User centred design helps services to deliver more value for less effort. It finds ways to satisfy the service users needs while helping the organisation to operate more efficiently. Reducing waste is a key first step for many organisations on their journey to functioning more sustainability, which aligns well with the benefits user centred design can offer.
Applying user centred design methods helps teams to:
Launching digital products that don’t deliver real value is a chronic problem for organisations. [A study by Pendo](https://www.pendo.io/resources/the-2019-feature-adoption-report/#:~:text=the best use.-,Key Findings,are rarely or never used.) found that 80% of features in the average software product are never or rarely used.
By starting the design process with a clear understanding of user needs, this can help prevent unnecessary new products, services or features from being built. This means smaller digital products with less energy usage and less maintenance required.
Applying user centred design methods make us ask different questions about measuring the success of our work. Often speed and quantity of features delivered are the metrics for success in digital teams. However, by working with a user centred design it shifts the conversation to be ask how do we know that what we are building is actually useful?
User centred design also makes sure your product or service is easy for users to find and access. This reduces the time it takes to complete their task and therefore the associated use of your organisations digital infrastructure and the users data and device battery life.
Much of this work is through good content design to make the content a user needs more findable, like a clear title and purpose for each page, clear summaries and skimmable content and reducing duplication of content (like in FAQs).
Designing good content requires a clear understanding of the user needs the content is serving and the journeys people are taking to reach it. Traditional marketing metrics, like low bounce rates and long visits may not be good indicators of success in these instances. Design your content so users can get what they need as quickly as possible (the bank holidays page on gov.uk is a great example) and set your measures of success accordingly.