Welcome to our first series in what we're calling our Tech and Design roundup.
The goal of our series is, on a monthly basis to filter all of the research and news we read here at Tennis into a relevant succinct summary to help support you with some 3rd party, real-world resources, and examples.
Citibank's 500M dollar UI mistake.
A federal judge ruled that Citibank isn't entitled to the 500M it sent to various creditors last Aug.
Great User Interface design should be seamless and frictionless. Guiding users through a website and or process without them even realizing how easy it was to use. In the case of Citibank (screencap below), the User Interface design was so poor, that it passed through 3 approval stages with each employee making the exact same mistake.
There are some great lessons here not only in the real effects of User Interface design but also process workflows and remote workforce management.
Screencap of the menu where the mistake was made.
"The subcontractor thought that checking the "principal" checkbox and entering the number of a Citibank wash account would ensure that the principal payment would stay at Citibank. He was wrong. To prevent payment of the principal, the subcontractor actually needed to set the "front" and "fund" fields to the wash account as well as "principal." The subcontractor didn't do that."
The Business Value of Design.
How do the best design performers increase their revenues and shareholder returns at nearly twice the rate of their industry counterparts?
Design and User Experience continue to be a huge differentiator (think Wealthsimple). McKinsey tracked the design practice of nearly 300 publicly listed companies over 5 years across industries and countries and came up with what they call the McKinsey Design Index.
MDI rates how strong companies are at design and how that connects to the financial performance of each company. This article has a tonne of fascinating insights in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of these organizations, along with performance and qualitative data about where these CEO's think they are strong or weak from a design practice standpoint.
Adapting Customer Experience in the Time of Coronavirus
Care, creative thinking, and new tools can address customers’ acute needs today and forge stronger ties in the post-COVID-19 era.
As technology brings brand and customer experience closer and closer good CX can trigger long-lasting effects in your customer segment. COVID has created forces that rapidly and frequently change customer experience especially in segments like retail and for those companies not prepared to switch over to digital.
McKinsey has identified 4 Customer Experience practices to prepare and propel companies post covid.
1.Focusing on care and connection
2. Meeting customers where they are today
3. Reimagining CX for a post-COVID-19 world
4. Building capabilities for a fast-changing environment
What are the Real Opportunity Costs of Your Project?
There are two ways to lose money on any given project.
This practical guide looks specifically at the opportunity cost of taking on any specific project and how to actually quantify that cost.
When you take on a new project the opportunity cost we're talking about here is really your trade-off and the value of that trade-off.
Techniques like:
- Value Ranges
- Difficulty to Realize
- Time to Realize
- Costs to Realize Value
Are all useful tools in our toolbelt for accurate and data-driven decision-making.
Thanks for reading some of the concepts and ideas we have been exploring. As usual, at the end of each month, we continue to round up some 3rd party resources and research and look forward to continued sharing.
