UX case study: redesigning the Indoorway’s service ecosystem
Indoorway enables precise indoor positioning and analysis of foot traffic within facilities. Being a sophisticated solution, it is also a multi-channel experience, going beyond standard online touch points. From this article you’ll learn how we’ve redesigned and unified the whole service to make it seamless and user-friendly.
From the very beginning our aim was to create a service consisting of many points of contact, not just a product. By a service I mean a crossover of technology, community and processes. There are many ways in which users can interact with Indoorway: through dedicated apps, the analytical dashboard, via our landing page, a chat, and a forum at the community section. Each of these channels requires the user’s engagement, thus we wanted to deliver the best continuous experience.
While creating a new service ecosystem for Indoorway we have come across some organizational and design challenges. What were they? Go through these three examples followed by our hints on how to pass by them.
1. Filling in the gaps
The biggest challenge along the way was to fill in the gaps between different touchpoints. We wanted the user flow to be as smooth as possible. The traction along the way or the lack of the overall service strategy would mean losing potential customers. And we were not (and will never be) willing to take that risk, for sure.
Throughout the last couple of months we’ve been rearranging the process of getting started with Indoorway, which means designing user’s first interactions with the product. Our aim was to inform the user about the entire process of setting up our system in a short and simple manner. At the same time, we kept in our minds that even though we were excited about the product and its features, we could not overwhelm the users with information overload. That’s why we’ve divided the process into five steps, each highlighting just the key information.
We wanted to guide users, allow them to go through the registration and building maps in their own pace and let them manage the process in their own way. On the other hand, we did our best to avoid forcing any unnecessary actions on the user without offering something valuable in return (e.g. an option for a quick and easy check-up of a map’s correctness). We’ve also created some contextual tutorials and guides, which explain the setup process step by step.
All in all, while creating the new structure and smoothing it, we sticked to two basic rules:
- leading consistent communication throughout different mediums,
- identifying potential pain points in advance.
We know that filling in the gaps and all other actions are a part of the ongoing process, thus with the product growth the number of challenges is going to increase. That’s why a clear strategy and unified vision, as well as a focused team is essential while creating a coherent service ecosystem.
2. Creating a proper team
A holistic approach can be applied only in holistic organizations. A cross-functional collaboration is critical to create a complete, well-thought-out and effective service. Building such a team within an organization is not always easy. Especially, due to the fact that skills of its members should be complementary.
Service ecosystem grows with time. It needs constant attention from the crew and often requires a bunch of different competences. For instance, the initiative to handle an issue may come from the Customer Satisfaction Team, which receives feedback straight from the clients. At first, they can talk with the Project Manager, who then highlights the issue to the UX and Product Designers. They develop a strategy to solve the problem, which is then presented in front of the Business Team. Later on, the initial strategy is handled by the Content and UI Designers, who will polish the idea. When the solution is ready, it goes to the Developers who will launch the final version to the customers.
When one part of the process is missing, the results are suboptimal and lacking. Also, without well-established communication standards and processes, it might take too much time to implement changes. Because many people are involved in the process, it’s also important to have one or two people who check along the way if the initial issue is covered by the proposed adjustment and make sure that it is 100% user-friendly. Such work arrangements require great flexibility and a shift in a mindset, but it’s worth giving a try.
3. Building long term relationships with customers
Indoorway would like to create long term relationships with customers — special connections that rely on customers’ satisfaction, goal achievement and mutual trust. We’d also like to make our service stand out from other indoor positioning solutions.
That’s why at each point of the user journey we make sure it’s seamless. We think about each step as a piece of a long adventure, but also in a broader term, beyond touchpoint-to-touchpoint experience. Focusing solely on short term wins and sacrificing the big picture usually makes the product weaker.
We know that the customers’ trust, once lost, might never be regained. That’s why we pay great attention to every detail of our ecosystem’s design and keep a clear slate rather than clean after the negative feedback. Designing a good service requires planning, establishing long term goals and right people in the team.
At the end of the day, a service ecosystem is advantageous for everyone: it uses holistic approach and focuses on the big picture. The goal is to align business strategy with the actual customers’ overall experience and their satisfaction in mind. Creating a service ecosystem is a process which — if started early on — can lead to a more functional, complete and well-thought final product. By applying service-centric thinking, many difficulties can be overcome. Each and every company can benefit from this shift in approach, and not only is it a shift in a digital environment, it also goes beyond that — to offline experiences.
