Design Beyond Digital: Process Improvement
When I tell the story of how I fell into design, it usually starts and ends with a Principles of Human Computer Interaction Course I took in college that opened my eyes to what happens when you put software in front of people and watch them use it. However — I recently realized how much of my story is also due to the Systems Analysis curriculum I completed as well.
In Systems, we mapped large processes, such as breaking down what happens between someone ordering a hamburger and receiving it at Burger King. There’s software in the middle of that, but there’s also so much more.
Design isn’t just for Digital
When you start to grow up as a digital designer, at some point you might realize that you could make a stellar product, and it would still fail because of something further up or down the chain. I realized that what I had learned as a UX Designer meshed perfectly with what I learned in Systems Analysis– in fact, they were really one and the same.
Jared Spool writes about this expansion of design more fully, so you should go read that, but I want to share a case study of how I was able to use design beyond digital at InterVarsity.
First — I’ll start by explaining what is essentially the Design Process:
- Know what is
- Discover what is more ideal
- Test it out in a small way as a prototype (if possible)
- Get feedback
- Repeat & iterate
There’s not a single thing in those steps that are specific to digital, you can run this process for anything.
Design to create Process Improvement
Background
The past few months I’ve been teaming up with Joshua Haupt, InterVarsity’s Process Improvement Manager to facilitate workshops to improve processes in Finance & Administration. We work in tandem — I do the user research and facilitate the ideation workshop; he runs with the end results of the workshop to actually make the ideas happen. I think I’m getting the better end of the deal here!
Design + Systems
In Systems, I learned about Cross-Functional Mapping. I have greatly benefited from having this type of diagram in my toolbox which most digital designers may not have run across.
Cross-functional mapping is one of the most simple, yet very powerful mapping I use — these visualizations describe who is doing what when, with each “swimlane” being a different person, department, or even whole organization.
Real Life Example
Every month, Kim, our VP of Ministry Services, Joshua, and I gather department heads from every area of Finance & Administration — HR, Facilities, Accounting, IT Services, and Donation Services and we look at a process that has been requested by Campus Staff way back when we did our first round of user research.
Below you see represented what was happening when Legal, a Campus Staff, a Contract Admin, and a Third Party are trying to get a contract agreed upon.
Often we find that merely diagramming it can be enough. So much of how our organization is run is inside many heads who only know pieces of the process — not the entire thing. The first piece of design? Knowing what is.
Just getting it out there for everyone to see every piece can kickstart easy wins– “What if we CC’d both people on one email instead of creating this long email chain?” Now we’ve moved onto the second: Discovering what is ideal.
Then, Joshua executes putting the ideas in place, the third piece: we see if it works by getting the new ideas started.
Finally, by our next meeting we do the fourth step: get feedback.
The easy win identified above plus a few others, are being implemented to hopefully speed up the amount of time contracts were taking to be approved — from 2–3 weeks hopefully down to a week or less.
Is Design the Answer to Everything?
I realize when you start to make the claim that design needs to go beyond digital, you start to mess with a whole lot of turf.
I’m so grateful for these coworkers, who would have never called themselves designers (and probably still wouldn’t! 😅), how they have embraced the design process and collaborated together to make some really great improvements to processes.
I truly believe that the real equation that matters is:
People + Design = Transformation.
What could happen for you if design went beyond digital?
Did this help you?
You can contribute to my book fund so that I can keep learning & writing!
Ashley Crutcher is the Director of Experience Strategy at InterVarsity located in Madison, WI. She tweets at @ashleyspixels and enjoys cuddling with her furkiddos, crocheting/knitting, ringing handbells, and thinking too much about everything.
