As the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” In the case of UX, it’s “the mother of innovation.” The global coronavirus pandemic has brought about many hardships and made us think about many aspects of our lives much differently.

For instance, an 18% increase in data usage in the first week of the pandemic indicates how quickly people made the shift to doing more online. Businesses that didn’t have an online solution for their services had to start thinking about how to streamline their activities and improve their online experience for their customers.

In light of this challenge, digital strategists and UX designers had to solve these business challenges with new and innovative solutions that would ensure a great customer experience.

Trend 1: Traditional Offline Services Moving Online

In the auto repair industry, our customer Service King needed to reevaluate its offline process when providing car repair quotes for customers. The pre-pandemic process started with customers taking or towing their damaged vehicle to the repair shop, where an onsite estimation was completed.

To improve this service during the pandemic, we created an innovative online estimation tool for Service King that allows people to report vehicle damage virtually. Now customers can take detailed photos of the damage and submit them online. The repair shop then examines the photos and emails the repair quote to the customer. 

This UX innovation not only eliminates the need for customers to be physically present during the estimate service but also improves employee efficiency at the shop.

Trend 2: Communities for Everyone and Everything

From NextDoor to Reddit, consumers flocked to community sites in greater numbers to connect, share and commiserate as social gatherings and in-person work came to a halt last year. While some of the largest communities continue to grow, there’s an increased demand for hyper-focused and specialized communities that tailor content and personalized experiences to specific audiences.

At TA Digital, we’ve been working with multiple organizations to design community sites that help users stay motivated, connected with their peers, and informed. Understanding the nuances of each audience’s unique online behaviors has helped us more effectively design experiences that keep audiences engaged and build brand loyalty despite the lack of in-person connection.

Trend 3: Live Collaboration

When Covid-19 started to spread in early 2019, many TA Digital employees were traveling home to the U.S. from India after spending a week onsite with our teams in Hyderabad, Jammu, and Gurugram. After we landed, we realized that travel to connect with coworkers, customers, and partners was going to stop indefinitely.

Since then, we all have had to adapt to virtual collaboration, but facilitating collaborative sessions like live workshops has its own unique challenges. Without the aid of whiteboards, Sharpies, and Post-It notes, it can be challenging to lead persona and customer-journey workshops that require physical space and interaction to brainstorm effectively.

But the show must go on! TA Digital’s CX team developed new methods, and we found the experience beneficial to optimizing our overall approach. We’ve adopted new digital tools to collaborate online, and asynchronously when necessary, to continue delivering for our customers.

Our new digital processes give us the flexibility to collaborate onsite or remotely and bring stakeholders together from around the world.

Conclusion

From discovering and distributing vaccinations to help battle the spread of Covid-19 to the innovative ways people continue to work and connect, we find inspiration in the world’s ability to rapidly adapt and overcome major challenges.

TA Digital has evolved as well to help guide our clients further toward digital transformation. We find that with every new constraint, new opportunities arise, and we look forward to the next challenge to continue to create innovative solutions.