Innovation, Design & UX

We have come a long way from walking to the banks to deposit and withdraw cash by taking a token and standing in long queues to a one-click safe transfer from one account to the other within seconds.

We have witnessed a swift change in the way the world is changing and releasing new innovative products, services, content to make our life more comfortable.

Innovation

Innovation is a natural extension of that desire to create new things that comes from the need of solving a problem or make things better or living easier.

From the earliest test based websites to current sites that feature multimedia content, micro-interactions, and other UX enhancements, design has consistently evolved and improved.

Innovation does not have to be anything wildly disruptive. It can be as simple as choosing a research technique you haven’t used before or are not familiar with.

Users may not love your innovation

Coming up with something different and innovative can break up the seeming monotony of similar sites. Also, users have certain expectations, consciously or subconsciously from a product about its function and content. The absence of those things damages their experience.

So, innovative UX designs can be hard to navigate, leading to confusion and frustration.

But without innovation, websites would look like this.

Innovation has brought technologies like CSS, animation, streaming video etc including all other features. However, it is important to make sure those innovations are explained so that users are not left wondering how to interact with them.

Things to consider

• Is the audience receptive to innovation?
• Does the proposed innovation improve the user experience?
• Will users intuitively know how to use the site?

If not, what help can be offered to explain the site’s interaction options?

Whatever innovations you include in the design should lead to an improvement in user experience.

Example

Innovations in voice user interfaces are helping to improve all kinds of user experiences, and some believe that voice will power 50% of all searches by 2020.

Enabling touchless gesture interactions

Google’s Advanced Technologies and Projects (ATAP Lab) developed Project Soli, a new sensing technology that uses a miniature radar for motion tracking the human hand.

The Apple pencil

The Apple Pencil is human-centric because it employs two already familiar things: a pencil and a tablet. There is no need to learn anything new to use it. The human brain has been familiar with this form of writing.

Skeuomorphism

It is a graphical user interface design that mimics their real-world counterparts in how they appear and/or how the user can interact with them.

Google’s Material Design

Google’s Material Design guidelines also shifted towards a different representation of reality by giving the entire digital canvas depth with subtle layers and drop shadows.

UX -kills- Innovation

User Experience is concerned with people’s emotions and behaviors while interacting with a product, service, or brand.

Usability is about making an interface easy to use so that the user can complete his goal to achieve which you might want to follow some standards and best practices, but this doesn’t mean that there is no space for new things.

Example: A car rental company
UX: How to provide a seamless experience since the user decides he wants to rent a car, all the way through when he books, picks up, and brings back the car.
Usability: Making the online booking process easy to use.

Innovation can happen in different fields. In UX it can be a new methodology. In Usability, it might be a new way of user interaction.

UX is innovation enabler

UX practices can be an Innovation enabler and not an Innovation killer. By thinking about UX, we can:

• Uncover problems that otherwise might pass unnoticed
• Build solutions taking people’s emotions and behaviors into account
• Test and see how people use it
• Reduce risk by quickly checking if it’s a no-go or go solution

Methodologies to ensure the innovated design is user-centric

Specify the context of the use

Identify the people who will use the product. What they will use it for & under what conditions they will use it.

Specify requirements

Identify any business requirements or user goals that must be met for the product to be successful

Create design solutions

It May be done in stages — building from a rough concept to a complete design

Evaluate designs

Ideally through usability testing with actual users

Example

User engagement model

• Most of the revenue comes from delivery services by delivering food ordered online by the app users.
• Zomato works on an aggregator model — a networking E-commerce business model where a firm collects data pertaining to goods/services offered by several competing websites or application software and displays it on its own website or application software
• It charges 20–25% in commission from the restaurant for every order.
• Marketing efforts have created an image that Zomato makes life convenient and easy for its customers and promises the best customer experience.
• It aims to keep every customer both partner restaurants and customers satisfied with the services.

Unique Features

• Table Booking
• Follow Your Friends
• Self Pick-Up
• Restaurant Profile

A use case: House gatherings and family events

• The biggest issue is cooking and estimating the quantity of food
• One person is often constrained to the kitchen while others dine
• Multiple individuals ordering causes confusion
• Delivery at different times

Trend analysis

Proposed model