The limitations of generic solutions

Off-the-shelf products are designed to serve a broad audience with standardized features and functionalities. They often lack the flexibility to adapt to specific business needs or to integrate seamlessly with existing systems. As a result, you may encounter limitations in functionality, user experience, and brand alignment.

The power of custom solutions

In contrast, custom solutions are designed to address the unique requirements of a business. From the initial concept to final delivery, every aspect of a custom-designed product is tailored to align with business goals, user needs, and brand identity. This personalized approach ensures that the solution meets your needs. 

Why custom solutions are worth the investment

Personalized user experience

Custom solutions are designed with the end-user in mind, resulting in a user experience that is specifically personalized to their needs. Custom solutions create meaningful interactions that enhance user satisfaction, meet business needs, and drive better outcomes.

Enhanced flexibility and scalability

Whether you’re scaling up or adjusting features to meet changing needs, custom solutions can adapt and grow with your business, providing long-term value. We often include a design system with reusable branded components and styles to scale more efficiently and ensure consistency.

Seamless integration

Custom solutions can be designed to integrate smoothly with existing systems and workflows, eliminating compatibility issues with off-the-shelf products. This integration ensures your new solution enhances rather than disrupts your current workflows.

Unique brand identity

Custom solutions translate unique brand attributes into tangible user experiences. This ensures your brand stands out and delivers a consistent message across all touchpoints. Even if brand guidelines are sparse or don’t exist, designers use their expertise to create a strong brand presence.

Designing for inclusivity

Implementing accessibility criteria not only improves accessibility for users with disabilities but also enhances the overall user experience. This isn’t always ensured in off-the-shelf solutions, which could result in usability limitations for people with disabilities as well as legal issues for lack of accessibility compliance.

Greater control and ownership

Investing in a custom solution gives you greater control over the design and functionality of your product. This means you can prioritize features that are crucial to your users and make adjustments as needed without being constrained by the limitations of pre-built solutions. User testing and iterative improvements enhance the user experience of your product over time.

Improved efficiency and productivity

Since custom solutions are customized for specific workflows, they include relevant features and functionality without the unnecessary additions found in generic platforms. Solutions are tested with users and optimized to complement their workflows.

The impact of custom solutions

We’ve experienced success stories where businesses invested in custom solutions. Clients that needed unique functionalities or complex integrations found that custom solutions provided the exact features and interactions they required, resulting in streamlined workflows, enhanced user experiences, and deeper insights.

Unique workflows

Clients often have unique needs that cannot be addressed by off-the-shelf platforms. They often resort to workarounds that are inefficient and frustrating. A customized product based on user needs can have a significant impact on workflows and efficiency.

For example, we recently designed a product for a client who conducts plant evaluations at nuclear stations. They had an inefficient observation and interaction application, which negatively affected cross-operational work and internal/external collaboration. We were able to include features and functionality relevant to their workflows, improving collaboration and efficiency. They were able to eliminate all of the manual workarounds of their previous process and manage everything within a single source of truth.

Integrated platforms

Fragmented workflows are a common problem for our clients. Without a centralized platform, they often rely on multiple disparate tools, leading to inefficient, disconnected processes and scattered data. A centralized platform, customized to a client’s needs, can transform chaotic processes into cohesive and efficient workflows.

For example, we recently designed an integrated platform for healthcare coaches that consolidated their entire workflow into one seamless system. This new platform replaced the need for separate tools for managing appointments, conducting Telehealth sessions, and tracking patient notes. We added AI enhancements to help coaches quickly get summaries and improve writing. By centralizing these functions, we eliminated inefficiencies and provided a unified view of client data and insights. 

Conclusion

Choosing a custom solution over a generic, off-the-shelf product represents a strategic investment in your business’s future. A custom design not only improves user experience and strengthens your brand but also offers the flexibility to grow and change as your needs evolve. This investment pays off by providing lasting value that generic solutions can’t match

The post From Generic to Exceptional: Why Custom Solutions Are Worth the Investment appeared first on Digital Scientists.

The importance of defining and communicating a design process

We’ve witnessed success when we proactively define and communicate our process, leading to smoother collaboration, reduced misunderstandings, and more successful outcomes. On the contrary, we’ve seen projects falter when the design process is ambiguous or poorly communicated. This can result in misaligned expectations, delays, and a loss of trust. We’ve had clients come to us with the frustration of having invested time and money with other agencies but not gotten the results they expected. We’ve been able to gain their trust by clearly defining our process and delivering as promised. A well-defined and communicated design process is crucial for setting clear expectations, aligning goals, and creating efficient workflows.

Clear expectations for project stages and scope

Transparency

Each stage of the design process is clearly outlined so that everyone understands what to expect and when.

Scope definition

Everyone understands what is included, ensuring the project remains manageable and focused.

Alignment of goals and prioritizations

Goal setting

Project goals and objectives are clearly defined, so that everyone has a shared understanding of what success looks like

Prioritization

Alignment on features and elements that are most critical to project success. Typically, we lead an alignment workshop and use engaging exercises like the MoSCoW prioritization (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won’t have).

Structure for efficient workflows and milestones

Structured approach

A defined process provides structure to streamline workflows and improve efficiency.

Milestone tracking

Clearly communicated milestones and deliverables keep the project on track and ensure that everyone is aware of progress and upcoming tasks.

Our design process

We believe in tailoring our process to fit the specific needs and objectives of each project. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach here. Instead, we carefully analyze the requirements and goals of every project to create an agile, customized strategy that ensures the best possible outcomes.

We essentially focus on four main stages: UX research, UX design, product strategy, and development. While we like to lead with UX research and design, product strategy and development are involved from the beginning, so we work in parallel.

UX research

Helps us grasp user behavior, needs, and challenges, uncovering insights that inform actionable recommendations to guide the design and strategy. The following are phases for UX research:

Research plan & objectives 

A research plan is a strategic document outlining objectives, methodologies, a timeline, and resources to ensure systematic, focused, and efficient insight gathering.

• Directs focus, reducing wasted efforts
• Guides informed decisions with evidence
• Aligns teams and clarifies goals

Research methods 

Selecting the most appropriate and effective methodologies to answer specific research questions or to achieve the objectives of a study within the constraints of time, budget, and available resources.

• Ensures precise, relevant insights into user needs
• Yields insights directly useful for design and strategy
• Early problem identification minimizes costly fixes

Interviews

A qualitative research method involving structured conversations with users to understand their experiences, needs, and challenges with a product or service to provide insights for design improvements.

• Uncovers deep insights
• Contextual understanding
• Builds user empathy
• Identify specific usability issues 

Findings and insights

Systematically synthesizing data gathered during UX research to uncover patterns in user behavior, preferences, and challenges. Reporting insights involves crafting a narrative that conveys these key observations and actionable recommendations clearly.

• Reveals user needs, challenges, and opportunities
• Guides product development
• Informs design decisions

UX design

Create visuals and interactions based on user needs that are intuitive, functional, and provide an enjoyable user experience. The following are phases for UX design:

Information architecture

Structuring complex information (labeling, navigation, hierarchies, and taxonomy) to make content and features understandable and accessible. 

• Defines navigation and captures scope
• Shows page organization and hierarchy
• Workflows that capture a sequence of actions a user takes to fulfill goals

Wireframes

A blueprint of the user interface that shows content, hierarchy, and functionality for each unique page.

• Layout of content and interactions that will appear in the prototype
• Insight into key components that will become part of the design system
• Provides clarity on scope and functionality
• Team consensus before investing time on a prototype

Prototype

An interactive representation of a product’s user interface and experience before it goes into development.

• A tangible product to evaluate and refine
• Brand alignment and consistency
• Gain valuable user insights
• A valuable reference for developers

Design system

A customized collection of reusable design components and styles.

• Reusable UI elements and styles 
• Consistent user experience
• Improved collaboration and handoff between teams
• Empowers designing and scaling a product efficiently

Product strategy

Strategy that secures user adoption by meeting their needs while reaching business goals, reducing risks, and ensuring quality. The following are phases for product strategy:

Product vision 

A product vision outlines a product’s purpose and future direction.

• What is the future state of the product?
• How are we going to help our users?
• How do we define success for this product?

Jobs to be done

Jobs-to-be-Done Theory provides a framework for defining, categorizing, capturing, and organizing all of a user’s needs.

• Simple “needs” statements
• Helps prioritize features
• Helps define the categories of features (epics)

Epics & user stories

User stories are short requirements or requests written from the perspective of an end user. Epics are larger bodies of work that can be broken down into a number of smaller stories.


• Ability to manage sprints and align around features and tasks
• Manage the backlog of items, current sprint’s priorities, with visibility into the status of those tasks, including bugs
• Ability to manage story points and manage development velocity

Product roadmap

A product roadmap is a shared source of truth that outlines the vision, direction, priorities, and progress of a product over time.

• Shared plan of action
• Short- and long-term goals
• Ability to visualize main deliverables and milestones

Development

Creates a clear development roadmap based upon designs and specifications, focusing on seamless integrations, system behavior, and infrastructure. The following are phases for development:

Requirements

Outlines what the product aims to achieve and how it interacts with users and other systems. It outlines what the product should do from the user’s point of view and its technical needs, focusing on security and legal standards.

• Prioritization and sequence of actions: A clear inventory of requirements enables effective prioritization
• Addressing non-functional requirements early, including security and compliance, diminishes legal and operational risks

System architecture

The structural design of the product is defined. It describes the component architecture, selecting specific technologies, frameworks, and 3rd party services used to build the product (the technology stack), and outlines how data is stored, accessed, and managed across the system.

• Provides a unified blueprint, aligning everyone with the system’s structure and objectives
• Helps in avoiding delays and inefficiencies that could arise from making these decisions later on
• Serves as a common language among stakeholders, making for faster understanding and implementation when things change

Behaviors & integrations

Focuses on the product’s dynamic aspects and its interactions with external systems. It covers third-party integrations and APIs the software will connect with, detailing any complex behaviors such as authentication flows, scheduled tasks (crontabs), and other processes that require detailed explanation to ensure smooth operation and interoperability.

• Ensures a clear understanding of product behaviors and external interactions
• Facilitates seamless system integration and interoperability
• Highlights security considerations for safe data exchange

Infrastructure & deployment

Defines the necessary infrastructure for product support, encompassing server specifications, cloud services, etc. It also explains the deployment strategy, articulates procedures for rolling out updates, and ensures the implementation of continuous delivery and integration practices, with consideration for QA/testability.

• Defines the capacity and scalability of the infrastructure to meet future demands
• Details deployment strategies for streamlined and efficient product updates
• Ensures infrastructure robustness for reliable product performance
• Ensures that the product infrastructure supports thorough testing and quality assurance processes to maintain high standards of reliability and performance

A well-defined design process serves as the backbone for delivering exceptional results. It facilitates clear expectations, aligned goals, and efficient workflows. By focusing on four main stages: UX research, UX design, product strategy, and development, we create an agile, customized strategy based on the requirements and goals of every project.

The post Process-driven design for improved outcomes appeared first on Digital Scientists.

A centralized platform, customized to a client’s needs, can transform chaotic processes into cohesive and efficient workflows.

The benefits of a custom, centralized platform

Integrating workflows into one centralized location has many advantages.

Improved efficiency and productivity

Eliminates the frustrating, time-consuming task of juggling multiple tools to stitch together workflows. We recently designed an integrated platform prototype customized for healthcare coaches where they can manage all of their workflows. This will eliminate their current need for two tools for managing and taking notes during their patient appointments, another tool for setting and managing appointments, another tool for managing telehealth, and a lack of client data and insights.

Enhanced collaboration and communication

More visibility and opportunities for inter-departmental collaboration and insights. We are currently developing an integrated platform for nuclear facility inspections that allows them to leave comments, track updates, receive notifications, and communicate with their team and facility managers. This will eliminate numerous emails, shared printouts, and the lack of transparency and historical data that they currently resort to.

Increased relevance and value

A custom solution eliminates unnecessary features in existing platforms and gives clients functionality tailored specifically to their needs. We’ve seen users overwhelmed by the number of irrelevant options in their current tools, as well as frustrated by the inability to customize certain features that are relevant to their workflows.

Better data management and insights

Centralized data allows more flexibility for gathering and tracking valuable insights, as well as for managing this data. The ability to gather insights from data is a significant issue for a lot of our clients. For many, this is critical to gathering insights and gauging performance.

Simplified training and onboarding processes

Streamlining processes into one location focuses training efforts. This saves clients a lot of time, is less overwhelming for users, and eliminates a lot of effort in managing multiple tools.

A user-centered process for designing a centralized platform

A well-defined and communicated design process helps align expectations and goals.

Define clear goals and objectives for the platform

Collaborate with stakeholders to understand their business objectives and needs. We often begin with an alignment workshop, which includes engaging exercises such as the MoSCoW (must have, should have, could have, won’t have) method to categorize and prioritize requirements and project scope.

Conduct user research to understand needs and workflows

Interview users to gather insights about their needs, goals, and pain points. We synthesize themes and insights to share findings with stakeholders and recommend design improvements.

Evaluate current tools and processes

Evaluate the products clients currently use and how they fit with their workflows to recommend technical integrations and features for the new platform.

Information architecture to organize and structure content 

Visualize workflows to confirm alignment, help guide design and development scope, and align with platform features. Also, organize and structure content into a visual representation of a site map to show hierarchy and relationships between sections of the product.

Iterative design and prototyping to ensure usability and functionality

Design wireframes, essentially blueprints of the user interface, to quickly communicate content, hierarchy, and functionality for each unique page. This sets the foundation to design a clickable prototype with brand attributes and build a design system with reusable UI components and styles. A clickable prototype provides a tangible experience to validate with users, gather feedback, get stakeholder alignment, and guide development scope and efforts.

Key considerations for designing a successful centralized platform

A unified dashboard for a prioritized view of tasks and data

A dashboard is the first page users encounter, and the most valuable content to prioritize is tasks with the most urgency, notifications, and essential data. This may also include shortcuts to content or functionality that users use most often.

Seamless integration with existing tools and systems

Based on scope and needs, there may be existing mature tools that aren’t worth rebuilding but instead integrate into the centralized platform. The important thing is to design the platform so that this integration provides a seamless user experience and prioritizes features that provide value to users.

Relevance and prioritization

Based on understanding user needs through research, prioritize features that are essential and beneficial. Avoid feature creep, which complicates user workflows. Keep features and interactions simple and intuitive.

Data visualization for reporting and analytics

Centralizing data allows more flexibility for gathering and tracking valuable insights. Use the power of data visualization as an engaging means to communicate complex data. Including customization features can also provide valuable flexibility for users.

Generative AI for added value

There may be ways to simplify or add additional insights to user workflows by using generative AI. There are some things that it currently does really well, such as summarizing large amounts of content. We recently designed a centralized healthcare platform where generative AI summarizes large amounts of clinical notes to provide healthcare coaches with a summary of each patient’s condition and progress. This is in response to the healthcare coaches pain point of the time-consuming task of reading through a repository of patient clinical notes.

Design for all users

Keep the abilities of all users in mind and follow global accessibility guidelines for designing for people with disabilities. Designing a custom platform provides the opportunity to not depend on the usability shortcomings of other platforms. Read our insights on research and design for accessibility.

A design system for consistency, efficiency and scalability

Concurrently designing a design system with reusable UI components and styles, either beginning from an UI kit or from scratch, helps design smarter. It will ensure the look and experience are consistent, provide clear guidance to developers, and help design and scale the product faster.

Feedback and iteration

Use an iterative design process to refine and improve the product based on user feedback and testing results. Initially, a clickable prototype is indispensable to communicate the experience of the platform, gather feedback, and quickly explore updates.

By integrating all workflows into one centralized platform, you can significantly enhance efficiency, productivity, and collaboration. A user-centered design approach, which includes clear goal setting, thorough user research, evaluation of current tools, and iterative prototyping, ensures that the platform aligns with user needs and business objectives.

The post From chaos 
to cohesion: Designing a centralized platform to streamline workflows appeared first on Digital Scientists.

Creating products that everyone can use, is a core foundation of our mindset and process. Accessibility – designing products that people with disabilities can use, is an essential part of this.

Achieving accessibility includes following international web accessibility standards, as well as research and testing to understand our users and their needs.

International accessibility standards

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops international standards for the Web – HTML, CSS, and many more. Their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops technical specifications, guidelines, techniques, and supporting resources that describe accessibility solutions. 

They create Web Accessibility Content Guidelines (WCAG), considered to be the international standard for web accessibility. In the United States, this has been adopted by Section 508 – accessibility requirements for electronic and information technology developed, maintained, funded, or used by the Federal Government.

WCAG is consistently updated. We are currently on 2.1, with 2.2 expected in Spring of 2023.

WCAG is based on four principals and 13 guidelines

Perceivable

Users must be able to perceive the information being presented

• Text alternatives for non-text content
• Alternatives for audio and video
• Adaptable content that retains information and structure
• Make it easier to see and hear content

Operable

Users must be able to operate the interface

• Make all functionality available from a keyboard
• Provide enough time to read and use content
• Avoid causing seizures or physical reactions
• Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are
• xMake is easier to operate functionality for inputs beyond a keyboard

Understandable

Users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface

• Make text content readable and understandable
• Make pages appear and operate in predictable ways
• Input assistance to help users avoid and correct mistakes

Robust

Users must be able to access content as technologies advance

• Maximize compatibility with current and future technology

Success criteria

WCAG 2.1 guidelines are categorized into three levels of conformance, in order to meet the needs of different groups and situations.

Industry standard is WCAG 2.1 AA (which also means conformance to A).

Training and internal processes are needed to implement and evaluate conformance to success criteria. Creating documentation provides an artifact that measures things such as conformance. Documentation may be requested by clients, or may be needed to fill out a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) that details the level of conformance.

Accessibility is a shared responsibility

Accessibility should be considered from the beginning of a project. This ensures that it’s part of the process, and minimizes added time and expense of going back to fix accessibility issues.

Product Manager

Leads the product and incorporates accessibility into the process with clear checkpoints, roles and responsibilities.

User Researcher

Includes people with disabilities during research and testing, to help ensure they are understood and their needs are met.

User Experience Designer

Considers all of the ways people use a product, to provide options for an optimal user experience for all users.

Visual Designer

Makes design decisions such as color, typography, and layout, to influence how content is viewed and understood.

Content Author

Leads how content is structured and written, to improve readability and understanding.

Developer

Uses techniques such as semantic coding and ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications), to ensure that the codebase can accommodate all users and assistive technology.

QA / Tester

Checks accessibility success criteria compliance before release. This may be a dedicated role, or it may include Designers and Developers checking their work, with a final QA before release.

Be apprehensive of quick fixes

Companies advertise overlays, plugins, and toolbar widgets as cheap and automated accessibility fixes. Many people with disabilities are sharing that these are not effective solutions. Some of the issues are:

• Override assistive technology settings, and force users to learn a whole new system
• Don’t repair underlying issues, therefore they don’t achieve full WCAG compliance
• Loading speed and performance are out of your control
• May conflict with your user’s preference for data privacy and protection

We’re committed to creating products that everyone can use

As the world’s largest minority, people with disabilities deserve to access digital content. Understanding and incorporating accessibility guidelines can be a complex process. Research and testing takes time. However, it’s not just about checking off boxes to mitigate legal liabilities, it’s about doing the right thing and ensuring everyone can access digital content, tools, products, and services. By creating accessible digital products we can help ensure that people with disabilities can easily access helpful information online, protect digital investments, and can have full access to a wide range of online services.

As we continue to design, build, and learn, we promise to work hard to understand the needs of people with disabilities, for the best user experience possible.

Resources

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
Strategies, standards, and resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities.

WCAG quick reference guide
A customizable quick reference to WCAG 2 requirements and techniques.

Section 508
The United States Government’s website dedicated to Section 508 and accessibility requirements.

ADA
Guidance on how state and local governments, and businesses open to the public can make sure that their websites are accessible to people with disabilities.

The post Accessibility: How to create accessible digital products appeared first on Digital Scientists.

Accessibility recognizes that people interact with technology in diverse ways and removes barriers so that people with disabilities can more fully engage with digital content, tools, products, and services.

Statistics and facts about disabilities

People with disabilities are the world’s largest minority

Almost everyone is likely to experience some form of disability—temporary or permanent, at some point in life.

— Sources: CDC; WHO

Types of disabilities

Physical

Amputation, arthritis, paralysis, repetitive stress injury

Auditory

Hard of hearing, deafness

Visual

Color blindness, low vision, blindness

Speech

Mute, dysarthria (weakness or paralysis of muscles for speech), stutter

Cognitive

Learning, neurological, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, mental health disabilities (medications may also have side effects), memory impairments, learning disabilities, seizure disorders

Disabilities can be permanent, temporary, or situational

Why is accessibility important?

01. Accessibility is part of being inclusive

The web offers valuable resources and services that everyone deserves to access, and that people with disabilities rely on.

02. Accessibility improves the user experience

Essential for some, useful for all. Anyone can experience periods of limitations, or prefer different ways of finding and consuming information. Some benefits are…

• High contrast helps during glare
• Voice recognition helps keep hands free
• Captions help in a loud environment

03. Accessibility drives innovation

Accessibility features in products and services often solve unanticipated problems. Sometimes limitations can propel us to think through problems differently and come up with unique solutions.

04. Accessibility minimizes legal risk

Many countries have laws requiring digital accessibility, and the issue is of increased legal concern. In the United States, there are two main laws governing digital accessibility – the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508.

The ADA is a law that protects people with disabilities in many areas of public life. Title II applies to web accessibility for State and local governments. Title III applies to businesses that are open to the public.

Section 508 establishes accessibility requirements for electronic and information technology developed, maintained, funded, or used by the Federal Government.

05. Clients may require accessibility

In addition to client requirements, every federal agency or any organization that interacts with a federal agency is required to complete a legally binding Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)—it details a product’s level of conformance with International Web Accessibility Content Guidelines (WCAG).

06. Accessibility adds value

Some clients may not realize the importance or value of accessibility. This gives us an opportunity to establish the value of our contributions to the success of their product. It may also give us a marketing edge against competing agencies.

Although accessibility adds some additional effort, it will be a much larger effort to have to go back and fix a product.

07. Accessibility may affect your reputation and marketability

Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are important to business success and reputation. People may prefer to support companies who share their values and who design products that fit their needs.

08. Accessibility positively affects SEO

There’s a considerable overlap between features that improve accessibility and SEO performance. 

• Metadata
• Image Alt text
• Link anchor text
• Heading tag structure
• Audio and video transcriptions

How people with disabilities access digital content

People with disabilities use assistive technologies or adaptive techniques to access digital content. In order to use these successfully, they rely on content that has been designed and coded following accessibility standards, and that has been tested.

We’re committed to creating products that everyone can use

As the world’s largest minority, people with disabilities deserve to access digital content. Understanding and incorporating accessibility guidelines can be a complex process. Research and testing takes time. However, it’s not just about checking off boxes to mitigate legal liabilities, it’s about doing the right thing and ensuring everyone can access digital content, tools, products, and services.

As we continue to design, build, and learn, we promise to work hard to understand the needs of people with disabilities, for the best user experience possible.

The post Accessibility: What it is and why it matters appeared first on Digital Scientists.

• Disability statistics and facts
• Why accessibility is important
• How people with disabilities access digital content
• How to create accessible products

Watch the presentation

Running time: 20 minutes

Q + A

Below are highlights from our discussion during the presentation.

To sum up, our lunch and learn session on designing accessible products for healthcare and individuals with disabilities was a significant step in our commitment to designing products for everyone. The team was engaged in the discussion and shared their insights on the importance of accessibility. Our responsibility as a product design, development, and product management team is to ensure that our products are inclusive for all, regardless of their abilities. At Digital Scientists, we believe that by designing accessible products, we can positively impact people’s lives. 

Resources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disability infographic
• World Health Organization disability fact sheets
• Microsoft inclusive design
• Section 508
• ADA guidance on web accessibility
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
• People with disabilities share why accessibility matters in technology
• How did Microsoft’s leadership buy-in lead to a cultural shift around accessibility?
• Accessibility for everyone, everywhere
• Understanding assistive technology: mobile screen readers

The post Lunch and Learn: Designing and developing accessible products appeared first on Digital Scientists.