Latest news with #usercentereddesign
Associated Press
01-07-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Maomao Ding's Contributions to Design-Driven Innovation Reshape User Experiences Across Different Industries
A cross-industry design strategy integrates user-centered thinking, visual clarity, and system storytelling to simplify complex tools. From AI-powered video editing to enterprise finance software and nonprofit campaigns, recent initiatives demonstrate how thoughtful UX and visual design drive adoption, efficiency, and meaningful digital engagement. New York, NY, United States, July 1, 2025 -- A new approach to digital product design that blends user-centered design, strong visual design, and storytelling is emerging in order to simplify how people interact with technology. At the intersection of global health, AI tools, and enterprise software, recent projects demonstrate how thoughtful decisions can create simplified and more intuitive human experiences. In 2024, an ambitious project was centered on building an AI-powered video tool for a Y Combinator-backed startup. By rethinking the user experience, this initiative was able to cut the video creation time for a 20-second video from 30 minutes to 10 minutes, increasing consumer satisfaction by 70%. At a time when image and video language models were still in early stages, this project had to navigate around technical constraints to deliver efficient and faster solutions for users. These results not only reflect strong design execution but also a deeper commitment to usability and system thinking that puts the user at its core. Today, these same principles are driving digital transformation at Mercer, a global consulting leader in HR and finance. The ongoing development of Mercer Beacon and OneView includes tools designed to support insurance's consultants benefit optimization and retirement plan access in the U.S. and Ireland, respectively. Other concurrent efforts include the creation of B2B tools that use AI to help design agencies improve their delivery workflows and alignment across stakeholders. These projects prioritize usability and accessibility by ensuring that even complex financial systems are built around the real needs and behaviors of their end users. This work stands out for its ability to utilize UX, system designs, and storytelling to create digital solutions that people trust and enjoy using. Maomao Ding's work is backed by a BFA in Communications Design and a Master's in Human-Centered Design and Engineering, along with a toolkit that includes platforms such as Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch, P5js, and more. Ding's recent efforts in sectors such as global nonprofits, consumer products, and B2B systems exemplify this shift. At UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, she used design strategies to advocate and helped elevate critical campaigns, including content that reached nearly 90,000 viewers in a single initiative. In a separate project at Meta's Instagram, a global tooltip redesign optimized onboarding and boosted engagement by 23%, while eliminating repetitive features and streamlining user flows. The ability to integrate both visual clarity and functional depth in both initiatives helped ensure adoption across diverse user bases and audiences. Her design excellence has been recognized with multiple international awards, including the 2025 Muse Design Awards, the 2025 Better Future Milan Design Awards, the 2024 IDA Design Awards, and the 2024 London Awards. These honors not only reflect the strength of Ding's visual interaction but also the consistent ability to align creativity with strategic problem-solving. These contributions demonstrate how thoughtful design can drive progress across various industry sectors. By focusing on clarity, empathy, and technical precision, this approach proves that impactful design doesn't just serve users, it empowers them. Contact Info: Name: Maomao Ding Email: Send Email Organization: Maomao Ding Website: Release ID: 89163550 Should any errors, concerns, or inconsistencies arise from the content provided in this press release that require attention or if a press release needs to be taken down, we kindly request that you immediately contact us at [email protected] (it is important to note that this email is the authorized channel for such matters, sending multiple emails to multiple addresses does not necessarily help expedite your request). Our efficient team will be at your disposal for timely assistance within 8 hours – taking necessary measures to rectify identified issues or providing guidance on the removal process. We prioritize delivering accurate and reliable information.
Forbes
24-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How To Build Scalable, Reliable And Effective Internal Tech Systems
In many businesses, platform engineers serve two sets of customers: external clients and internal colleagues. When building tools for internal use, following the same user-centered design principles applied to customer-facing products isn't just good practice—it's a proven way to boost team efficiency, accelerate development and improve overall user satisfaction. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council share key design principles platform engineers should keep front and center whether they're building for clients or colleagues. From prioritizing real team needs to planning ahead for worst-case scenarios, these strategies can ensure internal systems are scalable, reliable and truly supportive of the teams they're built for. 1. Minimize User Friction The one core design principle platform engineers should keep front and center when building internal tools is minimizing user friction by streamlining the journey and improving cycle time. Additionally, internal tools should include clear feedback mechanisms to help users quickly identify and resolve issues, along with just-in-time guidance to support user education as needed. - Naman Raval 2. Build With External Use In Mind You should always consider the possibility that an internal tool may eventually end up being an external tool. With that in mind, you should try not to couple core logic to internal user information. - David Van Ronk, Bridgehead IT Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify? 3. Design With Empathy It's important to design with empathy. Internal tools should prioritize user experience for the engineers and teams who rely on them. Simple, intuitive interfaces and seamless workflows reduce friction, enhance productivity and encourage adoption—making the tool not just functional, but loved. - Luis Peralta, Parallel Plus, Inc. 4. Focus On Simplicity Ease of use and intuitive design must be front and center when building internal tools. Features that are overly nested or require significant learning time directly impact productivity. This inefficiency can be quantified in terms of human hours multiplied by the number of resources affected, potentially leading to substantial revenue loss, especially for larger organizations. - Hari Sonnenahalli, NTT Data Business Solutions 5. Adopt Domain-Driven Design And A 'Streaming Data First' Approach Platform engineers should prioritize domain-driven design to explore, access and share data seamlessly. As cloud diversification and real-time data pipelines become essential, embracing a 'streaming data first' approach is key. This shift enhances automation, reduces complexity and enables rapid, AI-driven insights across business domains. - Guillaume Aymé, 6. Build Scalable Tools With A Self-Service Model A self-service-based scaled service operating model is critical for the success of an internal tool. Often, engineers take internal stakeholders for granted, not realizing they are their customers—customers whose broader use of an internal tool will make or break their product. Alongside scalable design, it will be equally important to have an organizational change management strategy in place. - Abhi Shimpi 7. Prioritize Cognitive Leverage Platform engineers should prioritize cognitive leverage over just reducing cognitive load. Internal tools should simplify tasks, amplify engineers' thinking and accelerate decision-making by surfacing context, patterns and smart defaults. - Manav Kapoor, Amazon 8. Empower Developers With Low-Dependency Tools The platform engineering team should strive to minimize dependencies on themselves when designing any solutions. It's crucial to empower the development team to use these tools independently and efficiently. - Prasad Banala, Dollar General Corporation 9. Lead With API-Driven Development Platform engineers should prioritize API-driven development over jumping straight into UI when building internal tools. Starting with workflows and backend design helps map data, avoid duplicated requests and reduce long-term tech debt. Though slower up front, this approach creates scalable, reliable tools aligned with actual business processes, not just quick fixes for internal use. - Jae Lee, MBLM 10. Observe Real Workflows Platform engineers should design for the actual job to be done, not just stated feature requests. They should observe how teams work and build tools that streamline those critical paths. The best internal tools solve real workflow bottlenecks, not just surface-level asks from teammates. - Alessa Cross, Ventrilo AI 11. Favor Speed, Flexibility And Usability You have to design like you're building a food truck, not a fine-dining kitchen—fast, flexible and usable by anyone on the move. Internal tools should favor speed over ceremony, with intuitive defaults and minimal setup. If your engineers need a manual just to order fries (or deploy code), you've overdesigned the menu. - Joel Frenette, 12. Ensure Tools Are Clear, Simple And Well-Explained When building internal tools, platform engineers should focus on making them easy and smooth for developers to use. If tools are simple, clear and well-explained, developers can do their work faster and without confusion. This saves time, reduces mistakes and helps the whole team work better. - Jay Krishnan, NAIB IT Consultancy Solutions WLL 13. Embrace User-Centric Design Platform engineers should prioritize user-centric design. They must focus on the needs, workflows and pain points of internal users to create intuitive, efficient tools. This principle ensures adoption, reduces training time and boosts productivity, as tools align with real-world use cases, minimizing friction and maximizing value for developers and teams. - Lori Schafer, Digital Wave Technology 14. Prioritize Developer Experience Internal platforms must prioritize developer experience above all. The best tools feel invisible—engineers use them without friction because interfaces are intuitive, documentation is clear and workflows are streamlined. When developers spend more time fighting your platform than building with it, you've failed your mission. - Anuj Tyagi 15. Bake In Observability Platform engineers should treat internal tools as evolving ecosystems, not static products. A core design principle is observability by default—bake in usage analytics, error tracking and feedback hooks from day one. This ensures tools organically improve over time and are grounded in real-world behavior, not assumptions, creating systems that adapt as teams and needs evolve. - Pawan Anand, Ascendion 16. Leverage Progressive Abstraction Progressive abstraction lets internal platforms scale with developer maturity. Engineers can start with guided, low-friction 'golden paths' for beginners while enabling power users to customize, script or access APIs. This balance avoids tool sprawl, supports growth and keeps platforms inclusive, adaptive and relevant over time. - Anusha Nerella, State Street Corporation 17. Streamline Processes Through Predictable, Intuitive Interfaces Internal tools must streamline processes instead of creating additional obstacles. Focus on clear, intuitive interfaces; fast onboarding with minimal documentation; and solid default settings that include advanced options for experienced users. Build in observability and self-service support, and strive for consistent, predictable behavior. - Saket Chaudhari, TriNet Inc. 18. Design Easy Authentication And Authorization Systems There should be ease of authentication and authorization. When building internal tools, you shouldn't design in silos. You must consider how many clicks it takes for an analyst, mid-call with a client, to launch what they need for troubleshooting. Seamless access, least privilege and contextual authentication aren't just security features—they're reflections of good architecture and thoughtful design. - Santosh Ratna Deepika Addagalla, Trizetto Provider Solutions 19. Engineer For High-Stress, Critical Scenarios A word of advice is to engineer for the worst day, not the average day. Internal tools become critical lifelines during incidents, yet we often design them for sunny-weather scenarios. When a system is melting down at 3 a.m. and the on-call engineer is bleary-eyed, that's when your tool's UX truly matters. Simple interfaces with clear error messages become worth their weight in gold. - Ishaan Agarwal, Square 20. Ensure Users Don't Need Deep Platform Knowledge Design for self-service and extension. Internal tools should empower teams to solve problems without deep platform knowledge. Engineers should hide complexity behind sensible defaults and include clean abstractions that allow extensions and clear documentation. Platforms succeed when others can build confidently without needing to ask for help every time. - Abhishek Shivanna, Nubank
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Youspi Consulting GmbH Launches Strategic Business Workshop Focused on Human-Centered Experience Design
Castle of Lost Magic introduces immersive executive program to redefine corporate strategies through emotional storytelling and user-centered innovation SALZBURG, AUSTRIA / / May 24, 2025 / Youspi Consulting GmbH, an established name in experience strategy and user-centered innovation, announces the official launch of its latest executive workshop format: Castle of Lost Magic. The three-day program is designed to help business leaders, creative directors, and marketing professionals rethink corporate strategies through the lens of human-centered experience design. Youspi Consulting GmbH launches "Castle of Lost Magic," a strategic workshop empowering leaders through emotional storytelling and human-centered design. Taking place in a historic castle setting, the workshop reflects Youspi Consulting GmbH's commitment to integrating strategic planning with emotional impact and storytelling. The initiative marks a significant step in the company's broader mission to transform how organizations engage with their customers in a digitally saturated world. Strategic Shift: From Functionality to Emotional Engagement The workshop emphasizes the growing need for companies to go beyond functional product development. Participants will explore how emotional connection, user empathy, and immersive experience design can shape sustainable business strategies. Through expert-led sessions, attendees will be guided to create impactful narratives and align them with business objectives. Executive Quote on Initiative "Businesses today must create real resonance with their audiences," says Johannes Robier, Founder and CEO of Youspi Consulting GmbH. "With Castle of Lost Magic, we offer a structured yet immersive experience to explore how emotional storytelling and human needs can shape the future of business strategy." Expertise Without Name-Dropping Drawing on over 120 years of combined experience from the workshop's facilitators, the program provides an intensive, real-world toolkit for executives. Rather than relying on case studies from major entertainment brands, the focus lies on actionable insights, strategy development, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Corporate Milestone for Youspi Consulting GmbH The launch of this workshop marks a strategic development for Youspi Consulting GmbH, further solidifying its position as a pioneer in integrating business strategy with user experience. The initiative also reflects the company's growth in the DACH region and its evolving service portfolio in the areas of leadership transformation and innovation consulting. About Youspi Consulting GmbH Youspi Consulting GmbH is an Austrian-based strategy consultancy focused on experience design, user research, and human-centered innovation. The company partners with organizations across industries to craft meaningful and measurable experiences that drive business success. Contact Details youspi Consulting GmbH Johannes Robier+43 664 Company Websitehttps:// SOURCE: Youspi Consulting GmbH View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
