Customer experience design

At the IBM Centers for Solution Innovation, we've assembled some of the best customer experience design talent anywhere. Our creative staff comes from the worlds of advertising and communications, brand identity design, film, television and the recording industries, as well as the multimedia and interactive design disciplines. Our technical team encompasses solution architects, developers, technology experts and researchers skilled in a wide range of industry-leading technologies. Rounding out the Innovation Center team are usability experts, skilled in ensuring that your customers will interact comfortably and easily with your enterprise's Web site and applications. Leading this highly capable group of professionals are seasoned consultants and project managers.

IBM’s proven User Centered Design (UCD) methodology encompasses the entire process of designing and developing compelling experiences for the Web, kiosks, intranets, business applications, pervasive devices, etc. UCD is an iterative methodology that integrates the outputs of differentiated strategic, creative, and technical work streams to build compelling interactive customer experiences.

Our approach is based on a simple premise: The purpose of any interactive application or solution is to engage and serve the needs of its users, whether they're your customers, potential customers, employees or other stakeholders. Building on a solid foundation of knowledge – as complete an understanding as possible of who the key audiences are, what they want and need, and how best to meet those needs in an engaging, compelling way – is the key to success in today’s extremely competitive environment.

Taking all of these elements into account, UCD offers a structured way to explore your requirements and audience needs, and to tailor a solution that will meet or exceed those needs.

Our UCD effort can include some or all of these elements:

• Client requirements: Following a facilitated requirements-gathering session, we create a detailed analysis of business needs, along with identified audience wants and desires.
• User profiles and scenarios: Based on client requirements and audience definitions, we develop profiles of key user types. For each user type, we craft scenarios that describe how they would use your Web site to accomplish desired tasks.
• Navigational structure: Working with the user scenarios, we outline and develop a detailed navigational structure that supports identified user tasks and goals.
• Wireframes: Building on the navigational structure, we create templates of major screen types to show how features and functions that meet identified user needs will be integrated.
• Visual design: We create several design concepts for the site, enabling you to envision and evaluate alternative approaches for applying your brand in the digital realm.
• Style guide: We document “how to build it” specifications for implementing the user interface with agreed-upon design elements and branding.
• High-level content strategy: With audience needs in mind, we provide a detailed look at content considerations, including recommendations on sourcing, editorial style, governance and management.
• Final recommendations: We identify critical success factors and recommended next steps for implementing and launching your new business solution.

What's the point of an attractive Web site or application if it's not clear or easy to use? Ease of use is often the critical differentiator between a successful site and a marginal one. That's why our Innovation Centers usability experts put ease of use first, making sure your intended audiences' perspectives are always taken into account.

Our usability services include all forms of usability evaluation and testing. Experienced usability experts work with you to assess the ease of use of your Web sites and applications based on common usability standards and best practices. We also offer state-of-the-art usability labs that enable us to test real users in a controlled environment, collecting and comparing usability data. A valid usability assessment will aid you in determining which improvements would be most effective, helping to optimize your Web or application investment.