October 20158 logisticstechoutlook.comMaking Users Want Your Product: The Importance of UX in Logistics TechnologyBy Molly Muir, Executive Director of Strategic Shared Services, BDP InternationalAny time we can create technology products that users can adopt easily, it makes a difference to our bottom lineWhen I unwrapped my yellow Prodigy license in college, I could not have imagined that by the year 2015 a computer on my wrist would display a text message, remind me that I have a meeting (and that I should be standing for that meeting!), and help me ship presents to my friends all over the world. There are complex technology innovations behind all these developments, but what makes individuals and corporations embrace new technologies is that they work intuitively.Successful adoption of new technologies, in logistics and in almost all other industries, depends on an intentional emphasis on user experience (UX). What does this mean for CIOs and other senior tech leaders? The UX team must be as foundational as any other part of your technology and design team. They are the partners of your architects and developers; without them, building a tool that users will gravitate to will never be realized. At BDP, our UX/UI team is an integral part of all application development work. As we design new products and update existing platforms for our existing customers, our UX designers look towards the future use of the products and how they can ensure the product becomes immersed in the users' lives. Does it empower the user to do more? Are the interactions intuitive and innovative? If the answer is no, our developers continue working on the design. Including a UX team from the beginning of the development process is a change for most tech shops, including those at logistics companies. In the recent past of software design, considering how users interacted within the product was an afterthought. The tool was coded, all the functionality was built, then designers were brought in to say this is how the tool should look--if this happened at all. Coding in isolation sometimes meant that millions of dollars were spent developing products that were never adopted. Tools built this way may have had robust functionality, but Molly MuirOpinionIn my
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