Episode 4

The Design of the User Experience

Published on: 8th August, 2023

On this episode of The Smart IT Podcast, I welcomed Evelina Deleanu, Head of Experience @ ChaiOne, to the show. We talked about design, end users, and experience.

In IT, we often talk about the back end of the digital infrastructure that powers business services. It is important as well to take a step back and think about the experience of the people using our systems. We need to answer the question of what users are trying to accomplish in their daily tasks as they interact with technology. Design is more than aesthetics; it is the actual experience. We discussed user experience (UX) and the entire experience with a product or service. For example, buying an Apple product, from unwrapping device, to setting it for use. Experience encompasses the entire lifecycle of interacting with the product or service. We discussed several insightful areas, including:

  • When companies do not invest in experience, you have user complaints. Many digital transformation initiatives fail because they do not consider the user enough.
  • Viewing the human experience holistically interacting with technology systems. The importance of designing the experience of technology for users. 
  • A good experience working with a system is the result of thoughtful design. There needs to be a purposeful understanding of what users are trying to accomplish and design the technology systems to meet those needs as efficiently as possible. 
  • Many users resist digital transformation initiatives and new solutions. The importance of focusing on being user centric to meet their actual work needs. If not done well, we risk lower user adoption rates and technology investments may not pay off for our businesses. 
  • Part of the design process is collecting end user data using methods such as interviews, observation, and time motion studies. 

We closed out by discussing career pathing for those looking to get into design. 

LINKS:

LinkedIn - Evelina Deleanu

ADP List: https://app.adplist.org/login

Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/

Interaction Design Foundation: https://www.interaction-design.org/

LinkedIn - ChaiOne

#design #humancentereddesign #ux #experience

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for The Smart IT Podcast

About the Podcast

The Smart IT Podcast
Where IT explores what's next...
The Smart IT Podcast, where IT professionals can assemble and hear from each other, industry leaders, thought leaders, and those in adjacent fields to collaborate and learn from each other and explore what’s next for IT.

The Smart IT Podcast explores what’s next for IT as it continues to find ways to get the important things done for our organizations.
Preparing for the next decade, we need to think differently about how we approach our work to continue to thrive into the future.

Smart IT is an approach, conceptual framework, and development model to getting the important things done by transforming the way traditional IT thinks, works, and leads. It supports the disruption of the status quo, simplifies the complex, reduces uncertainty, and improves risk mitigation.

There has never been more pressure to deliver for our organizations; but I know IT is up to the challenge.

That will require IT to lead by working smarter. Let’s do it together.

About your host

Profile picture for William D. Reed

William D. Reed

As someone who has spent decades bridging the gap between those who build solutions and the people who need them,I’ve seen firsthand why so many great ideas fail—not because they aren’t innovative, but because they never truly reach or work for the people they were meant to help.

Today, through my work at Willway Labs and my Frontline Innovation framework, I help enterprise leaders, product teams, and innovators dismantle real human problems at the frontline—where solutions are actually experienced, adopted, and trusted.
Because innovation isn’t complete when you launch… it’s complete when it works in someone’s life.

What I do is help organizations close that gap—so their ideas don’t just exist…they deliver real value.