The employee in the facility for assisted living keeps an eye on the well-being of all the seniors she cares for via a screen hanging on the wall. She starts the Well-Being Barometer by plugging the screen into the socket. With plug & play, the current well-being status of all the seniors she cares for is automatically displayed on the screen.
The the Well-Being Barometer she uses is a solution for seniors who live alone or in an assisted living facility and who still master their everyday lives independently. A single sensor, inconspicuously mounted on the wall, perceives the movement habits of the seniors and learns them. The caregiver will be informed immediately of any changes. She can use her scarce time efficiently by organizing her care according to the right priorities: seniors who may not be doing so well are visited more often. In this way, she can ensure that the seniors feel safe at all times. The quality of care is increased, while at the same time the workload of the staff is reduced.
Why does the caregiver start the software we have developed by plugging the screen into the socket? Because it's the best and easiest way for her to know which seniors need her support right now. The automatically starting display on the wall screen is also the only way she accepts to use our software. This need not to want to use a computer and not have anything to do with the technology became apparent through the direct conversation with the caregiver on site. The creation of more time for social contacts through smart technology became clear in the conversation. In this way, this aspect could be included as a central point in the solution. Now there is just a screen with a small computer behind it on the wall. It automatically shows her the current well-being status of the seniors in the facility when she puts the plug in the socket.
The Well-Being Barometer is the best example of our understanding of UX design. Here at EDI, we use artificial intelligence to optimize a wide variety of processes and develop digital business models for a wide range of industries and applications.
Our goal is to offer our customers and partners the best possible experience when using our tailor-made software solutions. The way to get there is through user experience design (UX design). The combination of tailor-made functionality and intuitively understandable operation does not end with the surface, but is set in the context of the specific application environment with the respective users. That is the secret of our holistic, individual solutions, which also offer our customers a quick return on investment.
"Most people make the mistake of thinking that design is only what it looks like," said Steve Jobs, then Apple's CEO, in a 2003 article in the New York Times. ”People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
The wisdom is not new, the key is to apply it consistently. All our different projects have the process in common in which the solutions are created, because with EDI there is a standardized approach to UX design: EDI Scrum 2.0.
In order to reliably achieve a good result, you first have to talk to the users on site and observe them in their daily work. This is the only way to analyze and understand the process. That is the job of our Business Development Team (BD). The use case is studied in detail in conversations and in active exchange with the customers on site. In a compact workshop, the goals of the project are then defined together with the customer. It is particularly important to identify the pain points. These are the positions in the current workflow (job to be done) that are the most cumbersome and time-consuming for the employees. It's the spots that cause the most "pain". Once these positions have been found, the current workflow, the job to be done and the user stories are documented and visualized in a drawn story board for better understanding. The story board is a kind of comic strip that visualizes the current process with the users, their pain and the potential for improvement. This has proven useful for better understanding and easy communication of the process to the customer and the EDI team.
This is where our Product Concept and Design Team (PCD) comes into play, which comes from the job to be Done, first user stories and the story board, which further develops user stories. The user stories are individual tasks that the user wants to complete with the application. The user stories must be understood equally by both the customer and the development team. We spend a lot of time and attention on writing the individual user stories very precisely and to checking them again and again with the customer. The BD and PCD teams work closely together here. The PCD team then converts the finished user stories into user requirements and then passes these on to the developers as precise requirements for the application. First prototypes of the application and the user interface are created and then tested and evaluated with the customer on site. If changes and adjustments are necessary, this process is repeated until the individual solution is a perfect fit for all users.
The contexts in which our software solutions are used are very different. The foresters in the forest look at their tablet computers with the application that supports them in managing the forest correctly with regard to the challenges of climate change. The EDI application, which is individually adapted, takes into account the local forest stocks, the condition of the soil and the seasonal weather.
For the employees of the company that offers solutions for electrical heating and cooling, the application tailored by EDI runs in the background. All relevant inputs and outputs are made via LN Infor, an ERP software that the employee uses on a daily basis. The EDI solution is thus perfectly integrated. The artificial intelligence for automating the process of creating offers is fed via standard interfaces and uses the same interface elements. The employee does not notice any difference.
The results of our UX design are not products, but individually developed solutions that answer our customers' questions and are always tailored to the way in which the user completes his or her task. Our solution always fits seamlessly into the workflow (job to be done) of the respective employee.
Our experience shows: In every company there are processes that become more efficient with AI and modern IT. It has proven to be a good idea to start small and then profit immediately. In a compact workshop, we identify potential and digital business models with which you can directly increase your profits. Get started now! We are happy to hear from you.
