High-tech UX keeps you ahead of the competition

Where technology in itself was once distinctive enough, optimal user experience (UX) is increasingly determining the success of high-tech companies. Ben van Riemsdijk, manager UX at Sioux Technologies: ‘Products that are perfectly tailored to the workflow of end users pay off and sell better. However, designing and building them is a niche job.

What is High-tech UX?
‘High-tech machines and applications are not like consumer products like coffee makers or bank apps. Our UX designers create the best possible interaction between people, highly complex products and specialized work processes. This allows users to get the most out of technology: speed, quality, flexibility, yield...’

That seems only logical...
‘Yet it is an underserved area in high-tech. Many companies - for example in the semicon, medtech and analytical industries - pay remarkably little attention to it. As a result, opportunities are missed; the value of products is not fully exploited.’

What do you see as the cause?
‘Engineers develop fantastic technology. However, their perception is different from that of users. An optimal user experience is much more than functionality; it’s about insightfulness, ease of operation, intuitive use and aesthetics.’

You could also outsource UX to a design agency…
‘A wafer stepper, pathology scanner, electron microscope or whatever sophisticated machine is not a nice blank canvas for fancy design concepts. High-tech UX requires a deep understanding of development, engineering, the users and their activities. So, it is a specialism within a specialism.’

How does Sioux get the most out of UX design?
‘Our team takes a no-nonsense approach. We visit our customers’ customers as soon as possible to talk about their needs and wishes. In doing so, we also hold a mirror up to them from our experience in developing, prototyping and building high-tech products and from the perspective of their market. In the actual design process, costefficient implementation is also a key focus. This is how we achieve High-tech UX that really adds value to products. That keeps you ahead of the competition.

Do you see that reflected in reality?
‘Absolutely. One example concerns the Nemo Fetal Monitoring System, a highly innovative medical system from Nemo Healthcare for wireless monitoring of an unborn child’s heart rate based on electrophysiological signals. In Denmark, there was great interest in using this technology in home situations. Of course, this requires correct application by the pregnant woman. We developed a design for user guidance on an iPad and presented it in Copenhagen. With this, Nemo Healthcare won the contract.’

Is awareness of the added value of High-tech UX growing?
‘More and more customers are asking us to help them with this. So, the awareness of it being essential for their distinctiveness is growing. I see this trend as a major advantage.’