UX Appetizer & User-centered UI Design
At Code Factory we believe that the user’s perspective is just as important as the product and business itself. That’s why we have “Curiosity” - a multi-method staffed team concentrating on user research and user centricity, ensuring that the customers’ needs are valued and considered whenever new products and features are being developed. CoFa’s “Curiosity” Research- and Design- Teams share their knowledge via UX Academy seminars to embrace user centricity 🛸
written by
Nina Schwarz, Trainee at DKB AG
Veronika Villain, Research Manager
Amelie Stavrakakis, Senior UX/UI Designer
What is the UX Academy at Cofa?
In addition to conducting user research through qualitative and quantitative methods, Curiosity has introduced the UX Academy some years ago to offer trainings for DKB employees and Code Factory product teams. The aim is to convey essential UX research knowledge and practice-oriented skills to increase user centricity as a basis for decision making within the whole DKB cosmos.
Fancy an Appetizer for User Research and UX/UI Design? 🥪
Recently, Curiosity has partnered with the “UX/UI Design” chapter to offer an introductory training about UX/UI basics, consisting of a user research part and a user design part. In January the two Code Factory chapters conducted this combined training for the first time with the DKB fraud analytics team, who wanted to expand their knowledge of how to bring a more user-centric perspective to their own tasks and projects. As DKB understands its internal employees as users as well, the fraud analytics team followed the training based on one of their own use cases: optimizing its tool for prioritizing and processing fraud incidents.
Tell me more about User Research 🔎
In the UX research part of the combined training, the participants were introduced to various UX methods that can support the development, review and optimization of existing and new banking products. They learned which UX questions are relevant, how to deal with these questions and how to select the right research method for their own use case. Some of the questions that were answered during the first part were: When is UX research appropriate? How can UX research be meaningfully integrated into project planning? Which methods are best suited for this? Thereby, essential UX research basics have been conveyed, potentially contributing to increased user centricity within the fraud analytics team and hence, increased attractiveness and use of products in the long term.
Tell me more about UX/UI Design 🎨
This was followed by the second part of the training. The UX/UI design part presented the basics of a design system and how it is used in current DKB and Code Factory projects. Participants learned what advantages a design system brings and what they should pay attention to when designing. Furthermore, they received an introduction to prototyping, wireframing, layout and composition as well as important checklists for using individual components. Several questions were answered such as: What makes a user-friendly product? Which methods and tools can I use? What should I pay attention to when designing? This part of the training served as a concise guide to the fundamentals of user centered design. As technology evolves, the importance of user centered design in crafting meaningful and user-friendly experiences is set to grow. By participating, the fraud analytics team not only gained expertise, but also invested in designing a future where users truly matter.
Yes, multiplication of knowledge actually works! 📣”
All in all, the first edition of the combined introductory seminar into UX/UI research and design was a complete success, and the two chapters were able to teach the fraud analytics team important methods to use in advance of optimizing their fraud incident tool. The participants embarked on a journey exploring the core principles of UX research and suitable qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as visual hierarchy, accessibility, and design basics such as UI components and layout. They gained insight into how we handle complex projects and develop them into user-centric products.
We are pleased to see that interest in the topic of user-centricity is growing. The Curiosity UX Academy once again proves to be a target-oriented tool for multiplying knowledge within DKB and Code Factory and for increasing the overall reach of user-centric research and design.
