User-centric approach

At Schneider Electric, we always put our customers first and anticipate their needs. For digital products, this means considering our users at all stages of the product design process.

What is a user-centric approach?

User-centered design (UCD) process is an approach that puts users' needs front and center and follows an iterative design and development life-cycle all while focusing on gaining a deep understanding of who will be using the product.

This means the product outcomes are being influenced and guided by the user's behaviors, values, and expectations from beginning to end.

Why is the user-centric approach important?

It improves the user experience

The user-first approach is critical as it helps to create products and interfaces that are intuitive, easy to use, and enjoyable for the user. By focusing on the user's needs, goals, and preferences leads to a product that is more effective, efficient, and satisfying for the user. By designing products that meet the user's needs, product teams can improve the user experience, reduce frustration, and increase user satisfaction.

It increases user engagement with the product and brand

By involving users in the design process, product teams can increase user engagement and ownership of the product, which is a glide path to commercialization and product communications. When users feel that their needs and preferences are being considered, they are more likely to engage with the product, provide positive feedback, and improve the brand reputation with word-of-mouth marketing.

It reduces risk

Following the behavior of users as much as possible allows to avoid disruptions in their experience (especially for professionals) and focuses product teams on maintaining the work scope through delivery which increases the potential for success.

It increases business outcomes

By creating products that meet the user's needs, product teams can increase customer satisfaction, which can lead to increased revenues and sales, customer loyalty with repeat business with higher customer loyalty.

How Quartz supports a user-centric approach

By using Quartz design system, and have a set of defined interface elements, product teams have more time to dedicate on the process, flow and content of a feature.

Quartz promise to Schneider Electric's users

All the users of Schneider Electric products become familiar with any of our application as the same elements bear a similar meaning and function across interfaces. Quartz components have been designed to follow the best standards of ergonomics and accessibility. Their variables support user-centric decisions by emphasizing or subduing elements of the interface.

Quartz promise to Schneider Electric's product teams

Product teams can focus more on addressing user's needs, and have more time to research edge cases, corner cases, and improving the overall experience through designing valuable flows and architectures rather than working on visual design.

How can you go further?

Research, test and monitor user interactions at all stages of the discovery and delivery process.

• Who is your audience?
• What are you trying to communicate?
• What sort of result do you want them to achieve?
• What sort of action do you want them to be able to take?
• What do we want to understand from their behaviors and how to track them.
• How to rely on non-design skills (app analytics for example) to do so?

User experience

Conduct User Research

Quick win

High impact

The most impactful way to design with a user-first approach is by conducting user research. This involves collecting data on users' needs, goals, and preferences. It could include surveys, interviews, usability testing, or other research methods. Research helps to understand the user's perspective and design for their needs.

• Define research goals and questions to answer
• Identify and recruit participants who match the target user demographics
• Conduct qualitative research, such as interviews or focus groups, to gain insights into user needs, goals, and pain points
• Conduct quantitative research, such as surveys, to gather data on user behavior and preferences
• Analyze the research findings to identify key insights and opportunities for design improvements
• Analyze, share, update outputs (customer journeys, personas, service blue prints, etc)

Use Consistent Design Patterns

Quick win

High impact

Implemented in Quartz

Consistent design patterns make it easier for users to navigate and understand how to interact with the product. It's important to create and use consistent design patterns for elements such as buttons, forms, typography, and color. It allows users to transfer learned affordances from one situation to another, therefore reducing a user's cognitive load and increasing task focus and confidence with the product.

Quartz general patterns are found in the Core library. Patterns specific to Domain, Device or Interface type can be found in the different Facets.

Connect with User Experience Experts

High impact

Get in touch with the User Research team to help you implement a user-centric approach in your project:

• Join the customer first group (coming soon)
• Visit the Customer First page

Design for Inclusiveness

High impact

Implemented in Quartz

Placing the needs of all users at the center of the design process, rather than designing for a narrow segment of the population helps to create products that are more effective, efficient, and satisfying for all users, regardless of their individual abilities and needs.

• Use inclusive design principles to guide the design process, such as designing for flexibility, simplicity, and clarity.
• Follow accessibility guidelines
• Conduct user research to understand the needs and abilities of a wide range of users, including those with disabilities and other diverse backgrounds.

Create User Personas

High impact

Once research is conducted, it's important to create user personas.

A persona is a fictional representation of the user that captures their characteristics, behaviors, goals, and pain points. Creating personas helps to keep the user in mind throughout the design process. Use the research findings to create user personas that accurately represent the target audience. Include key characteristics such as demographics, behaviors, motivations, goals, and pain points. Use the personas as a reference throughout the design process to ensure that design decisions align with user needs and goals.

Many of Schneider Electric's personas are shared or similar across products and it is helpful to situate net-new persona findings atop of this existing knowledge.

Discover Schneider Electric generic Personas

Create User Journeys

High impact

Once research is conducted, it's important to create user personas.

A user journey is a map of a person's experience during one session of using a product, consisting of the series of actions performed to achieve a particular goal, with matching feelings, thoughts, and pain points and opportunities.

At Schneider Electric we have a common customer journey and product lifecycle. You can use it to but your user journeys atop of this existing knowledge.

Discover Schneider Electric Customer Journey (TODO link)

Process

Define clear goals

High impact

People enjoy products that are designed for the audience and guided by a defined purpose and goals. These goals should be specific, measurable, and focused on the user's needs (What problem does your application solve?).

• Conduct user research to understand the user's needs, pain points, and goals.
• Use user personas to organize your understanding of the target audience and reference across team members.
• Define specific goals that align with the user's needs and the business objectives.
• Prioritize the goals based on their impact on the user's experience and business outcomes.
• Develop a plan to measure the success of the product in achieving its goals.

Involve your users in the product conception

High impact

Involving users in the conception stage of product development can provide valuable insights and help ensure that the product meets their needs.

• Conduct user interviews, surveys, and focus groups to gather feedback on the product's concept.
• Use user personas to develop a deeper understanding of the target audience and their needs.
• Create low-fidelity prototypes to gather feedback on the product's functionality and design.
• Use design thinking workshops to ideate and generate new ideas based on user feedback.

Invite stakeholders to sessions with users, as silent viewers only, to help them better understand the value of user involvement.

Add user needs to your requirements

Quick win

High impact

Once the product concept is defined and user feedback is gathered, product teams should incorporate user needs in requirements.

• Develop user stories to capture the user's needs and requirements.
• Use design specifications to document the product's functionality, design, and user experience.
• Prioritize the requirements based on their impact on the user's experience and business outcomes.
• Conduct user testing to validate the product's requirements and ensure that they meet the user's needs.
• If this in not possible (for various reasons), introduce the notion of UX debt to the PO and add it to the backlog.

Test and iterate

Quick win

High impact

Implemented in Quartz

Testing and iterating is an ongoing process that ensures the product meets the user's needs. It's important to conduct usability testing and gather feedback from users to identify areas for improvement. This feedback should be used to make iterative improvements to the product.

• Conduct usability testing with users to identify areas for improvement in the product
• Gather feedback from users through surveys, interviews, or other methods
• Analyze the feedback to identify common themes and areas for improvement
• Use the feedback to make iterative improvements to the product, such as adjusting the design, adding or removing features, or improving the user flows
• Continuously test and iterate the product to ensure that it is meeting the user's needs and goals