out of oblo - September 2024
September has already come and gone between project launches and the upcoming digital week
This month has flown by faster than ever. We kicked off new projects and are about to wrap up others, from the ones connecting us to the other side of the Alps to new challenges in healthcare design. As summer morphs into cozy autumn days, we feel recharged and ready with our monthly recap.
Orchestrating a multi-country UX strategy
We are proud to announce the launch of WEP's new website this month, first released for the Swiss market. The foundation for the redesign was in-depth user research that led to the development of a new UX strategy and design, in partnership with our friends at Fightbean.
WEP is an international organization founded in Belgium, originally focused on organizing educational experiences abroad, especially in the United States. It now offers tailored learning programs with multiple modules for different age ranges and operates in more than 10 countries. Developing a UX strategy for their new digital experiences meant managing multilingual user research while interviewing young adults, teenagers, and their parents to understand their needs and therefore challenge some of the initial assumptions of the project.
Our role focused on translating those insights into a new digital strategy that would meet both user needs and business objectives. Congratulations to everybody involved on this first release! ✨
When even a quick round of usability tests can raise important questions about a product strategy
Staying on the same side of the Alps, we supported the design team of a broadcasting company in testing a new feature in their app for news and live updates.
We conducted a round of usability tests aimed at validating which one among three different flows (prototyped by the client team) could better introduce a new personalised experience. The tests revealed potential challenges faced by users with lower digital skills, especially in accessing filtering options, and in general demonstrated some of the limits of current design choices. In the end, none of the initial directions emerged as better than the others, but the client team found our feedback “extremely valuable in raising not just tactical, but also strategic points”.
We are strong promoters of listening to people earlier on in the design process to be able to iterate, adjust, and improve each design solution. Integrating quick well-curated sprints of user validation into continuous design and development processes is part of our practice. We make it possible through modular research approaches that don't compromise quality.
The future of work
Will the future of work be different than what we might expect? We are certainly facing a wave of long-lasting changes that will shape the way we collaborate as well as the interior design and spaces of our offices. Countless headlines are trying to define what the next era will look like and our team has been deep-diving beyond catchy titles to understand how organisations will respond to the future, and how designers can help them do it.
Elena Iannella and Chiara Albanesi are mapping the evolving landscape of opportunities, following Gallup’s framework. From the manager’s growing role to the needs of a more fluid workforce, what strategy will pay off more in the long run and how will future workplaces affect our lives and cities?
If you are into this topic, feel free to drop us a line or watch the Service Design Meets on People and Employee experiences, hosted in our office last September.
Service design tools for information design
In the past month, we also headed to Paris for a new project in the healthcare space, in partnership with Assist Digital. The scope of the activity was to map the governance model and processes regulating the design and application of wayfinding signage in APHP hospitals - with the ultimate goal of delivering a new taxonomy and guidelines for their renovation.
We started the project by immersing ourselves in the context, with a combination of shadowing sessions and 1:1 interviews with hospital workers. One of the main insights was related to how different parts of the hospitals we visited applied different logic, resulting in an inhomogeneous approach that could generate internal inefficiency and confusion at the patient level.
We believe there’s a lot to explore at the crossroad of service and information design… Stay tuned for more updates and content soon 🙂
See you around at the Digital Week
This busy week is kicking off with the Digital Design Days at Superstudio, which we are attending to connect with the broader digital and innovation community.
The week continues on Friday night, 11th of October, with Alessandra Del Nero from our team participating as a panelist to Poli.Design UX Talks at Yoroom. The conversation will focus on the design of digital experiences for public services, with interventions from the Municipality of Trieste and Prodigys. You can follow the Experience Design Academy for updates on the event.
The last appointment will be on Monday 14th, with Roberta Tassi participating in the Tech(&)Democracy event held by Politecnico di Milano at Fondazione Feltrinelli. The debate will explore how the evolving technology could affect democratic processes and citizen participation, combining a mix of different experiences and backgrounds.
It’s all for this month, see you soon!
Anything you want to discuss with us? You can book a 30 min call or drop us a line.
Enjoy October,
Alessandra and oblo team