Human Centered Design
Digital product design should be centered around the people who are going to use the product. The software Tandem builds follows a human centered design process that is driven by the people who use it and the people who are affected by it -- not by bureaucracy or corporate structures.
Human-Centered Design
Your software’s users are the best experts when it comes to their own workflows, challenges, and the tools that would help. Tandem’s product designers take a human-centered design approach and immerse themselves in your users’ world so we can prioritize their needs before factoring in constraints.
We start our projects with an open, curious perspective that compels us to cut through bureaucracy, question established processes, and remove the reasons “why not.” When we eliminate the layers between a software user and our team, we can quickly understand how to design software that enables them to complete their tasks successfully.
There is inherent value in understanding software from a human perspective. This value also manifests itself as saved time, avoided revisions, and most importantly, the end result: a piece of software that truly improves the lives of the people using it.
Connecting The Dots
Every so often, folks who are new to working with Tandem wonder: How can agile development and human-centered design principles coexist? We see these as philosophies, not practices, and have built our process around the best of both.
For human-centered design and agile to truly work together, we must connect our strategic insights to our tactical decisions. As our team conducts product planning and user story writing meetings, we continually ask, “which insight and opportunity does this feature serve?” If we can’t answer that question, it’s a red flag that we need to stop and reassess our assumptions.
Working In Tandem
Our team works across disciplines to create a product that thrives and serves its users by any measure of success. Throughout your project, you’ll interact with Tandem product designers and software engineers who really care about your users and your business. Both perspectives are critical to a project’s success: without silos separating development from design, we can create a maintainable, well-coded piece of software that delights its users and achieves your goals.
Embracing Constraints
In a truly limitless environment, it’s easy to get mired in indecision. Tandem’s team works with you to define clear and measurable constraints at the outset. Constraints like technical feasibility, budget, cost of change, and accessibility aren’t barriers to overcome: they’re helpful guardrails keep us focused on creating a real solution.
Lofty Ideas, Successfully Delivered
There’s a difference between thinking big and thinking impossible. The most clever, innovative, attractive user interface design isn’t worth anything unless it can actually be executed in a product! Our product designers and software engineers work in tandem throughout our user experience design process to ensure that our ideas and proposals result in a real, deliverable product.
