How you can improve the user experience with ServiceNow

Experience matters! Especially the user experience. 

“Of the user, by the user, for the user” has become the motto of good user experience design. But it’s not just consumer UX that’s important. Enterprise UX is all set to have its day in the sun as ServiceNow focuses on UX across the entire product ecosystem.

But it is difficult to ascertain where to improve the experience that will have a direct impact on productivity.  

There are a few areas and techniques through which the user experience can be enhanced. We’ve identified three essentials that successful ServiceNow customers use to guide their investments in the user experience. 

Essential #1: Focus on the user’s needs

The biggest challenge with most approaches to UX is designing the perfect experience without considering the needs of the user. If you are designing an experience that fits your users’ needs, you need to have a clear understanding of what exactly they need. 

There is a basic set of questions you need to answer to understand user needs, including:

• Who are your users, and what outcomes do they expect – less time on tasks, lower error rates.
• What triggers their need? And what process or workflow do they follow?
• Are there any risks associated with the usage?
• What would be the ideal experience for the user? 

A great way to capture user needs is by creating “user personas,” which are profiles of a typical user. The process of creating user personas typically includes conducting quantitative research (i.e., questionnaires, usage data), interviewing small groups of users, identifying user patterns, and creating personas. Once created, it will help you gather answers to most of the questions mentioned above. 

Essential #2: Involve users in the design process

There is no point in keeping your users separate from your design process. Instead, involve them from start to finish by making it an iterative and collaborative effort. Rather than only seeking feedback after the design is complete, engage users throughout the process to ideate on flow designs and experiment with solutions using mock-ups. 

Begin by co-designing with a small, representative group of user types and take opportunities to involve users in design activities such as reviewing and prioritizing requirements through card-sorting exercises. Use paper and sticky notes to co-design wireframes and avoid any pre-existing biases about the experience flow. Also, involve users in co-designing the UI’s look and feel by creating the experience in chunks or use cases for users to experiment with and provide real-time feedback.

Fig 1: An attractive ServiceNow dashboard created by Team InfoBeans

Essential #3: Distinguish process concerns from design elements 

Not all challenges in the user experience originate from design or can be remedied by design enhancements. Occasionally, it is the workflow or process that requires reevaluation. Collaborate with process owners to ascertain if known issues can be addressed through process modification. Some customers have enhanced their UX by merely assigning an activity owner or raising awareness of an underutilized feature.

Start by mapping the current “as-is” process and using the process of elimination to pinpoint where workflow or process glitches are affecting the user experience.

End-users should always come first. Simplicity and usability are two major UX principles for a successful ServiceNow implementation. Consumerizing enterprise software is another significant trend.

We hope that these techniques will help you make your ServiceNow platform more attractive, effortless, and convenient for your users. And if you need someone to take a professional look at your service portal with a quality audit and some proposals for changes – contact us here.