Integrating inclusion from the outset of a digital product’s design is not merely a moral or regulatory imperative. Above all, it is a performance lever that boosts adoption, optimizes the user experience, and extends the lifespan of your solutions. In a context where audience diversity, devices, and skill levels continue to grow, inclusive design becomes a strategic advantage: it anticipates barriers, reduces support costs, and broadens potential markets. This article explores the foundations of inclusive design, its business and technological benefits, the frictions it prevents, and the concrete gains observed, illustrated by anonymized Swiss case studies.

What is inclusive design?

Inclusive design seeks to create accessible, understandable experiences for all, regardless of abilities, contexts, or cultures. It relies on user-centered methods and proven standards to ensure optimal accessibility.

Fundamental principles of inclusive design

Inclusive design rests on acknowledging the diversity of needs and usage scenarios. It requires avoiding assumptions about users’ abilities or preferences and considering a wide spectrum of profiles from the earliest sketches. The goal is to minimize barriers—whether visual, motor, cognitive, or cultural—and to create self-explanatory interfaces.

To achieve this, designers adopt an iterative approach in which each feature is tested and validated by a representative panel. This proactive process avoids costly late-stage adaptations and ensures lasting functional clarity. Feedback from these tests continuously enriches the design foundation.

Moreover, inclusive design promotes flexibility: choosing legible fonts, ensuring sufficient contrast, maintaining coherent navigation, and providing informative micro-interactions. This level of rigor becomes part of UX governance, ensuring that every update or extension meets the same accessibility criteria.

User-centered approach

At the heart of inclusive design lies user research. It involves identifying the expectations, frustrations, and behaviors of diverse groups through interviews, workshops, and testing sessions. These qualitative and quantitative insights guide the creation of diverse personas, including profiles with visual, auditory, cognitive, or age-related impairments.

Designing usage scenarios helps simulate extreme contexts: low-vision users navigating under bright sunlight on an entry-level smartphone, seniors using an interface for the first time, or expatriates unfamiliar with the language. These cases highlight potential friction points and feed the product roadmap.

Next, high-fidelity mockups incorporate adaptive solutions: alternative text, voice commands, keyboard navigation, contextual guides, and multilingual support. Each component is documented in a design-system library, ensuring reusability and consistency of best practices.

Standards and reference frameworks for compliant inclusive design

To guarantee a proven level of accessibility, teams refer to the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). These standards cover all technical and ergonomic criteria required for optimal compliance, with levels A, AA, or AAA depending on needs and resources.

Beyond WCAG, more specific frameworks may apply—such as the European EN 301 549 standard for public solutions or internal directives in sensitive sectors. Adopting these benchmarks structures the development cycle, from scoping to final QA.

Finally, a combination of manual and automated accessibility audits measures the gap between the current state and set objectives. It identifies blocking points and proposes pragmatic action plans, prioritized by user impact and implementation effort.

Example: a Swiss financial institution implemented an accessible design system from the start of its digital redesign. Thanks to a unified library, it cut accessibility anomalies by 40% during testing phases and accelerated the delivery of new features.

Why integrate inclusion from the design phase?

Embedding inclusion at the earliest stages enhances functional clarity, reduces product debt, and strengthens experience consistency. Early iterations limit the risk of major redesigns and optimize return on investment.

Improved user adoption

An interface designed for everyone produces a faster learning curve. Users locate information and features more readily, increasing satisfaction and trust. This fluidity translates into quicker scaling during large-scale rollouts.

Key metrics—task completion rate, average session time, error rate—show significant gains at launch. Onboarding flows and adaptive tutorials reinforce best practices and reduce resistance to change, especially among less tech-savvy profiles.

For example, a major Swiss industrial group saw a 25% increase in its internal platform’s adoption rate after introducing inclusive design elements: keyboard-only form inputs and a “reading mode.”

Reduction of product debt

Any accessibility improvements made at a project’s end usually require corrective development work and additional testing phases. Integrating these requirements from the design phase limits technical complexity and anticipates edge cases, avoiding unnecessary maintenance overhead.

Documenting accessible components and maintaining a design system ensures reliable reuse. Developers save time by not having to invent or patch ad-hoc solutions. Over time, the software architecture remains more modular and maintainable.

For instance, in a client portal project, our audit revealed that 60% of accessibility gaps could be addressed upfront without affecting the initial timeline. The QA cycle savings freed up two weeks of development on a three-month sprint.

Enhanced compliance and reputation

In an increasingly stringent regulatory environment—particularly for public services and critical platforms—designing for accessibility from the start avoids penalties and negative publicity. Compliance thus becomes a competitive advantage.

Beyond legal requirements, companies demonstrating an inclusive commitment improve their brand image. This attracts not only customers who value these principles but also talent seeking a responsible, innovative workplace.

A Swiss insurance company leveraged its WCAG AA certification to promote its new mobile app, strengthening its CSR positioning and driving a 15% increase in downloads within three months of launch.

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How does the inclusive approach anticipate late-stage friction?

An inclusive process identifies and resolves obstacles early—whether related to user diversity, device variety, or skill levels—thereby preventing cost overruns and production delays.

Aging audience

With demographic aging, more users require tailored interfaces: adjustable text, enhanced contrast, and simplified controls. Ignoring this reality often leads to a surge in support tickets or premature abandonment.

A dedicated test phase with senior users reveals blocking issues—such as too-small touch targets or ambiguous labels—and drives targeted improvements before the first beta release.

A Swiss energy services provider added a “high-visibility” mode to its app, resulting in a 30% drop in readability-related support calls.

Device variety and usage contexts

Today’s users access services on a broad range of devices: entry-level smartphones, tablets, legacy PCs, or niche terminals. Each context exposes interfaces to different technical and ergonomic constraints.

Testing prototypes on a representative device panel uncovers loading delays, layout issues, or invisible elements. These insights guide the choice of modular, hybrid, and scalable architectures tailored to real-world performance.

For example, a public authority reduced technical disruptions by 80% after decomposing its interface into microservices and optimizing requests on outdated government terminals.

Cultural differences and tech proficiency

Usage patterns vary across cultures, languages, and previous experiences. Icons or metaphors can be interpreted differently, causing misunderstandings or navigation errors.

Collecting multilingual and multicultural feedback during design allows you to adjust vocabulary, information structure, and user flows. Adding clear, neutral microcopy prevents misinterpretation.

A B2B platform serving international subsidiaries of a Swiss group halved functional issues reported by its Asian branch after harmonizing translations and simplifying the menu hierarchy.

Concrete examples of gains from inclusive digital product design

Inclusive design delivers measurable outcomes: improved retention, lower support costs, expanded audiences, and enhanced brand value.

Better retention and loyalty

When users quickly find what they need, engagement rises. Thirty-day retention rates are often 10%–20% higher for an accessible interface compared to a standard version.

Personalization features—such as text-size adjustments or a dark-mode switch—create a sense of control and belonging. Users return more frequently, fostering upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

For example, a digital services provider saw an 18% increase in recurring sessions after introducing interface personalization options and an integrated voice assistant.

Reduction in support and training costs

An intuitive, predictable interface reduces reliance on tutorials and customer support. FAQs become leaner and support tickets drop, allowing teams to focus on higher-value tasks.

Over the long term, ongoing maintenance is simplified: accessibility-related bug fixes virtually disappear, QA efforts decrease, and deployment cycles accelerate.

A large Swiss manufacturer reported a 35% reduction in helpdesk calls after its inclusive intranet redesign for over 5,000 employees.

Expanded audience and brand enhancement

An inclusive solution appeals to a broader audience: people with disabilities, seniors, non-native speakers, or less tech-savvy employees. Each additional segment represents growth potential.

An inclusive commitment also elevates brand perception as responsible and socially engaged. Media coverage and accessibility certifications build trust with partners and institutional clients.

A nationwide Swiss retailer saw a 12% increase in online traffic after highlighting its accessibility label and customization options, clearly differentiating itself from competitors.

Make inclusion a driver of performance and sustainability

Inclusive design is not an extra cost but a strategic investment that accelerates adoption, reduces product debt, and elevates brand value. By anticipating diverse profiles, devices, and contexts, you limit redesigns, control time-to-market, and optimize resources.

Our expert teams design hybrid, modular, open-source ecosystems—free of vendor lock-in and aligned with your business needs. They support you in UX auditing, adaptive design implementation, microcopy development, and selecting sustainable technological solutions.

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In a context where strategic decisions hinge on a deep understanding of user behaviors and expectations, the focus group stands out as a qualitative method that goes beyond mere numbers. It enables in-depth exploration of participants’ perceptions and motivations, uncovering insights often absent from analytics and A/B tests. This article unpacks the available formats, the essential steps to structure a discussion group, and the best practices to turn customer feedback into actionable guidance for your digital projects.

Why the focus group complements your quantitative methods

The focus group provides a nuanced understanding of user behaviors and emotions. It bridges the gap between raw data and product or marketing decisions.

Define objectives and method complementarity

Before organizing a session, clearly define the questions your focus group will address: understanding a use case, validating a concept, or exploring adoption barriers. This preparatory phase guides your choice of format and participant profile.

Unlike online surveys, a guided discussion lets you follow up on participants’ remarks, probe specific points, or clarify intentions. The qualitative insights gained enrich conversion metrics and usage indicators.

This complementarity makes focus groups particularly effective for contextualizing trends spotted on dashboards, adding depth and meaning to the numbers.

Delve into users’ motivations and barriers

By facilitating user-to-user exchanges, focus groups reveal implicit motivations, psychological barriers, or misconceptions about the service—elements often invisible in quantitative analyses.

A cohesive moderator encourages participants to build on each other’s comments, generating interactions that yield unexpected learnings. Moderators can then adjust the discussion flow to explore emergent themes in greater detail.

The richness of spoken testimony provides precise verbatim quotes, essential for crafting more targeted marketing messages or refining the user experience.

Use case: Swiss SME in financial services

A Swiss SME specializing in mobile payment solutions convened ten professional users for a two-hour session. Participants from various sectors (retail, hospitality, healthcare) discussed transaction flows and notification perceptions.

The session revealed a major obstacle: ambiguous confirmation labels. Thanks to direct user suggestions, the product team reworded key terms, reducing support requests related to the refund process by 25%.

This qualitative feedback complemented usage analytics and uncovered an emotional dimension (trust and clarity) unattainable through quantitative tools alone.

Focus group formats and their suitability by objective

Several group formats exist to meet specific needs. Your choice depends on size, duration, and topic sensitivity.

The classic format for in-depth discussions

A traditional focus group typically gathers 6 to 10 participants for 90 to 120 minutes. It fosters collective interaction and covers multiple aspects of the topic using a pre-established guide.

Having all stakeholders present simultaneously ensures a group dynamic where ideas spark off one another, revealing more contrasted opinions.

This format remains the go-to when you aim to obtain a comprehensive overview of perceptions and expectations around a new service or major update.

The duel format for comparing two concepts or prototypes

A duel focus group pits two prototypes or two competing concepts under the same conditions. Feedback focuses on each option’s strengths and weaknesses.

The moderator asks participants to evaluate both proposals in turn, then debate their perceived differences. This confrontation highlights discriminating factors.

This format is ideal for product managers who need to choose swiftly between two design paths.

The mini-focus group for quick, targeted exchanges

When the subject is highly specialized or the target population hard to mobilize, a mini-focus group of 3 to 5 people offers a pragmatic solution. Sessions can be as short as 60 minutes.

Fewer participants ensure everyone speaks freely but require a tightly structured moderation to cover essential topics.

This format is often used for preliminary studies or rapid iterations within an agile approach.

Remote focus group for geographically dispersed participants

With the rise of remote work, conducting focus groups via video platforms has become common. It eliminates logistical constraints and simplifies international participation.

Online moderation tools (virtual rooms, live polls, digital whiteboards) preserve the richness of discussions while offering native recording of interactions.

This format demands special attention to technical quality (connectivity, audio, video) and speaking-time management.

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How to structure your focus group for maximum impact

Preparation largely determines the value of your insights. Each step—from defining objectives to analyzing verbatim—must be rigorous and context-adapted.

Set clear, measurable objectives

Define precise goals: test a feature, assess offer comprehension, or identify cultural barriers. Objectives guide your discussion guide and question selection.

Each question should align with a strategic issue, whether optimizing user experience, refining marketing messaging, or prioritizing development tasks.

Measurable objectives also allow you to benchmark feedback against pre-set KPIs after the session.

Select and recruit relevant participants

Participants should match your target personas: market segments, role in the client organization, or solution usage level. A mix of novice and expert users enriches discussion.

Recruitment can leverage existing panels, customer databases, or partner networks. Aim for diverse perspectives while maintaining thematic coherence.

A qualification form will specify inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure profile representativeness.

Prepare a structured yet flexible discussion guide

The guide outlines topics and proposes a logical question order, while leaving room for moderator improvisation. Each section starts with a discussion objective.

Combine open-ended, factual, and projective questions to capture concrete experiences and anticipate future uses. Alternate between individual questions and group debates.

A good guide also includes interactive exercises (cards, visual scales) to stimulate creativity and encourage spontaneous expression.

Moderation and logistics: ensure a smooth session

Successful moderation depends on establishing trust, prompting participants, and managing speaking time. Open follow-ups invite nuance without steering responses.

Logistical preparation (venue, note-taking materials, audio/video recording, refreshments) contributes to a professional, comfortable atmosphere.

A technical moderator handling back-office support resolves any issues swiftly, ensuring high-quality exchanges.

Use case: Industrial group in French-speaking Switzerland

An industrial player in Romandy ran a mini-focus group with four business leaders to validate a new dashboard. Participants tested an interactive prototype and suggested label refinements for indicators.

The process revealed a need for additional dynamic filters and a color-coding scheme to highlight critical data. These insights were directly incorporated into the functional roadmap.

This structured discussion phase saved several development iterations and improved end-user adoption.

Analyze and turn insights into strategic decisions

Systematic analysis of verbatim ensures key learnings are captured. Translating feedback into concrete actions delivers pragmatic ROI.

Transcription and coding of qualitative data

Audio or video recordings are fully transcribed for text-based analysis. Each comment is anonymized and timestamped for easy reference.

Coding involves tagging text segments with thematic labels (motivations, barriers, suggestions). This can be done manually or using semi-automated annotation tools.

Thorough classification sets the stage for identifying patterns and correlations among feedback.

Trend identification and prioritization

Once segments are coded, cross-analysis highlights recurring themes, contradictions, and major pain points. Occurrence counts aren’t the sole criterion: emotional intensity and business criticality also matter.

Insights are grouped by category (usability, content, communication, support) and prioritized based on their potential impact against initial objectives.

This synthesis yields a structured report with an issue map and operational recommendations. For example, you can prioritize backlog items.

Integration into product or marketing strategy

Focus group recommendations feed directly into the product roadmap, feature prioritization, and marketing positioning. They validate or invalidate analytics-driven hypotheses.

The project team can plan quick wins (minor tweaks) and strategic initiatives (journey overhauls, new module development) based on expected value.

This approach ensures decisions rely on a documented, nuanced understanding of needs rather than unsubstantiated impressions or internal consensus.

Turn your customer insights into a competitive advantage

The focus group is a powerful lever to enrich customer understanding and guide product or marketing evolution. By combining appropriate formats, rigorous preparation, and structured analysis, you can extract concrete, actionable learnings.

Edana positions itself as a strategic partner to support the planning, moderation, and exploitation of focus groups—whether ahead of a launch or during an optimization phase. Our experts help you translate qualitative feedback into solid, prioritized business directions.

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In a context where digitalization has become a strategic imperative, Design Thinking proves to be an effective method for structuring innovation and avoiding the pitfalls of overly improvised workshops. This approach places the user at the heart of the process while ensuring coherence with technical constraints and business objectives. Swiss companies, facing global competition and high quality standards, find in it a framework to align all stakeholders. Through a proven methodology, it is possible to accelerate the creation of robust, scalable digital services and products tailored to the real needs of end users.

Design Thinking, a Structured Innovation Lever Beyond Brainstorming

Design Thinking is more than just a collection of ideas; it is a methodical process based on empathy and rapid testing. It brings together user, technological, and business dimensions to ensure relevant solutions.

Immersion and Empathy

The first phase focuses on gaining a deep understanding of the user context. Interviews, field observations, and active-listening workshops are organized to uncover motivations, frustrations, and latent needs. This participatory approach involves both business and IT teams from the outset, allowing multiple perspectives to intersect and preventing misunderstandings during the design phase.

Beyond standard personas, field immersions capture real usage patterns and operational constraints. The goal is not merely to collect data but to interpret subtle cues that will guide the rest of the project. This is where the relevance of the proposed digital solution is determined.

Thanks to this structured empathy, cognitive biases are minimized, allowing focus on genuine issues. The outputs of this phase are synthesized into empathy maps and user journeys, which serve as the guiding thread for all subsequent stages.

Problem Definition and Framing

After exploration, the challenge is to reformulate the problem in a precise, shared manner. The main “pain point” to be addressed is identified and measurable objectives are set. This formalization prevents scope creep and ensures clear alignment among IT teams, product management, and business units.

A structured problem definition is achieved through convergence workshops where each stakeholder validates scope and success criteria. Hypotheses are explicitly listed to steer future iterations and anticipate risks.

This stage transforms a general observation into a concrete, operational, and measurable challenge. It lays the groundwork for ideation and reduces the risk of delivering unnecessary or poorly suited features.

Ideation and Controlled Divergence

Next comes the ideation phase, where a wide range of ideas is generated without self-censorship. Sessions are paced with various techniques—from brainwriting to mind mapping—to stimulate collective creativity. The objective is to maximize the diversity of proposals.

To avoid dispersion, time and thematic constraints are imposed. Each idea is then evaluated based on technical feasibility, user value, and business impact. This prioritization matrix serves as a compass for selecting the most promising concepts.

The chosen ideas are sketched out in storyboards or low-fidelity wireframes. This mapping enables quick visualization of the future user journey and sets the stage for prototyping.

Example: A Swiss financial institution seeking to improve SME client onboarding identified a major pain point in manual data entry. Through a series of empathy and ideation workshops, it defined a new digital journey that included automatic document capture and real-time verification. This process reduced account opening time by 70% during the pilot.

Integrating Design Thinking into the Digital Strategy Process

Design Thinking structures the product journey from ideation to production, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. It fits within an agile, modular framework to accelerate innovation cycles.

Interdisciplinary Collaborative Work

In a digital transformation context, breaking down silos between design, IT, and business is essential. Design Thinking workshops bring these profiles together to ensure every viewpoint is considered, creating a true culture of co-creation.

Roles are clearly defined: a facilitator guides the sessions, a business expert provides process knowledge, and a product owner ensures alignment with business objectives. This setup balances creativity with rigor.

This way of working boosts team buy-in, as everyone feels invested in the project. Decisions are made with full awareness, reducing resistance to change and smoothing technical implementation.

Fast Iterations and Prototyping

A key advantage of Design Thinking is rapid prototyping. Low-fidelity mockups or proofs of concept are built with open source tools to test hypotheses. This velocity quickly reveals potential blockers.

Each iteration incorporates early user feedback. Adjustments are made in days without heavy development commitments. This minimizes resource waste and optimizes time-to-market.

The methodology is ideally complemented by CI/CD pipelines, ensuring continuous integration of validated prototypes. This approach reduces development costs and paves the way for scaling up to an industrial version.

Validation and User Testing

Before any large-scale deployment, testing sessions are held with a representative panel of users. Interactive prototypes are evaluated based on usability and ergonomics criteria.

Functional or ergonomic pain points are addressed at this stage, using both qualitative and quantitative metrics. Feedback is recorded in a prioritized backlog to guide subsequent development.

This approach guarantees the final solution meets real needs and minimizes post-launch rework, avoiding extra costs and loss of trust.

Example: A Swiss pharmaceutical lab adopted this approach to redesign its internal training portal. Prototype iterations tested with employees and quality managers refined the interface and reduced IT support queries by 50% during the national rollout.

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Concrete Benefits of Design Thinking Workshops for IT, Product, and Business Leaders

A well-structured Design Thinking workshop significantly reduces project risks and accelerates time-to-market. It also boosts stakeholder engagement and prioritizes high-ROI features.

Project Risk Reduction and Stakeholder Alignment

By involving all key actors from the start, a shared vision of scope and objectives is created. Hypotheses are validated before any development, reducing the risk of scope creep and costly rework.

This clarity strengthens governance, as decisions are documented and backed by user data. Trade-offs become quicker and more transparent for steering committees.

Over time, this discipline lowers the failure rate of digital projects and improves adaptability to changing contexts or strategies.

Accelerated Time-to-Market

Rapid prototyping and short cycles facilitate early production releases. Workshop-validated features can be industrialized in parallel thanks to a modular architecture and continuous integration pipelines.

This flexibility enables launching an MVP in weeks, gathering real feedback, and adjusting the product roadmap. Companies thus gain weeks or even months on the initial schedule.

This agility is a decisive competitive advantage in fast-evolving markets.

End-User Engagement and Adoption

Including future users in workshops fosters co-creation. They feel heard and see their needs addressed. This generates buy-in and eases adoption of digital solutions.

Training materials and documentation can be developed from initial user feedback, reducing post-launch support needs and improving the onboarding experience.

In the long run, the company gains a base of ambassador users ready to promote the solution internally and externally.

Example: A Romandy-based real estate company used Design Thinking to revamp its online client portal. Agile management and user testing increased digital account activation by 30% while cutting customer service calls for interface assistance by 40%.

Informed Technology Choices and Robust Software Architecture through Design Thinking

Design Thinking guides technology choices toward modular, open source, and hybrid solutions to avoid vendor lock-in. It also steers the definition of a scalable, secure architecture.

Modular and Scalable Architecture

Mapping user journeys and features identifies critical domains to isolate into microservices. This granularity simplifies maintenance, scalability, and independent evolution of each component.

Such architecture limits the impact of incidents and streamlines version upgrades. It relies on containers and orchestrators to ensure optimal resilience and flexibility.

By adopting this modularity from ideation onward, future needs are anticipated, building a digital foundation that can evolve without a complete overhaul.

Selection of Suitable Open Source Components

Design Thinking can also include technology evaluation during ideation. Mature open source solutions with strong communities and regular updates are favored.

This approach reduces dependency on a single vendor and offers customization freedom. Libraries are chosen based on business alignment and technical compatibility.

Processes for monitoring and automated updates are implemented to ensure long-term sustainability and security of the stack.

Hybridization and Avoiding Vendor Lock-In

To meet specific constraints, existing components can be combined with from-scratch development. This hybrid approach retains the agility of off-the-shelf solutions while ensuring precise customization.

Interfaces are standardized via open APIs, making future component replacement seamless. The ecosystem remains flexible, modular, and adaptable to strategic shifts.

Clear governance over contracts, licenses, and data exchange completes this approach to control total cost of ownership and mitigate lock-in risks.

Example: A Swiss retail group re-architected its e-commerce platform through a Design Thinking approach, decoupling the product catalog, promotions engine, and payment system. This open source–based modularity enabled 200% load growth during promotional peaks without major incidents.

Design Thinking: Make It the Accelerator of Your Digital Innovation

Design Thinking provides a robust framework to ideate, prototype, and industrialize user-centered digital solutions while integrating technological and business challenges from the start. It strengthens collaboration, accelerates innovation cycles, and reduces project risk through early validation.

This method also guides architectural and technology decisions toward modular, open source, and hybrid ecosystems, ensuring solution scalability and resilience. IT, product, and business leaders thus benefit from optimal alignment and shortened time-to-market.

CIOs, CTOs, CEOs, and product managers looking to transform ideas into high-performance digital projects will find in this approach a powerful lever to maximize ROI and anticipate future developments.

At Edana, our experts are available to support you in setting up tailored Design Thinking workshops and structuring your digital innovation process.

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In an ecosystem where every design decision impacts the success of a digital product, distinguishing product design from UX design is essential for structuring a project and optimizing resources. These two disciplines, often conflated, have complementary goals: one focuses on product strategy and alignment with business objectives, the other on user experience and ergonomics. By clarifying their responsibilities and establishing clear collaboration processes, companies reduce the risk of misunderstandings and accelerate time-to-market.

Clarifying Roles: From Business Needs to User Experience

Product design defines the overall vision, positioning, and priorities of the product. UX design focuses on interactions, ergonomics, and end-user satisfaction.

Product Design: Vision and Prioritization

The product designer initiates strategic thinking by identifying market opportunities and aligning the roadmap with business objectives. Based on market research and competitive analysis, they structure features into successive phases, prioritizing those with the highest ROI impact. This approach relies on clear metrics (development cost, value delivered, technical risks).

At the core of their role, the product designer also defines the product’s positioning, unique value proposition, and target customer segments. They formalize personas and usage scenarios to guide functional decisions and prevent scope creep during development. This structuring avoids late-stage trade-offs and ensures alignment with the company’s strategy.

UX Design: User-Centered Research and Prototypes

The UX designer, for their part, adopts a user-centered approach from the initial scoping workshops. They conduct interviews, user tests, and co-creation workshops to understand needs, frustrations, and behaviors. These insights inform the creation of wireframes, user journeys, and interactive prototypes.

Each prototype is evaluated through usability testing, enabling rapid identification of friction points and interface adjustments before any heavy development. By conducting multiple short iterations, the UX designer ensures fine-tuned adaptation to real expectations and avoids producing irrelevant or misunderstood features.

Governance and Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

To ensure seamless collaboration, product and UX designers co-create the specifications: the product designer contributes the functional vision, the UX designer the user perspective. Joint reviews and shared milestones validate both business value and interaction quality.

An agile governance, where both profiles participate in the same rituals (sprint planning, sprint reviews, retrospectives), fosters continuous exchange. Decisions are then made through a dual lens, ensuring both strategic coherence and ergonomic efficiency.

Concrete Example of Separation Between Product Designer and UX Designer

A Swiss industrial company approached us to launch a B2B spare parts ordering platform. Our product designer developed a value proposition canvas prioritizing order speed and stock transparency, while the UX designer conducted workshops with field operators to create a simplified three-step navigation flow. This coordinated approach reduced average order processing time by 30% even at the MVP stage.

Complementarity: From Ideation to Product Validation

When product design and UX design work in concert, the digital platform ensures both business relevance and user adoption. Their cross-disciplinary methodologies accelerate hypothesis validation and optimize investments.

From Product Research to User Testing

The product designer formalizes value hypotheses to test: revenue impact, adoption by key segments, potential for upmarket growth. Each hypothesis is turned into proto-hypotheses to be validated by the UX designer through qualitative and quantitative studies.

User testing (A/B testing, moderated tests, heatmaps) provides objective data to adjust the roadmap. It enables quickly discarding low-efficiency features and reinvesting in higher-value levers.

Iterative Prototyping and Continuous Feedback

A low-fidelity prototype sketches the information architecture, while a high-fidelity prototype refines visual design and micro-interactions. At each iteration, user feedback is integrated into the backlog, feeding product prioritization.

This iterative loop reduces the risk of overdevelopment and encourages the market release of progressive versions, validated at each step by a representative panel.

KPI Alignment and Usage Monitoring

To monitor impact, product and UX designers jointly define key indicators (task completion rate, Net Promoter Score, generated revenue). Analytics and session replay tools provide continuous field feedback.

Usage data guides trade-offs, ensuring the product’s evolution is performance-driven while keeping user satisfaction at the core of decisions.

Concrete Example of Complementarity Between UX Design and Product Design

A Swiss financial services group adopted this approach for its mobile portfolio management app. Product and UX designers conducted moderated session tests, revealing that 40% of testers stalled at the strong authentication step. Thanks to these insights, the team pivoted to a more elegant biometric solution and increased the service activation rate by 25%.

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Adapting Profiles to the Digital Project Lifecycle

At the MVP stage, flexibility is key: favor a product designer who can quickly validate hypotheses and a UX designer focused on lean research. During the scale phase, reinforce teams to structure growth and ensure a consistent experience across all channels.

MVP: Agility and Rapid Validation

When launching an MVP, the goal is to test key hypotheses with a minimal set of features. The product designer focuses on defining these essential features and developing a batch-based roadmap, while the UX designer conducts rapid tests (guerilla testing, paper prototyping) to validate intuitiveness.

This lean setup allows for feedback gathering within weeks and iteration without burdening the structure. Decisions are based on tangible results rather than speculation.

Scale: Structuring and Standardization

Once the MVP is validated, the challenge is to prepare for scale and ensure cross-channel consistency. The product designer broadens the product vision, refines the roadmap, and introduces governance processes (feature reviews, scoring-based prioritization). The UX designer documents UI/UX guidelines and establishes a modular component library to standardize interfaces.

Integrating design systems enhances development speed and facilitates continuous evolution while adhering to a unified visual and interaction language.

Redesign: Expertise and Controlled Transition

In a redesign, the goal is to modernize an existing solution while preserving the user base. The product designer conducts a functional audit and defines a roadmap to migrate critical features without service disruption. The UX designer maps aging journeys, identifies breakpoints, and proposes new interaction patterns.

This phased approach, supported by coordinated iterations, ensures a smooth transition and minimizes impact on satisfaction and adoption.

Aligning Product and UX Design in a Digital Agency

An experienced agency organizes its teams to provide cross-functional product leadership, from defining features to validating with users. It combines agile methodologies, open-source solutions, and a modular ecosystem to ensure performance and scalability.

Overall Scoping and Technical-Functional Roadmap

At kickoff, the agency facilitates multidisciplinary workshops where product and UX designers work with business stakeholders to formalize the vision, objectives, and project milestones. Deliverables include a prioritized backlog and a concrete action plan, aligned with business imperatives and technical constraints.

This initial scoping can be built around open-source blocks and modular microservices to minimize vendor lock-in and ensure the application’s long-term scalability and flexibility.

Prototyping, Testing, and Rapid Iterations

The agency develops interactive prototypes that integrate reusable components, then coordinates testing sessions with representative users. Each finding is documented and prioritized with the product designer to adjust the roadmap.

This iterative approach, based on concrete feedback, limits development waste and ensures functional relevance before significant cost commitments.

Scaling Up and Continuous Monitoring

During deployment, the agency structures an evolving support system: test automation, UX and business KPI monitoring, incremental updates. Product and UX designers remain involved to manage releases and ensure experience consistency as new features are added.

The modularity of the architecture and use of open-source stacks (light front-end, asynchronous APIs, containers) ensure controlled scaling and prevent future bottlenecks.

Concrete Example

An emerging Swiss services company entrusted us with a complete redesign of its B2C platform. The plan was divided into three phases: scoping, A/B-tested prototype validation, and deployment with an Angular-based design system. The iterative cycle allowed for monthly user feedback integration, reducing churn by 18% in six months while adhering to the initial schedule.

Build a High-Performing, Aligned Digital Product

By clearly distinguishing product design and UX design and orchestrating them collaboratively, you maximize business impact and user adoption. The project’s maturity levels—MVP, scale, redesign—dictate the design team’s composition and intensity, while a modular, open-source approach ensures scalability and longevity.

Whatever your context, our Edana experts are ready to support you in designing a digital solution that combines strategy, experience, and technological robustness.

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Despite decades of guidelines and standards, a significant portion of the web remains difficult to access for people with disabilities. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the landscape by automating content analysis and correction, personalizing the user experience, and paving the way for multisensory interactions. IT directors, project managers, or CIOs: it’s time to integrate AI into your accessibility strategy to meet legal requirements, societal expectations, and the needs of an aging population, all while delivering an optimized experience for every user.

Why Digital Accessibility Has Become Strategic Today

Regulations are evolving rapidly while societal expectations intensify. At the same time, aging populations and the proliferation of mobile usage place accessibility at the heart of business challenges.

Strengthening Legal Obligations (EU, Switzerland, US)

Since the adoption of European Directive 2016/2102, public websites and apps must comply with WCAG 2.1 standards. This legislation mandates color contrasts, textual alternatives, and fully functional keyboard navigation. In Switzerland, the Federal Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (LHand) and its ordinance specify similar requirements for digital services of administrations and companies subject to public procurement.

In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is increasingly invoked to sue organizations whose digital interfaces are not accessible. Class actions are on the rise, with fines and remediation costs reaching into the hundreds of thousands of francs.

This regulatory tightening is most visible in the financial sector and public services, where controls and sanctions are systematic. Companies failing to comply not only risk penalties but also damage to their reputation.

Growing Social Pressure and Collective Actions

Social media amplify the voices of people with disabilities, turning an accessibility incident into an immediate viral backlash. A malfunctioning voice-command interface can quickly become the focus of online petitions and criticism.

At the same time, associations and digital rights collectives conduct investigations and file group complaints. In Europe, several major organizations have already been forced to overhaul their portals under threat of administrative blockages.

This social pressure also translates into tenders that now include accessibility as a selection criterion. Early adopters gain visibility and trust among partners and clients.

Aging Population and Widespread Mobile Usage

Switzerland has over 18% of seniors aged 65 and above, a figure set to grow in the coming years. Visual, auditory, or motor impairments therefore become strategic issues for capturing this clientele.

Moreover, usage is increasingly mobile: smaller interfaces, touch gestures, and varied contexts of use (lighting, movement). Temporary impairments—broken screens, occupied hands, noisy environments—affect a growing number of users every day.

In this context, a major Swiss retailer tested a dynamic enlargement tool for click zones on its mobile site. Thanks to AI algorithms, interactive areas adjust in real time to how the user holds their phone, reducing input errors by 35% among those over 60.

What AI Can Concretely Transform in Accessibility

AI opens new horizons: automation, personalization, and real-time adaptation. From generating captions to creating multisensory experiences, AI expands the scope of inclusion efforts.

Automatic Generation of Captions, Summaries, and Image Descriptions

Speech recognition and natural language processing solutions transcribe video dialogue instantly, producing synchronized captions. An AI algorithm can also automatically summarize long content, easing reading for people with dyslexia or visual impairments.

Image descriptions, long created manually, can now be generated by computer vision. Each image or illustration receives a detailed alt text, ensuring equivalent comprehension for screen reader users.

For a Swiss e-learning institution, this mechanism reduced the time spent on creating accessible content by 80%. Video courses now come with instant captions and summaries, boosting satisfaction for all learners.

Real-Time Translation and Adaptation (Audio, Visual, Text)

AI-based machine translation services now deliver subtitles comparable to a professional’s. Content can be adapted into over 100 languages, with style and phrasing tailored to technical or marketing contexts.

In audio interfaces, a voice assistant can rephrase responses for hard-of-hearing users, adding on-screen text or offering haptic feedback. This multimodality enriches the experience.

In multilingual settings—trade shows, international training, global platforms—these tools ensure consistent accessibility without additional localization costs.

Automated Website Audits

Intelligent crawlers continuously scan web pages to detect WCAG or RGAA violations. They generate detailed reports, prioritized by business impact and technical severity.

Paired with interactive dashboards, these audits enable progress tracking, fix planning, and ROI quantification for accessibility actions.

A Swiss industrial multinational implemented a daily automated audit. Detected anomalies feed directly into its ITSM tool, ensuring traceability and faster response.

Adaptive Interfaces for Temporary or Situational Impairments

Machine learning allows interfaces to detect noisy environments and automatically offer text transcriptions of audio notifications.

If ambient light is low, AI adjusts contrast and font size in real time to preserve visual comfort.

These contextual adaptations improve the experience for all users without manual configuration overload.

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Limits Not to Ignore: Why AI Alone Is Not Enough for Optimal Accessibility

AI delivers considerable gains, but it cannot replace a comprehensive accessibility approach. Manual testing, quality data, and inclusive design remain indispensable pillars.

Manual Testing Remains Indispensable

Algorithms can miss nuances, such as coherence in descriptive language. User testing, by contrast, exposes the frustrations experienced by people with disabilities.

Validations with screen readers and assistive devices must be conducted regularly, especially during major redesigns or updates.

A Swiss financial institution maintained a panel of employees with disabilities to test every major portal version. These human insights corrected 12% of issues undetected by automated tools.

By combining AI with field feedback, organizations achieve a level of excellence unattainable by either approach alone.

The Quality of Training Data Is Crucial

Computer vision models are only as good as the annotated images that train them. A biased or insufficient dataset leads to inaccurate or discriminatory descriptions.

Algorithms must be fed representative data covering all profiles and use cases, ensuring diversity of genders, ages, and disability types.

Data governance—collection, anonymization, updates—must be rigorous to guarantee results that are reliable and GDPR-compliant.

Without quality data, AI can hinder rather than accelerate, generating costly errors that require manual correction.

Need for Accessible Design from the UX/UI Phase

Before integrating AI, information architecture and user journeys must be crafted to minimize entry barriers.

Structuring HTML code, providing semantic landmarks, and adopting accessible components (ARIA buttons, visual cues) ensure a solid foundation.

AI tools will enrich this base but cannot compensate for interfaces built without these principles.

A Swiss public services agency tested several AI widgets before realizing that unclear navigation elements limited adoption. A prior UX redesign tripled the effectiveness of the assistive tools.

Adopting a Contextual and Scalable Approach for AI-Centered Accessibility

Each accessibility project must be based on a tailored, modular, and secure strategy. Open source, hybrid modules, and scalable architecture ensure sustainable inclusion.

Favor Open Source Solutions and Avoid Vendor Lock-In

Open source libraries offer full flexibility and an active community to quickly address vulnerabilities.

By controlling code and dependencies, organizations ensure the longevity and security of accessibility tools without being subject to a single vendor’s roadmap.

This approach aligns with Edana’s culture, where each component is chosen for its ecosystem and ability to evolve without blockage.

Integrate Accessibility from the Digital Product Design Phase

Ideation and prototyping workshops should involve designers, accessibility experts, and AI developers to define native accessible components.

Technical and usability feasibility tests occur before development to avoid costly retrofits.

A Swiss logistics services company co-created its interfaces with a diverse user panel, guaranteeing WCAG compliance and easing later AI tool integration.

Implement Continuous Auditing and Monitoring

Beyond an initial audit, an automated monitoring system must continually check for accessibility regressions.

AI-generated reports feed a backlog that prioritizes fixes by business impact and technical criticality.

This process ensures iterative improvement and prevents compliance drift as features evolve.

Train Teams and Establish Agile Governance

Developers and project managers must understand accessibility challenges and master associated AI tools.

Regular training and inclusive code reviews maintain a high, shared skill level.

Agile governance, with sprints dedicated to accessibility topics, ensures transparent management and continuous value delivery.

Make Accessibility a Lever of Competitiveness

By combining regulatory compliance, AI’s potential, sound design practices, and agile governance, you create an inclusive and differentiating digital experience. When fueled by quality data and supported by human testing, artificial intelligence becomes a powerful accelerator of inclusion.

In a market where compliance is a prerequisite and user experience a key success factor, integrating accessibility from the outset and enhancing it with advanced technologies is a strategic choice. Our experts are here to help you define the most suitable solution for your context, prioritizing scalability, security, and open source.

Discuss your challenges with an Edana expert