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Client Testimonial:
"HumanLogic rapidly translated our still-in-process business strategy
into a conceptual customer experience prototype that helped us sell our
concept to our first customers. They took a complex product and crafted
a simple, elegant user experience for a range of our target users."
The Challenge: Create a Killer User Experience
Demo for Investors and Customers
Gold Wire Technology Inc. is a software
company providing software to control and manage configuration of Internet
services for large Internet Service Providers. Gold Wire Technology’s
"Thunderball" family of products helps network operations groups
configure and provision IP network services in a secure, controlled, audited
fashion. Service providers benefit from less customer downtime, more efficient
customer service, better customer retention, and the ability to bill customers
for configuration changes. Gold
Wire Technology products simplify configuration management for data communication
providers in two ways. During initial customer setup, they translate product
packages that the customer requests into specific network configuration
changes. During ongoing operations, the products are used to directly
configure routers, firewalls, DNS servers, email servers, and servers
for Web hosting.
HumanLogic worked with Gold Wire Technology
to develop a conceptual demo of the Thunderball product user experience
for use as a "talking piece" with investors and potential customers.
Previously, company founders had no easy-to-communicate, visual representation
of their product: they relied on textual descriptions from their business
plan to communicate the customer experience. This demo overcame the challenge
of trying to articulate the customer experience to customers and investors
in a way that quickly communicated the value of the Thunderball product
to customers.
The HumanLogic Solution
Before Gold Wire Technology founders had fully defined Thunderball’s product
features and functionality, HumanLogic led strategic sessions with executives
to rapidly articulate and refine the customer experience strategy, and
to decide how to best demonstrate proposed features and functionality.
Part of the challenge was to capture Gold Wire Technology’s business goals
and customer goals, and then create a branded, easy-to-use customer experience
that abstracted the complexities of managing network configurations and
servicing customers.
HumanLogic turned business goals and customer goals into a working prototype
in two weeks, employing rapid prototyping techniques to quickly capture,
articulate and refine the customer experience in a demonstrable system.
HumanLogic’s design featured fast "one click" access to mission-critical
tasks, and a customizable interface enabling users to choose Basic or
Advanced modes to address the wide range of target customers. The design
also featured a portal-like initial screen which aggregated mission critical
data into a single unified view. To accommodate a wide range of target
users of varying technical skill – early adopters as well as less technically
savvy users – HumanLogic created a flexible user interface through which
users can specify the degree of compexity to which they wish to be exposed.
Very savvy users can dig deeper into the technical details, and those
who wish to be led through the process can use a wizard-like approach.
The propagation of network updating is abstracted into simple steps driven
by the mission-critical tasks users need to accomplish in their workflow.
The Results
- Rapidly communicate the "big vision"
of a new product before it’s built, highlighting key differentiating
benefits and how the user experience enables a "win" for the
customer
- Translate complex business, product concepts
and benefits into a visual attention grabber that communicates the customer
experience quickly
- Use rapid prototyping techniques to articulate
product functionality and communicate business benefits in a cohesive,
easy to demonstrate Web-based mockup which invites valuable feedback
from customers
- Generate more excitement than a static
PowerPoint presentation
Using the demo enabled Gold Wire Technology’s
customer to experience the value of the Thundeball product and to provide
feedback before the product was built. Viewers were able to experience
how to configure a network using simple facilitative steps that used clear
non-technical language.
The demo helped show how powerful "task-based" interface mechanisms
could abstract technical detail from users to enable streamlined customer
provisioning. HumanLogic also developed a look and feel which enables
"co-branding" of the Thunderball user interface with the identity
of Gold Wire Technology’s customers.
Gold Wire Technology recently raised $6M
in first-round venture capital and in early 2001 closed $20M in Series
C financing.
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