Crafting User-Friendly Experiences with UX Methods and Now Create

[e__roman_bercot]

I had the incredible opportunity to lead a workshop on harnessing UX methods within Now Create to develop top-notch ServiceNow solutions. What's the main takeaway? Investing in user experience (UX) is super important if you're aiming for better outcomes for both the business and your users.

 

Why UX Matters

Like a fine designer suit, ServiceNow products are fantastic out of the box but truly shine when tailored to fit an organization's unique needs. And the key to getting that perfect fit is deeply understanding your users.

By focusing on crafting excellent user experiences, you can realize tangible benefits like:

• Happier, more productive employees
• More efficient workflows
• Faster time-to-value for ServiceNow implementations

 

Leveraging Now Create

ServiceNow's Now Create resources, born from the learnings of over 7,000 implementations across 50+ countries, provides a proven, step-by-step approach to achieving your ServiceNow goals. Now Create Success Packs include:

• Tailored guidance for specific outcomes
• Best practices, templates, and tools
• Workshop activities to engage stakeholders
• UX assets to ensure user-centric design

These resources empower teams to deliver exceptional employee experiences while working seamlessly alongside existing methodologies.

 

UX Methods Anyone Can Use

In our workshop, attendees got hands-on experience with fundamental UX techniques that any team can employ:

 

User Interviews

User interviews are a qualitative research method to gather insights directly from potential or existing users. They provide invaluable first-hand feedback that leads to better product decisions, improved user experiences, and solutions that resonate with the target audience.

Tips for compelling user interviews:

• Ask open-ended questions using "how" and "why" to encourage detailed responses and uncover underlying motivations
• Focus on current state behaviors and desired outcomes rather than asking users to speculate about future actions

Empathy Mapping

An empathy map is a tool that helps design teams empathize with the people they are designing for. It distills research findings and creates a shared understanding of user needs to guide decision-making.

An empathy map captures what the user is:

• Thinking: Thoughts, motivations, and what's going through their mind
• Feeling: Emotions behind their actions, sources of delight or frustration
• Saying: Exact words and phrases used
• Doing: Actual actions, behaviors, habits, and routines (rather than how it's "supposed" to be done)

Note and Vote (Brainstorming)

The Note and Vote activity brainstorms potential solutions to the target user's problems. Benefits include:

• Equal participation, allowing everyone to contribute
• It avoids groupthink by having participants think independently first
• A democratic process where all ideas are captured anonymously
• Easy organization of ideas for further analysis

The activity has three parts:

1. Post-up: Participants write ideas on sticky notes and share them out loud
2. Affinity mapping: Similar ideas are silently grouped together
3. Dot voting: Participants vote on their favorite ideas using dot stickers

Wireframe Sketching

Wireframe sketching allows teams to quickly prototype early samples or models of proposed solutions to test ideas, design assumptions, and other aspects of the concept. By prototyping and testing ideas early and often, assumptions can be validated, issues uncovered, and solutions created that genuinely meet user needs. The key is to work at the minimum fidelity required to validate the concept to reduce risk, contain cost, and maximize learning.

The Crazy 8s activity challenges participants to rapidly sketch eight variations of their top ideas in just 8 minutes. This could be 8 takes on the same concept or a sequence of sketches showing the user flow.

Whether designing an employee portal, streamlining a workflow, or implementing a new ServiceNow product, these activities will help ensure your solution is grounded in user insights.

 

Start with Empathy

The most impactful solutions come from a deep empathy for and understanding of your users. Before jumping into creating, engage with the people you’re serving to learn about their experiences, unmet needs, and desired outcomes.

ServiceNow's Now Create success packs put these user insights at the heart of the design process so that the end solution will delight employees and deliver the business results you're seeking. By leveraging UX methods and the Now Create Success Packs, you'll be well on your way to ServiceNow success.