

Visitor understanding

These cookies are used to track visitors across websites.

The intention is to enable us to offer more relevant, targeted content to existing contacts (ClickDimensions) and display ads that are relevant and engaging for users (Facebook Pixels).

 

New
For more information about these cookies and our cookie policy, click here