Putting the Customer Back in the Center of SOA with Service Design and User-Centered Design Arnita Saini, Benjamin Nanchen and Florian Evequoz Benjamin Nanchen Institute of Information Systems benjamin.nanchen @hevs.ch Techno-Pôle 3 CH-3960 Sierre
Plan Context of work The project INFOPLACE 1. Data gathering through Ethnomethodology 2. Data Interpretation 3. Designing from Insights 4. Prototype Implementation and Usability Evaluation Discussion and conclusions 2
Context of work
An applied research project One company One problem Krios: A ten-year old Swiss company active in the Cloud Computing The products portfolio and its organization Each particular product is organized as an independent silo A solution INFOPLACE Adoption of a SOA framework to tackle the backend complexity Design of a web application (INFOPLACE) to reduce the frontend complexity Our contribution Design of the INFOPLACE and its link to the SOA Development of a web customer service (ex. sales system) 4
An applied research project Team Prof. Florian Evéquoz: Project leader Arnita Saini: User-centered design François Morard: Software engineer Benjamin Nanchen: Service design Methodology DATA GATHERING DATA INTERPRETATION DESIGN FROM INSIGHTS PROTOTYPE AND EVALUATION Compe tor Analysis Wireframing Customer interviews Affinity Diagrams Service Blueprint Prototype Usability Evalua on Immersion in company Informa on Architecture 5
How to align user s need with SOA? Initial goals Engineering an SOA and a web customer s service Lack of the SOA Approaches for engineering an SOA do not typically include customers The concept of service Business service exposed to customers OR small software component An interdisciplinary methodology Originality of our work The mix of user-centered design and service design to explicitly align the needs of customers with the SOA. 6
The project INFOPLACE 1. Data gathering through Ethnomethodology DATA GATHERING DATA INTERPRETATION DESIGN FROM INSIGHTS PROTOTYPE AND EVALUATION Compe tor Analysis Wireframing Customer interviews Immersion in company Affinity Diagrams Service Blueprint Informa on Architecture Prototype Usability Evalua on
Competitors Interface Analysis 4 competitors Amazon, Office 365, Swisscom, Infomaniak Protocol Visiting, purchasing and customizing Heuristic Evaluation Identify the usability strengths and weaknesses Results List of best practices in the domain Customer orientation (ex. sales) Usual places for standard actions (ex. logout) 8
Semi-Structured Interviews 8 participants 5 customers, 1 collaborators, 2 managers Topics General context of work Experience of Krios services Quality of services General questions Results Customer s expectations Main requests (ex. purchase of a service) Quality of services (ex. helpdesk) 9
Immersion work at Krios Visit of Krios during working days 3 members of the project team Observation and film Topics Typical everyday work Results Back office s constraints Support process (phone call or email) Lack of traceability Administrative work 10
The project INFOPLACE 2. Data Interpretation DATA GATHERING DATA INTERPRETATION DESIGN FROM INSIGHTS PROTOTYPE AND EVALUATION Compe tor Analysis Wireframing Customer interviews Immersion in company Affinity Diagrams Service Blueprint Informa on Architecture Prototype Usability Evalua on
Affinity Diagrams Goal Consolidation of raw data Technique Write each finding on a post-it Organize it in different categories during team session Raw data Consolidation 12
Main outcomes Simplicity in design Implementation of wizards Assist customer in purchasing and consuming services Key functionalities for INFOPLACE Service purchase Account creation or removal Modify user data Permission change Clarification of Krios s business Hosting Software as a Service Customer service (help desk) 13
The project INFOPLACE 3. Designing from Insights DATA GATHERING DATA INTERPRETATION DESIGN FROM INSIGHTS PROTOTYPE AND EVALUATION Compe tor Analysis Wireframing Customer interviews Immersion in company Affinity Diagrams Service Blueprint Informa on Architecture Prototype Usability Evalua on
Service Blueprint Goal (from the customer s point of view) Capture the entire customer service experience Distinguish visible activities (onstage) from support activities (backstage) Five steps Customer actions Onstage/Visible Contact Employee Actions Backstage/Invisible Contact Employee Actions Support Processes Indicate the role of the underlying IT system A direct link between the needs of the customer and the SOA Physical Evidence The customer evaluates the quality of service 15
Service Blueprint 16
Wireframing Goal Drawing the application without programming Use of service blueprint s results Physical evidences, Customer actions and On-stage features Creation of wizards Customer s needs 17
Information Architecture Goal Organization of the content Use of service blueprint s results Customer s actions Task Support process Function Physical evidences Navigational path Navigational path for purchase Home screen > Purchase option > Wizard > Home screen 18
The project INFOPLACE 4. Prototype Implementation and Usability Evaluation DATA GATHERING DATA INTERPRETATION DESIGN FROM INSIGHTS PROTOTYPE AND EVALUATION Compe tor Analysis Wireframing Customer interviews Immersion in company Affinity Diagrams Service Blueprint Informa on Architecture Prototype Usability Evalua on
Prototype Implementation Visual design of INFOPLACE Based on wireframe Combination with the layout of Krios website in order to retain consistency 20
Usability Evaluation Methodology Five usability experts Use of Nielsen s heuristics Results Most severe problems Place of standards functionalities (ex. logout) Enlargement of the resolution Suppression of gridview Differentiation of services to buy and services to manage Conclusion Correction of the most severe problems prior to release of INFOPLACE 21
Next steps Krios Implementation of the solution Connected INFOPLACE with their SOA HES-SO Valais-Wallis Follow up study Iterative design process 22
Discussion and Conclusions
Taking the best of each methodology Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Facilitation of scalability, availability and performance of service User Centered Design (UCD) Help to be aware of the desires and needs of users Ethnomethodology Organization of the content and prototype Wireframing, Information Architecture Service Design Customer-oriented focus Ethnomethodology Understanding customer-oriented processes and links to the underlying systems Service blueprint 24
An interdisciplinary methodology Strengths Participation among team members Dynamic process of work Inputs from the different skills and expertise within the team Effects on business level Clarification of the Krios s business 3 categories of services (hosting, SaaS, help desk) Simplifying their products portfolio Reducing their products list Providing pre-configured packages with appropriate pricing Hiding details of parameterization of services 25
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