Dialing Up Motivation in a Workplace | YUJ Designs

This article was originally shared on - https://www.yujdesigns.com/dialling-up-motivation-in-a-workplace/

Most of today’s workforce is occupied by millennials. Unfortunately, only 29% of this working class, reports feeling aligned and motivated at work. This is an alarming number! Believe it or not, uninspiring workplaces have a bigger role to play in this situation. That makes it a number one priority for the employers to dial up motivation levels in their workplaces.

Positive employee engagement is the result of a high motivation. Engagement from employees is an emotional involvement. No one can make employees engage with the company. However, leaders can provide for an environment at work that increases the likelihood of higher motivation and employee engagement.

The thumb rule for increased employee engagement is happy employees. It’s no surprise that happier workers are more productive workers. These are some of the tried and tested ways, which world leaders swear by, to create nurturing workplaces.

1. Transformation

Cultural transformation through Individual Growth

Use of goal setting methods to motivate employees. Individual goals that are aligned with the company’s culture and aspirations. Measuring the performance and outcomes basis these individual goals helps in the managers with the bigger picture. When leadership adopts a new point of view backed up by an understanding of how their employees achieve goals, great things become possible.

2. Enable Autonomy

Harnessing Intrinsic Motivation

Even in today’s world, freedom to push the envelope is sought after by employees. When given the choice to select one’s growth path and opportunity to be liberal about the plan, productivity and ambition in employees definitely spikes up. One should actively engage team members to identify and learn skills that align with their personal interests and career goals. And of course – company goals. Tailor made strategies for individuals aiming for long-term impact, should be worked out for the benefit of employees and the company in the long run.

3. Learning is a Bigger Carrot

Harnessing Extrinsic motivation

Design talent is not necessarily motivated by a change in job titles and seniority. Salary raises and promotions are not the best policies for talent retention in a low motivation environment. A mix of these policies depending on the temperament of the employees is important. Role rotations to expose the best and brightest stars to a broader view of the business and the rich learning that comes with it, works. As employees get better and learn more, the business strengthens.

4. Inspire People

People Build Organizations

A crucial step in company’s development is understanding that employees – are the biggest assets of a company. Their well-being and happiness comes first. When companies connect and communicate with the emotions of their employees, the payoffs are huge. Takeaway: Put people, not roles, at the center of the organization. Which will become the foundation for all planning and design of the company’s ecosystem.

5. Recognition & Appreciation

Anything that is Measured can be Improved

Use of goal-setting methods to motivate employees. Individual goals that are aligned with the company’s culture and aspirations. Measuring the performance and outcomes basis these individual goals helps in the managers with the bigger picture. When leadership adopts a new point of view backed up by an understanding of how their employees achieve goals, great things become possible.

“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.” – Pearson’s Law

Enhancing motivation levels across the organization requires deep insights into emotional motivators of employees, analysis of their capabilities, and, above all, a managerial commitment to align with the organization. Emotional motivators that function on pleasure and pain, hope and fear, and social behaviors. It is very important to locate the underlying motivations to trigger desired actions from your employees. Companies that prioritize values, actions and culture have a tendency to outperform. Tapping into the motivation levels of employees helps them perform better even under pressure. YUJ Designs imbibes a similar strategy in the company culture. These strategies are not just useful for UX design studios but also for corporate sector companies.

About:YUJ Designs is one of the top ux design studio in India providing consultancy as well as end-to-end solutions to B2B & B2C Fortune 500 enterprises

How to be the Best Recruit at YUJ Designs

YUJ Designs is a top tier UX design studio working with clients from the world over. We believe we are as good as the talent solving the client’s problems. In order to do that, we handpick talent and work with them to hone their skills in order to facilitate their growth. We believe our success lies in the success of our own employees first. We have articulated some of the basics that a new employee should have in their artillery when joining YUJ.

Before we dive into the list, it is a given for candidates to ensure that the portfolio goes beyond UI mocks/screenshots. It should elaborate on how they have approached the solution by applying UCD methodology. We discuss activities that the candidates ran, artifacts they create, their design management philosophy, processes applied and last but not the least the business results they have achieved. Variety across industries and Interface types become a definite advantage.

To be a part of our design teams an educational background in designing is a must, with a strong foundation. We look for people who can pay close attention to details. They are business ready from day one and can contribute to the company’s growth from initial stages.

1. Culture & Behavioral Fitment

When a new employee joins YUJ, it is essential for the person to align to the values which YUJ Designs endorse. Setting up an example by means of work as well as by their extraordinary skill/s and unique personality feature. Excel at your craft and encourage others to become the same.

2. Impact by Design(ROI)

Our designers create a big impact on the customers’ businesses and for the end-users as well. They help them generate millions and billions of dollars as their revenue. Each designer is an asset to our organization. We take care of our employee’s growth just the same.

3. Alignment with Business Needs

From day one of every project, we expect that each of our employees are aligned with goals of that particular engagement. They are clear about the mission and vision of the customers. Every project you take up, you should work towards adding more value to the project.

4. Design thinking

We follow the design-thinking ideology -Empathize, Define the problem, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. Our design solutions are human-centric. Our designs are aesthetically good and also help users achieve the purpose. We root for designers who are cognitive thinkers.

5. Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the most desirable skill set for a designer. Sorting through the data, using it in a correct direction makes a lot of difference. Critical thinking is goal-oriented. Without a goal it is just overthinking.

Critical Thinking = 1. Observation   2. Analysis   3. Synthesis

6. Innovative thinking

Ideas which are a combination of inspiration and passion for design can solve client’s problems in a unique way. We expect to see at least one example of an innovative solution in the candidate’s portfolio. We always look for the next generation designers within an individual.

7. Fast-paced Work

Our designers work simultaneously on 4 to 5 projects. They are multi-taskers. Everyday our designers do new things on projects without any repetition of work. They learn every day from each experience they go through. Thus, they sail in the sea which is full of opportunities & great learning, insights.

8. Fire-in-the-belly

We work with Fortune 500 clients. Ability to lead hi-end complex large scale B2B/enterprise-level projects is a must. Having ability to resolve frustrations of user’s daily lives. The designer should have an undying passion for making a difference through their designs.

9. Hunger for Growth

Having the correct growth mind-set comes in handy. We believe in the never-give-up attitude. We provide a clear career growth path to all employees, who are equally passionate about self-growth and company’s growth.

10. Interpersonal and Collaborative Skills

We want our designers to be good in analytics, to be empathetic and excellent observers. They should be a good listener primarily. A believer in the power of many, as a larger impact is only achieved through collaboration. Collaboration with internal stakeholders and customers.

Apart from all of these skills and capabilities, understanding her/ his role and contribution towards the team is essential. If you are such an individual or are willing to become one, then always remember this journey of a thousand miles starts with a small step. Connect with us, we enjoy discussing all-things-design.

UX in age of Voice command driven devices

This article was originally shared on - https://www.yujdesigns.com/ux-in-age-of-voice-command-driven-devices/

The last 5 years have seen a huge flux in terms of AI based devices. Today, more and more people are becoming aware of AI technology and its applications. AI has already entered the homes, becoming a part of everyday life. It is the age of voice command driven assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana and Bixby. These are AI systems designed to interact with humans, make our lives smooth and hassle free.

“Alexa, riddle me this!”

The research phase and technology of the voice driven devices took almost two decades. In the past five years, however, giant opportunities have opened up. Everyday we are teaching machines get better in their function. Voice assistants learn and adapt based on the data they gather with numerous interactions with different sets of humans. Their responses can evolve and be built on what we say to them. For instance, navigation apps guide us based on the routes we take. Without tons of data gathered by interactions with humans, the machines would be much dumber.

Let’s cut right to the heart of why talking machines could be useful. This next-generation interaction technology offers us a way out from using devices with complex interfaces. These devices also overcome the barriers of users of using tech products. This way, the technology allows the user to interact with the machines in a natural way, just like how one would interact with another human. We teach our machines every day. Voice assistants learn how to talk to us based on what we say to them. Navigation apps guide us based on the routes we take. Without millions of teachers like you, our machines would be much dumber.

IBM estimates that 90% of the data created by humans has been generated in the past two years alone.

https://becominghuman.ai/the-voice-based-ai-trends-for-2019-b13a2bb44e54

A Rise in the Opportunities, in India –

Over 90% of the current digital voice assistants in India only work with English creating usage problems vernacular language users.

The Biggest Challenge:

On this day one of the biggest challenges voice technology is facing is – Human Language. One of the world’s biggest and complex data sets. The reason why understanding language is so difficult for machines is that, the meaning of words changes based on context and even the appearance of the letters and words. Sometimes, the spelling remains the same but, means and refers to different actions when changed its context. Languages rely on a lot of knowledge about how it works and on common-sense about the world. Those two factors blend in subtle ways.

Role of UX

You must be is familiar with Jakob Nielsen’s general principles for interaction design, called “heuristics”. Broad thumb rules for evaluating the efficiency of a product. Let’s apply these principles to voice driven technologies like – Alexa used in a B2C scenario to understand how much UX can add value to accelerate the success of the voice revolution.

1. Help Users Make Sense of the Technology

As the complexity of real world interaction is difficult to predict, the error messages should be easily understandable and should provide a constructive solution.

A grandmother attempting to interact with Google - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2R0NSKtVA0

2. Users should get Complete Control

Users often stumble upon different functions that they don’t intend to use. This is a scenario where they should be given a clear exit action/ message. It is important to avoid overwhelming the users with the information and too many choices.

3. Flexibility and Efficiency of Use

The device should use accelerators for the frequent users in the messages. At the same time, new users should not feel out of place. Use confirmation messages selectively. Use of reprompting to guide the users.

An illustrated example of how Alexa can understand commands in different manners - https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608571/alexa-understand-me/

“Alexa, show me the future!”

Voice AI is still in the nascent stage and a lot of research is still underway to make sense of this technology. Envisioning the market share this technology is about to capture, more and more companies should make it their aim to enter the segment and make use of the first-mover advantage. To stay ahead, business owners, strategists and marketers should experiment with the technology for their brand to transition seamlessly when the voice revolution takes over completely.

About:
YUJ Designs is one of the top ux design studio in India providing consultancy as well as end-to-end solutions to B2B & B2C Fortune 500 enterprises.

What is User Experience (UX) Design

This article was originally shared on - https://www.yujdesigns.com/what-is-user-experience-ux-design/

Do you want to know what user experience (UX) design is?

To know about it in detail, read the entire article. But before going into what is UX, we will discuss about what UX is NOT: 

• UX is not a tool
• UX is not an art
• UX and UI are not similar
• UX is not magic
• UX cannot be an afterthought

Most of the people understand UX as something that can be later thought. But, this is not what UX is. 

Now since we have broken some myths about UX, let's discuss what UX really is.

What Is User Experience (UX) Design?

User experience design has many facets. It is a larger umbrella, which covers interaction design, user research, graphic design, visual design and much more. But at the core of it is a data-driven scientific process. UX is about human psychology, which is about how your brain perceives information and how your brain understands information. All of these depend on your limitations and abilities as human beings, which is what makes user experience a scientific process.

“UX is all about the fact that business goals should be met by meeting the user needs.”

User Research

Most of the people believe that user research is the only center of user experience, but it is not true in every case. Some clients might have confidential projects where they cannot give access to users while some clients might not have budget for user research. What do you do then?  There are multiple sources of data, which will help validate your ideas or concepts. These sources can be google, finding users on your own and meeting a subject matter expert. Once you get the data,  the question arises - how can you utilize it? These data is going to draw a pattern, which you must learn to pick. That’s where UX is extremely data driven.

Finding Business Problems

Now the core of user experience is marrying business goals and user needs. 

Imagine a client demands, “We want to increase our ROI by 20%.” But how do you do that? In such cases, as user experience designer, when you talk to your clients asking them the business problem, you will realize that it is actually not the real problem. If you talk to them more and try to understand more about their business, you will find that the underline core problems are very different from just increasing the ROI. That’s when you realize that if you solve these problems, ROI will increase.

How To Solve User Problems?

Now the next question is - how do you solve user problems? You can go to the users and understand their problem, their challenges and their feelings towards a certain product. When you solve problems of certain set of users for the specific business, the problems which are underlined due to which ROI was not increasing are solved. This is where great user experience really happens. 

Suppose, a client comes up with a million dollar idea and asks how to make it a success. Once you learn that their idea at the concept level is strong, then the execution is important. It requires understanding of client’s idea and current domain as well as understanding from parallel domains. From this entire process, a large amount of data can be gathered. These data give opportunities and the new ideas would be the USP of your business.

Impact Of User Experience

As user experience designer, it is important to find opportunities based on the process, data gathered and understanding of business goals and user needs. A good user experience design can create impact in the industry only through this process. Design practitioners and people who expect from a UX design company like us to provide this service are both ill-educated about user experience. This is where the gap brings in and simple understanding of UX becomes complicated. Most people look at UX as a short-term solution, which is just making things pretty. Pretty designs don’t create impact, but the experience by using those designs creates an impact.

For example, parents want to arrange a grand birthday party of their 5-year-old kid. Here, the event manager will ask the parents, “Which cartoons, foodstuffs, cake, etc. your kid like?” This is where s/he has started understanding the kid (user) for whom s/he is designing and is also validating with the parents (business) who are going to pay the money. Finally, the event manager will come up with a concept, which is taking care of the finances of the parent and also providing the experience that the child wants to have. This is how user experience can have impact on every project and every business. 

Closing Thoughts

User experience starts with user research, then finding business problems, solving these problems and ends with creating impact by the UX design. UX is not about making things pretty or the way user is going to do something short term. Whereas, it is about building long-term relationship with your customers that helps in increasing your ROI.

About:YUJ Designs is one of the top ux design studio in India providing consultancy as well as end-to-end solutions to B2B & B2C Fortune 500 enterprises.

How Behavior influences Design?

This article was originally shared on - https://www.yujdesigns.com/how-behavior-influences-design/

Designers work towards understanding the human behavior and intentionally design experiences that would drive the desired outcome. You may not be aware of it as you roam around a Dorabjee’s store or a shopping mall, but every aspect of the experience has been designed such that you end up buying at least two objects you did not come to buy. These stores are designed to maximize the amount of money you will spend when you walk out of the store. This is intentional design at its best, weaving purpose and experience by assessing the user’s behavior and tendencies in detail. These experiences shape our perceptions of the environment, the brand. Designers capitalize on user’s biases, memories and craft a deep sensory experience for the user.

It is amazing how our brain operates on the information that is made available to us. We interpret this information and build our own perceptions. For instance, if someone mentions – Sneha brings her dog to the workplace. There are multiple possibilities of perceptions depending on the person that possesses this information. Some people might operate from a sense of fear and visualize the workplace to be a haphazard place, where employees won’t be able to concentrate on work. Not a productive workplace and would opt against it. Whereas, some people might say this is hardly a fearful situation. In fact, a pet-friendly environment is a welcome change!

Understanding Human Behaviour

The concept of understanding a person and her/ his behavior is similar to an iceberg. We only see the tip. Usually unaware of the large mass that lies below the surface of water. A person randomly chooses a red fire emoji to enhance the Instagram post. One might say the person belongs to a more fiery personality, hence the choice. Though, there’s a lot more to a person’s choices, as simple as these, than what meets the eye. The behavior and motivations underneath the surface are the ones that need to be considered to understand the user’s choices. When doing user research, we set out to understand human beings. It is very important to look what’s underneath the surface. One should utilize this knowledge and dig deep into what drives certain user behavior.

Understanding the mind of the consumer/ user

The Theory of Human Motivation

Abraham Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs was introduced in the groundbreaking 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. The theories of the American psychologist continue to be widely adopted as an explanation for human motivation and personality.

https://crm.org/articles/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs

Human beings by nature make assumptions very quickly. Designers need to understand users’ needs and desires, their motivation, what drives them. Only after studying these nuances, can a designer build successful products that are human-centered and effective. There are 3 chief aspects one should consider while studying user behavior.

1. Perceptions

They bring together a person’s past experiences with her/ his current context. They cloud the person’s judgement and world view. Let’s take an example of Uber. Everyone has experienced the surge prices when booking a ride.

The primary emotional response that the user has is a feeling of frustration, deception. The user had a certain expectation from the cab service, though when surge charges apply, a negative emotional reaction emerges. A person in this scenario would quickly assume the cab service company to be an unfair one. Whereas, all that the company is trying to do is drive revenue by making the most of the peak time. This is how perceptions are built. These perceptions lead the customer to follow or unfollow a brand.

2. Attention

Attention is shaped by context and intensity of the stimuli. There are three types.

• Selective Attention. Picking up information based on convenience.
• Divided Attention. Responding to multiple simultaneous tasks.
• Sustained Attention. Vigilance developed over time. Working Memory.

Design thinking starts with empathy. And designing products that are fit for the user’s attention spans are a necessity for the companies. For instance, in this world of short attention span, autoplay videos, disappearing stories are programmed to achieve the same goal – that the user should either stay longer or keep coming back to it as many times as possible.

The right term for these behavior sensitive designs is dopamine loops. Dopamine starts you to seek, get rewarded for the seeking which makes you seek more. This is called Instant Gratification where everything we want is a click away. It becomes harder to stop looking at or stop browsing through apps. Classic examples are email notifications, texting or even checking the phone to see if you have a message or a new text. The flipside to this emerging behavior, is illustrated below.

A humorous take on the emerging human behaviors

3. Decision Making

We know by now that the choices a consumer makes are a result of her/ his past experiences, pre-formed biases, motivation drivers among other reasons. Decision making of users is impressionable. A well-thought of design of a product can influence the user to make the purchase. Design has a critical impact on user decision.

Hence, it is crucial to work on evidence-based design for your products. Think about different scenarios in which the target audience might perform the desired behavior. Identify the positive deviants. Work towards persuading the user. Here are some psychological patterns that can help with the design strategy:

• Enabling. Enable the desired behavior by making it easier than the alternatives.
• Motivating. Motivate the behavior using incentives.

In conlusion, to design a successful product a designer should listen, empathize and engage.

About:
YUJ Designs is one of the top ux design studio in India providing consultancy as well as end-to-end solutions to B2B & B2C Fortune 500 enterprises