Human First is my Development Philosophy
In today’s digital, interactive world, a strategic shift is unavoidable: away from pure product sales, toward the experience with the product (User Experience, or UX) and the company around it (Customer Experience, or CX). If your customers are meant to fall in love with your product, I help you fall in love with your customers first.
The focus of Human First, as implied by the philosophy of the *X Experience-centered Cycle, is on customers/users and their experiences. This way of thinking and acting puts the users of interactive systems at the center of every design, development, and strategy decision.
An effective *X Experience-centered Cycle requires direct communication with customers and users throughout the entire product development process, to ensure that the product and its support are as closely aligned as possible with their needs. This guarantees the best possible experiences across the entire customer lifecycle.
Therefore, a deep understanding of your customers/users is needed, which can be gained through user research in the analysis phase. Human First is about developing your product from the perspective of how it will be understood and used by your users rather than making them adapt their behaviors to use your product. Thus, the development/improvement of all supporting services for your customers/users need to go hand in hand with the development of your product for coherent experiences of your customers/users.
2. Strong commitment from the whole company
Every department needs to be involved in and committed to the development process, i.e., everyone shares a common goal and supports each other. Ideally, your company has a CX and UX strategy, i.e., a way of thinking that your employees understand and live. It is important that all major stakeholders in the company are involved and contribute in the process by performing their tasks and duties.
3. Better fail fast and often
Early user feedback and iterative development help to fail faster (i.e. find problems/errors) and save costs later on. It is well known that the longer it takes for a problem to appear, the longer it takes to fix it and the greater the costs are. Therefore, only if all departments work closely together solutions can be found and changes can be made quickly.
CX and UX are two of the most important success factors of your products: The experiences of your customers and users determine if and how long a user interacts with your products or immediately stops using them. This not only affects the current usage, but also the brand perception and recommendation of the products. In order to ensure that your customers/users make positive experiences with your products, you should implement Human First as a strategy in your company.
Together we get to know stakeholders and users, their needs, problems, and motivations, so that every further product decision puts humans at the center.
2. Develop a Vision
We connect your business goals with what truly matters to your target audience, creating mutual value from the very start.
3. Design with Empathy
We shape every interaction, flow, and feature around the seven facets of Peter Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb model: useful, usable, desirable, findable, accessible, credible, and valuable. The result: experiences that are intuitive, inclusive, and meaningful.
4. Build for Humans, not Technology
We select and implement technologies that improve the user experience, ones that are scalable, reliable, and seamless for humans.
5. Continuously optimize
We gather insights from real user behavior to continuously refine, adapt, and evolve your product, keeping it relevant, valuable, and impactful over time.
Want to learn more about Human First?
Please send me an email, and we’ll set up an initial conversation. I’m also happy to come to you, run a training session with your team, and then support you with implementation and integration within your company.
Client Feedback
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CEO | Rail & Sea
Rail&Sea, specialized in rail logistics, is facing the challenge of digital transformation. Christiane supports us in developing our own Transport Management System, from conception through to detailed implementation. Her background in computer science and her specialization in UX design are extremely valuable to us. Without her know-how and dedication, our project would not be possible to realize.
Jonathan Sivak
VP Product – Product & Development | Metaloop
Christiane helped us take our product and user experience to the next level. She developed key features and supported us in establishing a more structured design process within our team and across the entire company. Through her coaching and mentoring as a UX expert, the product team was able to continuously improve and benefit from her knowledge. As a counterpart to the challenges in the metal recycling industry, we’re very glad to have her on board for our mission.
Client Feedback
Robert Greisberger
CEO | Rail & Sea
Rail&Sea, specialized in rail logistics, is facing the challenge of digital transformation. Christiane supports us in developing our own Transport Management System, from conception through to detailed implementation. Her background in computer science and her specialization in UX design are extremely valuable to us. Without her know-how and dedication, our project would not be possible to realize.
Jonathan Sivak
VP Product – Product & Development | Metaloop
Christiane helped us take our product and user experience to the next level. She developed key features and supported us in establishing a more structured design process within our team and across the entire company. Through her coaching and mentoring as a UX expert, the product team was able to continuously improve and benefit from her knowledge. As a counterpart to the challenges in the metal recycling industry, we’re very glad to have her on board for our mission.
Method Portfolio
Analysis
The goal is to 1) identify the people who will use the product (i.e., the users), 2) what they will use it for (i.e., the tasks), and 3) under what conditions they will use it (i.e., the context).
- User Workshops
- Interviews/ Questionnaires
- Contextual Inquiry
- Ethnography
- Competitor Analysis
- Value Chain Analysis
- Customer Support Data Analysis
- Customer Journey Map
- Customer Lifecycle
- User Workshops
- Interviews/ Questionnaires
- Contextual Inquiry
- Probes/Diary Study
- Ethnography
- Walk-a-mile Immersion
- Observations/ Shadowing
- Competitive Analysis
- Content Audit/Task Analysis
- Trend Analysis
- Customer Support Data Analysis
- Literature Review
Concept
The goal is to define 1) the goal & problem statement, 2) the users (i.e., personas), 3) user flows, and 4) the minimum viable product (MVP), as well as derive requirements.
- Product Experience Canvas
- Problem/Goal Definition
- Customer Experience Map
- Customer Experience Statements/Goals
- (Proto) Personas
- Ideation
- Minimum Viable Support Product
- Product Experience Canvas
- Problem/Goal Definition
- Jobs to be Done
- (Proto) Personas
- User Flows
- User Stories
- Empathy Map
- User Journey Map
- Body Storming
- Open Innovation
- Ideation
- Concept Map
- Minimum Viable Product
Design
The goal is to define 1) task flows, 2) wireframes, 3) design language, and 4) mockups.
- Card Sorting
- Storyboarding
- Co-Design
- Service Flows
- Design Documentation/ Language
- Sketching
- Information Architecture
- Card Sorting
- Storyboarding
- Task Flows
- Co-Design
- Low-fidelity Prototyping
- Design Documentation/ Language
Prototyping
The goal is 1) to create testable prototypes and 2) to finalize the design language and mockups.
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- Mid-fidelity Prototyping
- High-fidelity Prototyping
- Design Patterns/ Heuristics
- Design Documentation/ Language
Implementation
The goal is to define 1) best practices, 2) heuristics, and 3) to document development decisions.
- Design Patterns/ Heuristics
- Design Documentation/ Language
- Design Patterns/ Heuristics
- Design Documentation/ Language
Evaluation
The goal is to enable 1) early user feedback and 2) an iterative product development which saves time and money.
- Workshops
- Preference Test
- Five Second Test
- Expert Studies
- (Remote) User Studies
- Workshops
- Concept Test
- Preference Test
- Paper Prototyping Test
- Five Second Test
- Expert Studies
- (Remote) User Studies
- A/B Test
- Click-Stream Analysis
- Experience Sampling