All posts by Vishal Jadhav

About Vishal Jadhav

Co-Founder of Prismic Reflections® India - a design studio that focuses on User Experience & Brand Communication Design. More than 20+ experience in strategic design, Vishal heads the experience design and strategy in the studio. He has helped many large scale enterprises as well as startups in creating an impact by design & achieve desired business outcome. His main focus area also include building high performing teams and setting up creative culture in the company.

User Experience Design for AI-Powered Products: A Beginner’s Guide for Founders, Product Designers, Developers & Managers

AI has become an integral part of our daily life. Almost of the digital touchpoints, devices & apps we use these days, AI is working in the background in more or less manner.
For businesses & customers AI offers endless possibilities. Still for many, the idea of incorporating AI into their product design process can feel overwhelming or unclear. This guide aims to demystify AI and provide a roadmap for integrating it into your product design process, ensuring a seamless user experience (UX) that delights and engages users. This quick beginner guide is for Startup Founders, Product Managers, Product Designers, UX UI Designers and product teams who are just starting with AI integration into their products/platforms.



 
Fundamentals of AI in Product Design & Technology Landscape

Understanding the basics of AI is the first step. AI encompasses various technologies, including machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. These technologies enable systems to learn from data, recognize patterns, and make decisions with minimal human intervention. Familiarize yourself with these technologies and how they can be applied to your product. This fundamental step is really important to build your AI empathy. 

 

Photo by freepik.com
 

Identifying Real Problems and Real Human Needs

Let’s integrate AI into our product” is not the right approach to start with. Rather starting with users, identify the real problems your users face and the human needs your product aims to fulfill. AI should enhance the user experience by solving genuine problems and adding real value. Conduct a user research, use various research methods to uncover real problems, pain points and opportunities for AI integration.

 

Photo by freepik.com
 

AI Capabilities & Use Cases: Opportunities to Integrate AI

Automation vs. Augmentation

AI can either automate tasks or augment human capabilities. Automation involves AI performing tasks without human intervention, while augmentation enhances human abilities. Google’s Project PAIR (People + AI Research) talks more about how AI can augment human decision-making rather than replace it. Identify opportunities in your product where AI can either automate repetitive tasks or provide valuable insights to users.

 

Photo by freepik.com
 

Avoid AI Anywhere or Everywhere: Where AI Should Not Be Used

AI is powerful, but it’s not a silver bullet. Avoid using AI for tasks that don’t require it or where it could complicate the user experience. Evaluate whether AI genuinely adds value or if a simpler solution would be more effective. Once you understand appropriate user and business needs, set your goal/expectations, define success metrics, identify the right type of AI solutions, consider the possible outcome and impact mentrics of the same to ensure that its really worth taking the AI path.

 

Where should AI not be used or better to avoid use?

In general sense it’s better to avoid using AI in areas like Privacy intensive applications, high stake decision making, emotionally sensitive applications, ethically complex decision making etc.

 

Data Collection and Preparation: Gather and Prepare Your Data

AI is not magic, it’s based on math. Data is everything for creating & designing effective user experience for AI powered products. Collecting and preparing high-quality data is really crucial for training AI models. Ensure your data is accurate, relevant, and diverse to build robust AI systems. Data collection & preparation involves steps like cleaning, normalization, and ensuring ethical data collection practices.

 

Photo by freepik.com
 

Ethical Considerations

AI introduces ethical challenges when building digital products and platforms. Ensure your AI systems are fair, transparent, and accountable. Address biases in your data and algorithms to prevent discrimination. Establish guidelines for ethical AI usage to build trust with your users. 
Some quick examples

  1. AI system used for hiring employees. If the training data includes biased information (e.g., past hiring data that favored certain demographics), the AI might learn and perpetuate these biases, leading to unfair hiring practices.
  2. A social media platform uses AI to recommend content to users. If the AI only promotes sensationalist or polarizing content to increase engagement, it can negatively impact societal well-being.
 

Design for Transparency and Explainability

Users need to understand how AI makes decisions. Design your AI systems or applications to be transparent and explainable. Provide clear explanations of AI-driven actions and decisions to help users trust and effectively use your product.
For example
A loan approval AI system decides whether individuals qualify for a loan. If the system’s decision-making process is opaque, applicants won’t understand why they were approved or denied. 

 

Calibrated Trust

Calibrated trust involves balancing user trust in AI with appropriate levels of skepticism. Ensure users understand the limitations of your AI system, neither they underestimate (poor/no trust) or even overestimate (blind trust) the AI capabilities your platform is offering them. Provide mechanisms for users to correct or override AI decisions if necessary.

 

Human-Centric / User-Centric Design: Not to Replace Humans but to Empower Humans

Focus on designing AI powered products that enhance human capabilities, give them superpowers and provide meaningful assistance in their tasks. User-centric design principles in AI should guide and serve to improve the overall experience of the platform.

 

Ensure Data Privacy and Security

Protecting your users’ data is crucial. Put strong privacy and security measures in place to keep their information secure. Stay on top of data protection laws and be transparent with users about how you handle their data. Clear communication builds trust and reassures users that their privacy is a top priority, fostering a safer and more reliable user experience.

 

Design for Inclusivity

AI should be for everyone, so it’s important to make your systems inclusive and accessible. Tailor AI user experiences  to meet the needs and abilities of all users. To ensure this, test designs with a diverse group of users. This will help you spot and fix any accessibility issues, making AI more user-friendly for everyone. The more inclusive your design, the better the experience for all users.

 

Collaborating with Cross-Functional Teams

AI product design requires collaboration between various teams, including designers, developers, data scientists, and product managers. Foster a collaborative environment where cross-functional teams can share insights, align goals, and work together effectively.

 

Photo by freepik.com

Prototyping and Iterating

AI product design requires collaboration between various teams, including designers, developers, data scientists, and product managers. Foster a collaborative environment where cross-functional teams can share insights, align goals, and work together effectively.

 

Conclusion

Designing experiences for AI-powered products is a challenging yet incredibly rewarding journey. By grasping the fundamentals of AI, pinpointing genuine user needs, and adhering to best practices for ethical and user-centric design, you can create AI products that surpass user expectations. Embrace AI’s potential to revolutionize your product development strategies and deliver outstanding user experiences. 

We hope that with this guide, you are a little more aware to navigate the unknown areas of AI-powered product design. The goal of any product design/redesign & development exercise isn’t just to incorporate AI, but to do so in a way that genuinely enhances the user experience. Keep experimenting, stay curious, and put the user at the center of your design process to turn this journey into something genuinely rewarding. 

If you are building something awesome in the space of AI, we would love to hear and explore how our team of experts can help you. Contact us to start the discussion! 

10 Key AI Concepts and Their Relevance For Every UI UX & Product Designer

AI is all around us nowadays, from the apps we use to the stuff we buy. But even though it’s everywhere, a lot of us still don’t really know much about it, especially if you’re a designer or creator.

If you are a product designer, UI UX designer or someone who is aspiring to enter or start something into the field of AI, having a basic understanding of AI concepts is super helpful.

Based on our experience & research, we have identified some key concepts in AI that can be beneficial if you are new to this field.
These basic understanding of AI concepts will allow you to collaborate effectively with AI experts, contribute meaningfully to the design of AI-driven features, and ensure that the user experience aligns with both design principles and AI capabilities.

While we are describing the key concepts, we’ve also tried to establish some relevance to these key concepts in this article.

So let’s dive in to these concepts


Machine Learning (ML)

ML involves algorithms that learn patterns from data to make predictions or decisions without explicit programming. It’s used for tasks like personalization, recommendation systems, and predictive analytics.

Learn the fundamentals of machine learning, which is a subset of AI. Understand how algorithms can learn patterns from data and make predictions or decisions.

Relevance

ML is often used for personalization, recommendation systems, and predictive analytics in products. Understanding ML helps you design interfaces that adapt to user behavior or provide intelligent suggestions

 

Data and Training

Data collection and preprocessing are crucial for training AI models. Quality data influences model accuracy, while preprocessing prepares data for training and testing algorithms. Appreciate the importance of high-quality data in training AI models. Understand how training data influences model accuracy and potential biases.

Relevance

Designers should be aware of the data sources feeding AI systems to ensure that the product’s behavior aligns with user expectations and ethical considerations

Image Source: Unsplash

 

Algorithmic Decision-Making

Algorithms make decisions or predictions based on input data. Transparency in algorithmic decision-making ensures users understand and trust AI-driven systems. Grasp how algorithms make decisions or predictions based on input data. Be aware of the interpretability and transparency of algorithms.

Relevance

Design interfaces that provide transparency into AI-driven decisions, allowing users to understand and trust the system

Image Source: Unsplash

 

Bias and Fairness

Bias in AI systems can lead to unfair outcomes. Designers must address biases in data and algorithms to ensure fairness and inclusivity in AI-driven products. Acknowledge the potential for bias in AI systems and understand how bias can impact different user groups.

Relevance

Design with a sensitivity to potential biases, ensuring that AI-driven features are fair and inclusive

 

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

NLP enables machines to understand, interpret, and generate human-like text. It’s used in applications like chatbots, sentiment analysis, and language translation. Learn about NLP, which enables machines to understand, interpret, and generate human-like text.

Relevance

Apply NLP concepts to design conversational interfaces or interfaces that involve natural language interactions.

 

Automation

Automation uses AI to perform tasks without explicit programming. It improves efficiency by streamlining repetitive processes and reducing manual labor. Recognize how AI enables automation by performing tasks without explicit programming.

Relevance

Design interfaces that seamlessly integrate automated processes, improving efficiency and user experience

Image Source: Unsplash

 

User-Centered AI Design

Designing AI systems with users in mind ensures that AI enhances rather than detracts from the user experience. It involves understanding user needs, preferences, and behaviors. Familiarize yourself with the principles of user-centered AI design, ensuring that AI enhances rather than detracts from the user experience.

Relevance

Design interfaces that consider user needs, preferences, and expectations while leveraging AI capabilities.

 

Ethical Considerations

Ethical considerations in AI design involve addressing issues like bias, transparency, and user privacy. Designers must prioritize fairness, accountability, and transparency in AI-driven products. Explore ethical considerations in AI design, including issues related to privacy, consent, and the responsible use of AI.

Relevance

Integrate ethical considerations into your design process, ensuring that AI-driven features align with ethical standards and legal requirements

 

Collaboration with AI Experts

Collaboration between designers and AI experts facilitates the integration of AI technologies into product design. Designers contribute user insights, while AI experts provide technical expertise. Cultivate a basic understanding of AI concepts to facilitate collaboration with AI experts, data scientists, and engineers.

Relevance

Effective collaboration ensures that design decisions align with the capabilities and constraints of AI systems.

 

User Education

Educating users about AI-driven features helps them understand and trust the technology. Providing clear explanations and onboarding experiences enhances user acceptance and adoption. Grasp the need for user education and onboarding when introducing AI-driven features.

Relevance

Design interfaces that effectively communicate how AI features work, building user trust and understanding.

By developing a foundational understanding of these AI concepts, designers can actively contribute to the creation of AI-enabled products that are user-friendly, ethically sound, and aligned with both design principles and technological capabilities. It fosters a collaborative approach where designers and AI experts work together to create seamless and intelligent user experiences.

Prismic Reflections® Wins the PrestigiousA’ Design Award

We are thrilled to share that the Intelehealth Mobile & Web Application, designed by Prismic Reflections, has received the Bronze A’ Design Award in the category of Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design.

The esteemed Grand Jury panel of the A’ Design Award & Competition, consisting of distinguished press members, renowned designers, esteemed academics, and notable entrepreneurs from around the globe, has acknowledged our outstanding skills, innovation, and commitment.

Link our our winning entry, Intelehealth Mobile & Web App Design Award https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=148944

A’ Design Award and Competition is one of the World’s largest, most prestigious and influential design accolades, one of the highest achievements in design. A’ Design Award Winner Logo, symbolizes exceptional design excellence in your products, projects and services. A’ Design Award, recognizing the excellent and original design work from across the globe, is one of the highest achievements in design, a source of inspiration for award-winning designers, artists, architects, brands and design agencies.

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Intelehealth is a not-for-profit tech organization that has developed a comprehensive technology platform that Governments, NGOs, and Hospitals can use to deliver telemedicine-based care to their beneficiaries.

Prismic Reflections was engaged to redesign and make Mobile and Web Application to improve upon user engagement, usability & overall user experience.

To view full case study of redesign of Intelehealth Mobile & Web App, Click Here

Telehealth & Telemedicine-Designing for New-age Healthcare Systems – Part II

In the previous part of this article (can be found here), we have understood telehealth as a concept, overall market, industry challenges and potential benefits for its different stakeholders.

In this part we will explore, what are the opportunities there and as a designer what we can contribute to solve and maximise the impact.


Telehealth today poses a series of challenges

Healthcare is a universal right. It is required as much in the cities as in the farthest corner of our country. Merging healthcare with technology makes it more accessible, accountable, transparent and affordable.

Let me give you a rundown on some of the biggest challenges we face as a nation. There is meagre access to the Internet and limited digital literacy in remote areas, where healthcare is most needed too. Achieving interoperability is another obstacle as recording, storing and sharing health-related data to ensure seamless coordination between various parties brings its own set of hurdles. Most importantly, we face a serious gap between the demand and availability of trained healthcare professionals. Even training and creating an army of digitally savvy health staff is an uphill task.

 

But every challenge in the telehealth ecosystem can be seen as an opportunity

It’s time we look at some of the opportunities that we can tap into:

AR & VR-

  • It has proved to be immensely useful, right from training the medical professionals to them offering treatment to their patients. Through the window of mixed reality, the doctor and patient interact via video, audio and data provided by sensors and apps.

Wearables-

  • We live in a smart world where we generate tons of data every second. Some of this data can be life-saving. The information captured and monitored, through our fitness bands, smartwatches, and other smart devices, empowers us to predict certain situations and stay proactively alert.
  • It worth noting that India’s wearables market grew 118.2 per cent year-on-year in the June 2021 quarter at 11.2 million units with strong shipments from homegrown brands in earwear and watches fuelling this growth.
Image Source: unsplash.com

AI & Chatbots-

  • Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots are here to transform primary care. With machine learning, AI engines are already prepared to consult patients through a sequence of questions about symptoms and health histories like the nurses and doctors do today. We might soon be living in a world where Alexas and Siris would enable us to connect and consult without actually meeting our doctors.
  • Did you know about Florence, a chatbot aka a personal nurse, that works on Facebook Messenger, Skype or Kik? She can remind patients to take their pills, track the user’s health and helps them to reach their goals.
 

Conversational UX & Voice UX-

  • No or minimal contact is the future. But it becomes next to impossible in healthcare with the need to sanitise hands and devices frequently. Voice user interface is where caregivers and patients use voice commands to communicate and operate various device systems.
  • Further, the voice interfaces minimise the need to type and allow users to connect personally with the system and express better. This can increase user engagement, bring personalisation & thereby improve overall experience of the application/platform.
Image Source: unsplash.com
 

Gamification in Healthtech:

Role of UX UI Designers in Telehealth

As UX / UI designers, we have the power to create positive user experiences. We make the process of interaction with interfaces easy and engrossing to encourage user engagement, retention and conversion depending on the product or service.

But when we create applications of UX/UI design in the healthcare sector, the responsibility becomes an opportunity to impact lives, quite literally.

 

We must conceptualise, write and design to make features & content across accessible:-

  • In healthcare, we are designing for one and all – be an old person or a young child. And across various devices – screens of various sizes, smartwatches, sensors, apps and so on. Making navigation easy to use, maintaining readability of fonts, enough colour contrast, enabling a screen reader and web accessibility standards are of great importance.

Designer must create basis the three main principles of UI accessibility:
Clarity: easy-to-understand layouts with different buttons, menus, and calls to action.
Made-for-all: cater to the widest variety of users possible
Distinctive: driven by the latest available accessibility features.

 

We must make the experience easy, intuitive and engaging-

  • This is an incredible chance to enable better doctor-patient experiences. It should be informative and reassuring to win the confidence of patients when they are anxious and unsure. For the doctors, the experience must enable better decision making at a faster pace without any compromise.
 

We must personalise the experience-

  • Personalisation is inherent to digital. Even an eCommerce website does it. Health being is a private affair, a personal touch to the experience surely instils confidence. Let us take MyTherapy, an award-winning pill reminder and medication tracker app, as an example. A patient can use it to track doses, tablets, measurements, activities in a health journal and print it or share it with his doctor.
 

We must get into their shoes/scrubs-

  • It is important to build empathy for patients, doctors and front line workers to better understand their challenges and pain points. It will give us insights to design experiences best suited to their requirements.
 

We must build ethical user journeys-

  • While interacting with various devices in telehealth, it is our moral obligation to create products that are safe & sustainable. An ethical design is based on the pillars of:
  1. Usability: enable users to do what they want while keeping it easy and pleasant
  2. Accessibility: make products that benefits everyone, even the differently-abled
  3. Privacy: protect data keeping users’ best interest in mind
  4. Transparency: share crucial information upfront so users can make informed choices
  5. User involvement: get inputs from users during the design process through testing
  6. Focus: be accessible when users need it and stay out when they don’t.
  7. Sustainability: work towards creating designs that enable repurposing resources
  8. You can read more about ethical design here: https://99designs.com/blog/tips/ethical-design/

 

We must factor in trust and security-

  • One must uphold the privacy and security standards by adding features such as two-factor authentication, end to end encryption and secure network or a firewall configuration.

A revolution in healthcare has begun. This is our chance to play our part in designing the future of telehealth. We must allow empathy to blend with innovation to create great experiences for the people when they need it the most.

 

Article Author
Vishal Jadhav
Co-Founder of Prismic Reflections®

Telehealth & Telemedicine – Designing for New-age Healthcare Systems – Part I

It’s true that transformations happen at the unlikeliest of times.

My mother’s health checkup was scheduled bang in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic. Unavoidable as it was, her age and delicate health condition made it extremely risky to expose her to an outdoor environment – and a bustling hospital at that. In a bid to avoid one-on-one visits – that entailed booking an appointment, sitting in a waiting room, signing papers and the like – we struggled no end. Nothing showed up, and I had to trudge through all the processes, taking all the risk. Sure, the health workers, doctors and supporting staff were as helpful as they could get. But the fear, frustration and exhaustion I went through were real.

That day, I woke up to the gravity and need of a solution that could have simplified this for me, and for those facing a similar fate. While I had heard multiple times that health is a basic human right, I realised first-hand how access to medical care was at the heart of it.

The challenge of quality healthcare across the world

An industry already on the upswing, the pandemic propelled the healthcare industry to unprecedented heights. But while global healthcare has seen major advancement, the state of the industry continues to be dismal. The number of doctors and medical equipment per 100/1000 patients remains considerably low, both globally and in advanced countries like the US. In fact, according to a UN-backed report, 3.5 billion people—accounting for more than half of the world’s population—don’t have access to basic health services.

Building new infrastructure and upgrading existing ones can make health and medical care more accessible to the world. But the solution is not as easy. The more viable answer lies in the increasingly popular digital alternative – telehealth.

Source: https://policyadvice.net/insurance/insights/healthcare-statistics/

 

The potential of health tech: Bridging the gap even in times of social distancing

To put it simply, telehealth uses technology to provide and deliver, or grant access to, health care services to patients via phones, mobile apps, desktop apps and wearables. These user-friendly technologies are increasingly embraced by doctors, frontline workers, administrators and patients or their caregivers for their safety, ease and affordability. In places where traditional healthcare may not be affordable or cannot reach immediately, telehealth can save lives.

 

The rise of telehealth in the wake of Covid

Close to two years into the pandemic, and the days of visiting clinics already seem long gone. Instead of preferring one-on-one interactions with doctors, patients today find alternatives to avoid it, and prefer remote treatment instead.

In 2019, the market size of the Indian telemedicine industry was around 829 million U.S. dollars. This figure is forecasted to increase significantly in the coming years, reaching approximately 5.4 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.

 

Many factors make telemedicine a winner

Telehealth and telemedicine, by their construct, are so adaptive that they can create multiple positive impacts on the entire healthcare ecosystem.

Doctors save on time and overheads with a safer alternative-

  • For doctors who are almost always managing high-stress situations, attending patients remotely is more efficient and less time consuming as compared offline appointments. Telehealth makes remote monitoring easier, cutting down on the doctors’ efforts. For those running clinics or hospitals, overhead costs of infrastructure like space, built up area, and supportive staff can be saved significantly by adopting health tech. Furthermore, in outbreaks such as Covid or other highly infectious diseases, telehealth can avoid the risk of patient exposure to doctors and other patients, lending a high degree of safety.
Photo by Unsplash
 

Patients take charge of their own health and focus on recovery-

  • With patients having to worry less and less about the hassles of appointment booking, travelling, waiting, filling up case papers, they can focus on the actual consultation or treatment. The adoption of telehealth can save time and cost at every step for them.
  • Using telehealth solutions, minimises risk of physical contact in case of non-emergency cases or regular health checkups. What’s more, this health tech also offers self-diagnosis tools that can help in primary checkup or identifying symptoms at an early stage.
 

Benefits for the Administrators-

  • By providing proper training of the platform, administrator can easily keep the track of patients, line of treatments & doctor’s availability without being actually present in the clinic.
  • They have clear visibility in finances, reports, medicines stocks and can be a bridge in between patient and insurance provider.

Frontline workers thrive in an environment that unburdens them-

  • Telehealth adds incredible convenience to the schedule of the frontline worker – allowing them flexibility and helping avoid burnout. With minimal training, telemedicine helps create more front line workers in a short time to take health care to the last mile, especially in remote areas.
  • Tapping into this potential, investment in virtual care and digital health has surged, fueling more innovation. Venture capitalist digital health investment has tripled in 2020, from 2017.
Photo by Unsplash
 

Administrators gain by getting clearer visibility into the working process-

  • Once administrators receive proper training on telehealth platforms, they can easily track patients, their line of treatments and doctor’s availability without actually being present at the clinic. They get clear visibility of finances, reports, medicines stocks. This also helps them become a bridge between a patient and an insurance provider.

Government gains on several accounts-

  • The cost of healthcare and treatments for critical diseases are very high, pushing millions to poverty. While the government spends huge amounts of funds every year for making healthcare accessible in rural or remote areas, the impact continues to stay minimal. Telehealth can significantly reduce this burden, both in cost and efforts. It can also help the government to navigate pandemic-like situations with ease.

It is no wonder that a Forrester’s research and prediction predicts virtual care visits to soar more than 1 billion this year.

 

It is no unknown fact that the overall definition of the health care system has changed and it is becoming wider and more exclusive. To tap into these opportunities and make telehealth and telemedicine a real success, a lot of the responsibility has to be shouldered by those who will actually bring it to life – the UX designer. After my experience with my mother at the hospital and a UX designer, I now also have a personal reason to bring my best to the table.

In the next part of this article, I explore the challenges and opportunities in health care and how user experience designers can shape the industry for the better.

Stay tuned for the next part of this article, coming soon.

 

Article Author
Vishal Jadhav
Co-Founder of Prismic Reflections®

Case studies that convert visitors into customers – Tips for SaaS Product Marketing Website.

In today’s crowded space of SaaS products, all product companies are struggling to meet the consumer demands and differentiate themselves from the competition. There is no doubt that building a great product experience is the key, however, it’s not the only thing that makes SaaS companies successful on the business front.

A well thought and well designed product may fail to get enough attention in the market if companies fail to market them effectively to the right set of audience in the right way.

Particularly in SaaS Products, marketing websites play a crucial role to bridge this gap of communication between brand, product and the targeted audience.

In these websites, case studies are the most effective type of content to build trust among its targeted decision makers (which in most cases are business owners, marketing managers, product leaders etc). These case studies help decision makers to validate the product’s use and its impact in relevant industries or their businesses.

So let’s understand how these case studies can be structured in a way that addresses most pressing needs and pain points of decision makers and overall businesses that are going to use the SaaS Product.

 

Industry Focused

One needs to identify the industries they are specialized in or wish to focus. The case study should start with the history and explain the current scenarios of the industry with the help of analytical insights. It can talk about the high level challenges and opportunities which the businesses can tap into with potential market size. This really helps the industry specific audience/customers to feel relevant & connected right from the beginning.

 

Understanding the market and customers

Market dynamics of one industry from another industry could be different altogether. For.e.g Fintech industry moving at different pace than manufacturing industry in India.
Depending on the nuance of different industries, pain points, challenges & aspirations of consumers should be addressed.

See how MailChimp has highlighted case studies targeting two different industries and have explained how their offerings have solved challenges and pain points of respective industries and businesses.

Photo by https://mailchimp.com/resourchttps://mailchimp.com/resources/her-campus-increased-subscribers/es/her-campus-increased-subscribers/
Photo by https://mailchimp.com/resources/good-dye-young-increased-monthly-ecommerce-revenue/
 

Mapping the solutions to the challenges or aspirations

Mapping the solutions to the challenges or aspirations
Once you know the key and specific challenge or pain point of the targeted business, align your product feature with that positioning as a solution. Customers want to get a sense of relief or free from the problem by looking at the features of the product.

In the above examples mailchimp have smartly identified the business challenges of “Her Campus Media” and have explained how mailchimp’s solutions have addressed their problems.

It is not just a challenge or problem, we can also tap into their aspiration. Where business wants to go, what they are trying to achieve etc. How our product or solution can help them in their journey towards their goal.

 

Demonstrating the Value

Just the talk of features or solutions are not enough, especially when there are big decisions to be made within the customer’s company. Businesses don’t mind to invest provided, product not only promises but demonstrates the value. As a product business, how can we demonstrate or prove the value that we have added to other businesses?

 

Demonstrating the Assurance on Integration & Implementation Value

The steps it takes to implement the product or services are also very important for business. Businesses look for products which can be implemented seamlessly with their existing system. It is one of the critical things which businesses look into so the case studies should mention those elaborately.

eg:

In the above example the MailChimp have indirectly shown how their offerings can be seamlessly integrated with different platforms and how their different features have solved the business problems.

 

Impact Metrics Matters (Results)

The next thing in a case study is to highlight how these products and services added value to business and what result or positive outcome they had. This validates the product and builds trust among the targeted customers or industries.

eg:

Or

 

Thought leadership and social proofing

The customer’s review is very important for building social proofing and validating the product’s success. The case study section should have a section for customer’s and industry leaders testimonials.

eg:

 

Lead generation

At last case study sections can also help in lead generation. They can have enquire form, demo or quick links along with links to other relevant case studies which the customers can check. This will help improve customer’s retention on the page and generate quality leads at the same time.

eg:

 

Conclusion

A successful case study is one of the most integral parts in any SaaS product marketing website. If it is structured correctly and positioned well in the website. It can bring the desired conversion for the business.
We at prismic reflection expertise in SaaS Product’s and its marketing websites. We believe in helping businesses to grow and achieve their goals. Reach out to us to know more.

 

Main Author:
Jijo Jacob
UX-UI Designer at Prismic Reflections®

Article Contributors
Vishal Jadhav
Co-Founder of Prismic Reflections®

Collaborative design for the collective success

A remarkable customer experience is critical to the sustained growth of any business. A positive customer experience promotes loyalty and helps you retain customers.
Customers instinctively compare each new experience, positive or otherwise, with their previous ones and judge it accordingly.

As a new-comer to the family of Prismic Reflections, I got to learn a lot from my experience on the product that I was working on. The task was to re-imagine the platform for personalised property management services for the Homeowner Association (HOA) based out of the United States. I worked on User Research, Strategy, Idealization & Prototyping for web and mobile applications .

During the process, I observed and learned how collaborative design is important and what value it can add in the overall design process and ultimately to the business.

 

Involving client and his team in the design process

The client usually has knowledge that can contribute to the project a lot – since they are the masters of their game. The briefs themselves or even regular meetings, will not allow us to explore the subject deep enough to have the same knowledge as people with years of experience in a given field.
Encouraging the client to be actively engaged in the design or research process has many invaluable benefits.
The client-base can be further classified in 4 ways-

Top Level Management/C Suit-
Top management have the visibility and clarity of the big picture of the business. Their views and inputs to align the design objectives with business strategic objectives at an early stage is critical for the success of any design project.

Product Owners, Managers & Marketing team-
These people own the product internally. They develop a very deep understanding about the product, its vision, core functions, workflows, technology etc. They define. Decide & control the feature rollout time, testing, backlogs etc along with empathy they have developed for users. Product managers are responsible for different success metrics of the product, internally in the client’s team.

Dev Ops-
Addressing the concerns, constraints on the technical ground in the early stage becomes important for designers if they want to reduce the time in the development process. Technical feasibility of design solutions is something we can expect from the Development team.

End Users / Product Users-
Involving actual users during the design process, may not be at every point but at completion of critical workflows like on-boarding, payment etc definitely saves time at an early stage if designers validate them before it goes to production. Having real users for early stage testing (with wireframes or prototypes), at least for every critical roll-out adds significant value to the outcome.

Working together with the client’s team & real users (or set of people that matches the persona of real users) enables the design team to deepen their empathy around critical success factors (CSF) & validate the product at various stages early on.

Photo by freepik
 

Pros & Cons of Collaborative Design

Pros of Collaborative Design-

  • It helps building solid business empathy & its critical impact areas
  • It brings business team and design team on same page to agree upon one common vision
  • Saves cost by early addressing different constraints to avoid future back and forth.
  • Design is iterative process, however iteration cycles become much fast in collaborative design
  • It brings diversity & sense on inclusion in the team while working together
  • Involving users early in the stage, helps in building deep empathy & early validation of design ideas & solutions
  • It helps in bringing personalisation in experience design at a very early stage.

Synthesizing abstract ideas into concrete design implications is not an easy task. In collaborative design one must be open to receiving feedback and constructive criticism.

Reducing effort is a huge component of improving UI/UX design. People don’t want to have to hunt for information or click on buttons that lead to dead links. They will also choose interfaces that enable them to accomplish tasks in the shortest possible time, and abandon brands that don’t meet these efficiency and ease-of-use standards. It all comes down to these straight points as mentioned below.

There are some factors that may impact on the overall process due to collaboration, as mentioned below.

Cons of Collaborative Design-

  • There are chances teams may often lose the track as different people are involved with different perspectives
  • It becomes a little time consuming exercise as compared to a non collaborative approach.
  • It might surface if there is any mis-management in the inter department which may result in conflict.
  • Some clients/designers assume they have a leadership role.
  • Collaborative design requires very experienced & professional in charge to handle and drive the project in a seamless manner. Such resources come with their own high fees.
 

Conclusion

Photo by Unsplash

Involving the client, their team & users in the design and research process is always valuable. The client has much more knowledge about his business, customers and product, so it is worth using this knowledge as much as we can. Consistent feedback from users & stakeholders can play a pivotal role. Client’s engagement also allows us to make sure that we understand business needs and constraints well, and that we deliver real value for him.

In the end, however we conceptualize it, a customer that is engaged in a project is less likely to be critical of decisions made about direction and design and more likely to feel some ownership in the outcome. A customer who is part of the process is less likely to criticize than one who remains distant as an observer. In my experience, projects with high customer involvement always end smoothly with a sense of mutual accomplishment and that is exactly the process I have tried to follow.

I would love to hear about your experiences & thoughts about collaborative design. If you have any project ideas or would like to understand our process in detail, you can reach out to us here.

 

Main Author:
Vishakha Agrawal
UX-UI Designer at Prismic Reflections®

Article Contributors
Swarup K. Bagul
Co-Founder of Prismic Reflections®

Article Contributors
Vishal Jadhav
Co-Founder of Prismic Reflections®

Digitizing & designing smart transport for new India

What was the last item you purchased online? Remember when you received it at your doorstep?

From one click purchase to the delivery – What all actually goes behind the scene?

We might have taken this for granted but Transportation & Logistics players are working relentlessly in this journey to meet our regular needs from time to time.

From your daily household consumable products, luxury items, medicines to raw materials for factories or transporting workforce from one place to another to make businesses happen, we can not just imagine without efficient and robust transportation & logistics services in any country.

Global scenario and scenario in India

Global Transport Services Market Expected to Cross $7.5 Trillion by 2023.

Source: businesswire.com

Data Source: businesswire.com

The logistics and freight industry is evolving rapidly and is regarded as the backbone of the economy in India as it ensures quick, efficient, and economical transport of goods across India and many commercial sectors rely on it. Freight transport market in India is expected to be worth US$ 307.70 billion by 2020.

According to makeinindia.com, the Indian logistics sector is currently valued at $160 Bn, & is expected to become worth $215 Bn in the next two years.”

However, despite this potential, existing transport & logistic scenarios in India are challenging. During our research and design exploration done with a few of our clients from this sector, we addressed some important areas where strategic design thinking and doing can make a significant impact.

Tackling for small to large scale transport entities, at the same time.

In India, we have a very small one person business, owning up to 5 fleets to big companies owning thousands of trucks working under them. There are more than 3 millions + trucks running on the Indian roads at time. As the number of vehicles increases, the same challenge takes a new dimension and becomes serious.

This challenge requires a solution that is specifically designed for small businesses, however can also be easily scalable for larger companies to handle the volume with a speed.

An end to end & centralized solution

During our research done for one of our client, we observed that Transport companies struggle to get clear visibility and upfront idea about Transport Systems and tools these companies use are varied and non scalable as multiple people use them for different purposes. There is also a lack of integration of these systems and tools into transport networks, warehousing management and distribution facilities.

A well structured design of an end to end system that connects & enables organizational users to have access and utilize the data in a smart manner is the need of the hour. A platform that is thoroughly integrated with transportation networks, warehouses and vendors could help the stakeholders of this sector in a big way.

Handling & managing uncertainties in demand and supply

There are few aggregators in India through which transport companies get business. It’s a good step over the traditional way that was dependent on just personal contacts.

However, there are still uncertainties for transport companies in issues like round trip, return load etc.

An intelligently designed solution ensures transporters for their return journey booking, reducing waiting time and retaining the profitability in the contract. Bringing AI to address these specific challenges can definitely help businesses to reduce their time, effort and financial loss.

Well presented Data to make new business decisions.

Currently Transporting companies struggle for clear visibility about profit & loss when bidding for particular deals. Most of the small businesses have manual operations here that often take a long time to arrive at a decision.

Super simple & fast estimation processes designed for such critical needs of predictive analysis would save time and money for businesses. Surfacing the important data points like available resource bandwidth can enable more informed business decisions.

Image Source: unsplash.com

Safety & health of fleets

Timely maintenance and money spent on the same is another pressing issue in the Transport industry. Tracking the maintenance, insurance, compliance check and spent on the same is a tedious process when it’s manual & unorganized.

If we take specific example of changing a pair of tyre life is 1 Lakh (1,00,000) Km. Which is directly dependent on the timely wheel alignment activity. In the absence of timely wheel alignment, tyre life reduced to 50-60% of the original. Similarly it applies in case of timely lubrication & fuel cost, losses incurred due to stealing off vehicle parts etc.
It is also observed that, more often small transport company owners missing on timely renewal their fleet insurance.

Streamlining these processes digitally can bring discipline, consistency and accuracy at the same time. This saves a lot of money that companies unnecessarily lose in missing the timing in these activities.

In our past collaboration with startup Mytrux, we addressed the same challenges while redesigning an end-to-end experience through their web app, mobile app & ERP. Prismic Reflections® was commissioned to create a seamless user experience for Transporters, Fleet Owners, and drivers. A quick glimpse of how we tackled the challenge along with some project shots can be seen in this case study here.

Image Source: mytrux.com

Integration & adoption challenge

Information technology is another major challenge for businesses dealing in the logistics industry. Integration & adoption of end-to-end solutions and such platforms becomes hard and time taking task for these industries. In addition to main logistical activities such as transportation, warehousing, and supply chain, these service providers also offer value-added services such as freight forwarding, customs clearance, import/export management, inventory management, packaging and labeling, assembly/installation, distribution, reverse logistics, after-sales support, spare part & service tracking for fleet owners, partnership with fuel operators and so on. A centralized solution should be scalable for such backward and forward integrations.

At Prismic Reflections®, we recently collaborated with Fligital – a company that provides an end to end solution to consolidate various data sources into a value-add centralized platform for the Transport Industry. You can learn more about Fligital by visiting to https://www.fligital.in/

Final thought

The Transport and Logistics sector is the backbone of India. It has been pivotal to countries economic, social and cultural growth. Better, affordable, efficient & accessible transport that is environment friendly is the need of the hour. Digital transformation of this sector has already begun however it needs thoughtful consideration of different challenges & constraints, especially in India. Primary stakeholders here – transport companies (small to large scale), drivers and people who use it for traveling purpose, all have their own unique challenges to make it more organized, effective and sustainable moving onward. Designers have an important role here to play to support this digital movement and make it more seamless and engaging.

Please share your thoughts or experiences if you are somehow connected to the transport industry. We would love to discuss with you if you have a business idea that needs strategic design execution, we would love to connect with you.



Main Author
Vishal Jadhav
Co-Founder of Prismic Reflections®

Article Contributors
Praveen Pottipati
Founder, Fligital
https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveenpottipati/

Simran M.
UX Researcher & Designer at Prismic Reflections®

Prismic Reflections® Recognized as a Top UX/UI Agency in India by Clutch

In the age of the digital revolution, a better web interface can mean better visibility, which is why businesses are investing more to achieve good UX/UI design. However, good UX/UI design doesn’t just equate to better visuals — there are many factors that contribute to what makes good UX/UI. For businesses, understanding what makes good and bad design and how it affects their online image will give them a significant advantage.

At Prismic Reflections®, we help clients achieve UX/UI excellence through cost-effective collaboration. With over 16 years of experience in the industry, our team has developed a keen eye for unique and compelling design that sets you apart from your competition. Our services include but are not limited to:

  • Design Research & Consultancy
  • User Experience Design
  • Brand Strategy & Identity Design
  • UI/Front – End Engineering

As we deliver professional UX/UI solutions to our partners, we’ve received another client review on Clutch, detailing the specifics of one of our projects.
Prismic Reflections Happy to Hear from Satisfied Clients through Clutch

For context, Clutch is an established B2B reviews platform that helps firms across the globe connect with the solution providers that they need in order to improve effectiveness and increase productivity. Clutch imbues the typical reviews process with a personal touch as their analysts often speak with a company’s clients directly, gathering feedback that is insightful and offers a true window into a partnership with that firm. Similarly, The Manifest, Clutch’s sister site, serves as a directory for companies, helping researchers make highly informed decisions.

In our most recent Clutch review, our client, Bynry Technologies India Pvt Ltd, explained that they needed a platform revamp to transform their site’s functionality.

We wanted to revamp our platform and make it a cloud-based SaaS. One of the key challenges was how to build a consistent customer experience on the platform. We needed a partner to help us because we didn’t have in-house capabilities.

– Nilesh Gudhe, Founder & CEO, Bynry Technologies India Pvt Ltd

During our engagement, we worked closely with our client to help them achieve good, high-quality UX design.

They know their design, and the quality is good. Prismic Reflections® was very flexible and accommodating in delivering what we were looking for.

Check out the full review for an in-depth analysis of this project.

Want to work with us? Tell us about your project, and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Prismic Reflections® gets special mention from India’s Best Design Awards

Designing experiences for products and platforms is a rewarding experience. It feels good when months of hard work turns into a product that benefits people and businesses. It feels even great when these efforts are recognized by respected people and committees around us.

We at Prismic Reflections® are honored to receive special mention from India’s Best Design Awards for designing the experience of MoneyGuru – a Mutual Fund Investment Platform.

India’s Best Design Studio Awards is the first and most respected recognition for Design Studios and Projects for their professional work, business practices and transparency, initiated by POOL Magazine.

MoneyGuru was indeed a very special project for us. With a number of mutual fund investment platforms already in the market, the challenge was to design a unique, intuitive and seamless experience that empowers smart savers with market insights & simplifies overall mutual fund investment experience. How the mobile application is crafted to tackle different challenges, how solutions are ideated, can be viewed here in the case study.

We would like to thank the team at Moneyguru for giving us the opportunity to contribute our expertise in Strategy, UX & UI designing for Android, iOS mobile applications as well as their product website.

It was a true collaboration, where our designers worked closely with the client, right from developing the concept to launching the product through several iterations and final testing. Here’s what Harsh, Managing Director MoneyGuru has to say about us:

“We couldn’t be happier with their services. Their responsiveness and attention to detail when it comes to my feedback was amazing. Instead of blindly executing what I told them, they suggested good improvements to my initial thinking.”

We extend our gratitude to POOL Magazine for recognizing our efforts. This will definitely inspire our designers at Prismic Reflections® to set new creative benchmarks in the coming future.