商用品牌同样要讲究用户体验

    许多大型工业公司都注意到了这种现象。通用电气（General Electric）请我的公司青蛙设计（Frog）帮助他们制定整个公司的用户体验战略，从而指导不同业务单位的产品开发。通用电气以其喷气发动机、动力装置和其他重工业机器而闻名，同样也是运行、监控和维护这些工业机器软件的主要开发商。我们与通用电气合作，开发了UX Central。这是一个网络枢纽，为通用电气的所有员工提供通用语言以及对以用户为中心的软件开发的认识。开发过程中，我们帮助通用电气证明了全面的用户体验战略的商业价值。通用电气已经开始利用这种战略来设计尖端软件应用，以帮助顾客优化喷气发动机和动力装置等一系列工业设施。

    高效的用户体验策略不仅能够完善和增强品牌，还揭示了新的价值形式。德国物流公司Agheera曾是全球快递公司DHL的子公司，他们邀请青蛙设计公司帮助建立虚拟网关，以跟踪出货、资产和相关的业务流程。Agheera使用感应器跟踪全球的货物，以了解包裹是否已经离开工厂，是否已经达库房。不过更大的价值，也是感应器自身无法实现的价值则在于包裹的实时状态：它是不是在货船滚来滚去，包装是不是已经破损。我们帮助设计了进行实时物流管理的在线跟踪站点，它能通过智能手机运行。我们还设计了一个软件开发包和软件扩展市场，可以让所有人开发、出售自己的应用，从而扩展Agheera的平台功能。

    所以，从飞行员到发电厂工程师，再到物流中心经理，每个人都期待获得更好的用户体验。随着消费品牌和商业品牌的界限开始消失，许多公司意识到用户体验并不仅仅是锦上添花的东西。相反，因为如今的消费者谙熟各类新技术，消费体验已经成为一种工具，要想跟顾客建立长远而深厚的联系就得使用这个工具。从这方面讲，用户体验成为了做生意的基本要求。（财富中文网）

    多琳•罗伦佐是国际化创新公司青蛙设计的总裁，兼任该公司的母公司爱瑞森特集团（Aricent Group）的执行副总裁和总经理。多琳负责推动青蛙设计公司的企业战略并监督其全球运作。在为这家公司效力的14年里，她在公司重组中起到了重要作用，使其从一家传统的小型设计公司变成了世界上最著名的国际化创新公司之一，与众多的财富500强客户进行了广泛合作。她还是2011-2012世界经济论坛新兴技术全球议程委员会的成员。

    译者：严匡正

    Many large industrial companies are catching on to this phenomenon. General Electric (GE) asked my company, frog, to help them develop a company-wide UX strategy that would guide product development across diverse business units. GE is known for its jet engines, power plants, and other heavy industrial machines, yet it is also a major producer of software to run, monitor, and maintain those machines. We collaborated with GE to create UX Central, an online hub that provides all GE's employees with a common language and understanding of user-centric software development. In the process we helped GE demonstrate the business value of a comprehensive UX strategy, and they have used it to design cutting-edge software applications that help customers optimize industrial equipment from jet engines to power plants.

    An effective UX strategy not only complements and strengthens a brand, it can uncover new forms of value. German logistics company Agheera, a spin-off from global courier company DHL, asked frog to help create a virtual gateway to track shipments, assets, and related business processes. Agheera tracks cargo around the world using sensors, which indicate whether a package has left a factory or arrived at a warehouse. But the greater value, and what sensors cannot reveal on their own, is the real-time status of a package: whether it is banging around on a freighter or whether the container has been compromised. We helped design an online tracking portal for real-time logistics management that can be used on a smartphone, as well as a software development kit and a marketplace of software extensions, which let anyone create and sell their own applications to extend the capabilities of Agheera's platform.

    So everyone from airline pilots to power plant engineers to logistics managers responds to a great UX. As the line between consumer and business brands dissolves, many companies are realizing that UX is not just "nice to have" -- it is a tool for creating long-term and meaningful relationships with technologically adept customers. In this way UX has become a basic requirement of doing business.

    Doreen Lorenzo (@doreenl) is the president of global innovation firm frog and an executive vice president and general manager of the Aricent Group, frog's parent company. Doreen drives frog's company strategy and oversees its worldwide operations. During her 14 years with the company, she has been instrumental in restructuring the company, taking it from a traditional design boutique to becoming one of the world's foremost global innovation firms, securing broad-based arrangements with an array of Fortune 500 clients. She serves as a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies, 2011-2012.