Measurement-driven Design Thinking: Industrial Engineers and UX Strategy

Abstract

For years, parallels between industrial engineering and user experience (UX) strategy have silently existed when applying human-centered design thinking in product development. UX Design teams have struggled to measure their operational impact directly beyond user satisfaction, usability studies, or conversion rates. For UX designers, some analysis techniques used within industrial engineering have gone silent as they are unknown or perceived as overly technical and mathematical to be included in a creative role. However, if we view experience design as simply a design of a workflow, a career in user experience (UX) design, traditionally not considered for industrial engineers, suddenly transforms into a viable discipline for work design expertise. To better engineer UX strategy models that show influence on overarching organization business model metrics, merging some industrial engineering concepts into the design thinking process can aid leadership in seeing clear ties and impacts. Techniques associated with measuring workflow productivity and activity-based costing ideas, for example, can demonstrate the operational expense savings that UX solutions provide and facilitate a more informed and connected UX strategy model that has not been previously available to design practitioners. This study perspective concludes that altering the design thinking model with industrial engineering elements can transform the UX value proposition and increase career opportunities and the body of knowledge for industrial engineering in user experience design and research.