In recent decades, we have seen how our technological devices (cell phones, tablets, and even PCs) increasingly become "extensions" of our tasks with interfaces that adapt more and more to make it easier for us to navigate and understand them. But why are they made like this? You might think it's indeed to make them easier for us to navigate, but there's something beyond the obvious, a technological and social reason to understand the why of this trend, and that is user-centered design. I want to tell you why it's essential to adapt not only the technology of your company but also your soft skills when serving a user in your company."
We are designed to collaborate
Civilization came when, as a community, we organized into different groups and managed (communicating) everything so that these tribes we were in could progress solidly over time. Even in these times, like 10,000 years later, we continue with the same immutable model of communicating ideas, of making daily tasks easier through experience and teaching, and more recently, with a somewhat more... Psychodigital communication? We build virtual "civilizations" because now a brand has its own identity and a way of communicating with the users who consume it, but this is always programmed by people who understand the human need to establish a comprehensible connection with the listener who listens carefully, which in this case are a bunch of 1s and 0s.
Design thinking is an excellent example of how focusing on the user is the key to the success of a product or service because one of its strong pillars is empathy (a word so commonly heard these days). It invites us to directly listen to the needs of users and adapt their problems to turn them into opportunities or immediate solutions in a creative and efficient way, ensuring that we increasingly have relevant information about those who consume from us. This allows us to continue adapting to the new methodologies that arise every day in the company of the future.
¿Homo Ex Machina?
We've all had the idea in our heads that in about 20 or 30 years, machines will steal our jobs and what will become of us then? Most likely, some jobs will be automated, and this is thanks to us listening to what the user needs. Every innovation arises from a communicated need, but it's not that we become a mobile app at the mercy of what we're told. Rather, we could take part in the process to achieve this efficiency and transform it to provide better service as individuals.
"The automation of many jobs and processes with the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a reality. And in the face of the talent required by Industry 4.0, in scenarios where many jobs will be replaced by machines or software programs, we pose a question: What are the talents or skills that we must develop for jobs that do not yet exist?"
Source: https://www.rutanmedellin.org//es/industria-4-0/item/seis-habilidades-para-la-4revolucion-industrial
Effective communication is one of the most valued skills in future times, along with empathy and leadership. But beyond that, there's teamwork, which is so necessary now as we all face a historic event like the pandemic together. That's why soft skills are something to scrutinize closely. I invite you to review your company's practices and assess how effective this adaptability is, both in software and in human resources, to step into the company of the future and continue to be Simply Efficient.
User-centered service
It's not new that business management tools have evolved from dull, data-filled tables to colorful and user-friendly interfaces. However, looks aren't everything, and they don't serve the primary purpose of design, which is communication.
"Behind design, there's always planning, and services are not exempt from this design."
We often view service as that saint to whom we pray from afar, hoping that miraculously it will solve our structural disorder. Rarely do we take the time to review how well-designed this service model is and how this idea is graphically translated so that the user intuitively understands the tool's language. That's why we're seeing more and more cloud software or web solutions that facilitate such communication. However, we're back to square one: many only program to make it work, not to make navigation comfortable and dynamic between the digital and human realms.
How do we avoid falling into digital monotony?
The foundation of transformation lies in receiving and transmuting information (like the alchemists of old) to achieve effective and understandable navigability for our users. To this end, we need:
Listen to our users:
A fundamental pillar for Industry 4.0 as it provides us with the necessary information to avoid inventing problems that happen to us individually without taking into account the "pains" that people who use our products really have. The last person who should like your product is you; The tool must meet the parameters and expectations of your users, not yours.
Think out of the box:
If you don't innovate, you're toast in the future, and the key to success is always transforming the traditional and adapting it to current trends so that we can keep up with increasingly modular technology with different branches. It's no longer just about the technology; it's about the psychology and communication of technology in "human" and experiential language.
Having all-terrain software:
At this point, I'll give you an example of one of LeverIT's solutions for fixed and technological asset management and monitoring, which is Discovery Asset Managment. The software takes care, through the LAN (corporate network), of capturing everything that the PCs in the company have and the assets (printers, real estate, servers, and others), so that there is no information mess in Excel or papers that later, for auditing and reviewing the data, become a tedious task. All this information is obtained through specialized software designed to facilitate the user's task. But what happens in times of pandemic? Very few people are in the office, and so the corporate network in this case becomes useless.
That's why, following this model of service and experience design, we adapt to a Web solution that does not require the strictness of the LAN (Discovery Global) and translates all this information into a user-friendly and navigable environment with specific search filters and parameters designed with our clients' real needs in mind.
This is what the future company is based on: timely communication and action with valuable data. The future of the company lies in listening to its users at all times.
Leave us comments on our social media to let us know how well you're adapting to the latest trends, and visit our website www.leverit.us to find out about the latest in our solutions for Simply Efficient service.