Dffrnt

In an era when a two-year old smartphone is out of date, we have 50- and 60-year-old IT systems supporting Canadian benefit programs.

Two-thirds of the federal government’s digital applications are in poor health and in critical need of upgrades, according to the Auditor General’s report on IT modernization.

In addition to the considerable risk associated with the state of our nation’s digital infrastructure, Canadians are missing out on the benefits of digital transformation. Our citizens are not being served as well as they should because we have not modernized the systems of government.

What can we learn from this? The report points the finger at lack of oversight, inflexible funding structures and prioritizing budgets and schedules over functionality.

Digital transformation can be challenging, especially for large, decentralized organizations. Managing a large-scale modernization or business transformation is not the core competency of most departments and it’s not just an IT function.

Digital transformation is our core competency. If you want some expert input to make the most of your migration to new systems, talk to us.

Twenty years ago, you could get into any car and find the heating controls and the volume k**b. There was a little slider or k**b marked with red and blue for heating and cooling. All these things were tactile. They were visible. They had more or less the same structure, no matter what car you got into. So, you could pretty much intuitively figure out what you were supposed to be doing.

Today, with Tesla and other high-end automobiles, there's just a blank screen. You have to figure out how it works. What kind of interactions does it take? Can I speak to it? Can I do gestures? Is it capacitive? Is it resistive? How do I interact with this thing to get what I want out of it?

Unless you read an instruction manual, there’s a lot of trial and error because the interface is more simplified and because more of the structures are invisible on the interface. In many ways, an AI-structured or an AI-powered SaaS application is similar. It’s very powerful and can do many things, but it doesn't have the equivalent of those tactile haptic interface elements that an old car stereo did.

And so, for the user to get proficient will involve a lot more trial and error and pushing of the boundaries


There is no shortage of AI “experts” ready to assist product designers, but the real need will be for user experience experts to maintain users’ agency, access and ease of use - while leveraging the power of AI.

(And if you'd like to chat with user experience experts following the AI trend, get in touch!)