In this fast moving world, where everyone wants access to everything at the click of a button, people depend majorly on the Internet. Though various portals are available across the Web, what makes a particular website stand out from the rest is the user experience. To help make this experience more convenient and enjoyable, SpadeWorx has introduced a new concept called UCSE (User Centered Software Engineering) in the Indian software industry. Biztech2.com finds out more about UCSE from Mandar Bhagwat, Co-Founder and Director, Products and Services, SpadeWorx Software Services.

Please explain the UCSE concept.

UCSE is a methodology focusing on developing adaptable and usable software. This new style encompasses contextual experience, usability and rich interactivity. It enables enterprises and businesses to include user-groups in developing business solutions, as against the traditional approach where business problems were identified in boardrooms, the solutions were thought algorithmically and were flavoured technically. Additionally, it reduces re-work and total cost of development, which is the case when users are not comfortable using a particular software/ application.

Why should a company adopt UCSE?

UCSE enables making of software that is more natural, more connected, more alive, more interactive, and more responsive. It enables increased end-user productivity. This could be in case of end-customers visiting company portals to look for information or it could be a commerce portal.

How to approach UCSE?

Companies don’t need to own any specialised skills or capabilities to design and develop user-centered products. The first step while approaching UCSE is to understand the business goals and objectives, which includes target market, intended users and competition. Understanding users opens up newer avenues and their feedback plays an important role in product planning, prioritising, and decision-making.

How does UCSE help in designing and developing effective Intranet portals?

Today, what you see is what you get works no more, rather it is about the way you use it, so how you use is what you get. Everything the customer sees, hears, and touches should be designed by specialists, right from textures to colour palettes to iconography, and everything from look and feel to ease of use should reflect in the experience that the customer expects.

Many organisations attempt to use Intranet portals to help their employees collaborate and share knowledge more effectively, but few achieve a level of success that matches their initial expectations. With UCSE, one can develop rich, interactive Intranet solutions that allow unleashing of full potential of the Intranet. The focus on usability leads to compelling user experiences and higher adoption levels. The intuitive and expressive document exchange interface, integration of rich components and addition of Web 2.0 features lead to enhanced branding and higher levels of employee collaboration and productivity.

What are the myths and challenges attached with UCSE?

Widely perceived myths are that UCSE is just beautification and restructuring of the interface, whereas the reality of this approach is far more intriguing and cognitive in nature. The systems are engineered in such a manner that they profile user behaviour and become self-learning to fetch events and data depending on the user’s usage patterns. This makes it easier for end-users to adapt to the solutions faster than before.

How well is the concept working in India?

The enterprise user exposed to rich and interactive experiences on the Web now expects the same even with business applications. Indian organisations have realised that focusing on usability and user experience provides rich business returns in terms of higher efficiencies and productivity. These factors are driving the growth of UCSE in the Indian enterprise. In the software products space, user experience is increasingly emerging as a strategic differentiator and a key competitive advantage for organisations.

What kind of benefits will a CIO reap from UCSE?

Market studies show that 80 percent of the total maintenance costs are related to user’s problems with the systems and not technical bugs. A CIO will see benefits like increased user satisfaction and adoption, reduction of user errors, decreased dependency on support systems such as helpdesk, user manuals, or online help, and hence, decreased support and training costs.

In case of software companies, the key benefits are increased sales, reduction of customer support costs, early changes incorporated during design life cycle that would result in saving of product rework development costs as well as reduced costs in user training.

Could you please cite examples of companies where this concept has been put into practice and what are the results?

SpadeWorx has implemented UCSE-focused solutions across different industry segments. One example is the Mahindra Group, which was facing a challenge in terms of usability and popularity of their existing corporate Intranet. The adoption levels were low and users had to spend a high amount of time finding relevant information. SpadeWorx developed a portal using the UCSE methodology, which resulted in increased adoption and usage, higher business productivity as well as helped foster a culture of innovation and oneness within the organisation. Some other companies, which have adopted UCSE include College of Agricultural Banking (CAB), Motilal Oswal, Microsoft and HP.