Designing at Blackbaud

Every day here at Blackbaud, we make design decisions that affect our customers’ ability to get things done. Everyone on our design team takes this responsibility very seriously and we try to use all of the industry-proven methods at our disposal to make the most well-informed, user-friendly decisions we can make.

Each project we take on has its own needs and priorities, but in general the process stays the same: discover details about the user and the problem we are solving, define the requirements that are most beneficial, design the solution and validate that solution with users. Here’s a quick overview of what these steps look like:

Learning about a design problem is all about connecting with users – putting on their shoes and walking around a while. Fortunately, we have many different ways that we can accomplish this, and are exploring new channels all the time:

• Field Studies – The best way to get to know our users is to talk to them, in person, at their office. We visit all types of organizations to see what their lives are like on a day to day basis and how we can help improve them.
• Discussion boards – You may not know we’re listening in – but we are. Blackbaud and industry discussion boards are invaluable resources for insight into what is important to users and what issues people are having.
•  Internal experts (consulting, support, training) – Blackbaud is chock full of smart people who have daily, deep interaction with customers. These people have great insight into a broad range of users and can help us see the differences and similarities across organizations.
• Knowledgebase – With tens of thousands of records, our Knowledgebase is a key resource for collecting suggestions and issues from customers. We are continuing to identify new ways to funnel this input into our design process.
• User groups & conferences – When customers get together, there is a great energy that translates into great ideas. User groups and conferences are fun places to hang out and listen to customers talk.
• Design Site – Welcome to our newest customer listening channel! This site aims to give us a direct line of communication with a broad section of our customer base. Through blogs, discussions, sandboxes and other means, we hope to get the same insightful feedback here as we do through out other channels.

Once all of our raw data is collected, one of the toughest parts of our jobs is extracting the requirements from this data. What commonalities do we see among organizations? What new features or changes will provide the largest benefit to the most organizations? What are the true business needs that we have discovered that need to drive this new development? All of these questions are informed through the research above then refined and documented in the Define stage.

The Design stage is where requirements are translated into solutions. We use lots of techniques to help ensure that our products are as easy to use and clearly focused on customer goals. Our designers have tons of experience building and using complex applications, and draw heavily on these lessons to determine what works and what doesn’t work. Proven design principles also play into our decision making, and help us draw on the wisdom of the collective industry.

The most important aspect of the design process is our iterative approach to design, including frequent and early validation. Design is not a “one and done” proposition – rarely do you get it right the first time. The more we live with the problem and chip away at the complexity of the solution, the more likely we are to arrive at an elegant and simple product. This likelihood is made even greater when we get user feedback on these solutions early in the process from lots of users.

The extra step that is key to refining and fully understanding a design is also the one that software designers often skip. Validation with users provides a whole different perspective on the solution, and at Blackbaud we are fortunate to have usability engineers on staff that can help coordinate and facilitate frequent usability testing sessions.

Our goal is to perform these tests as early and as often as possible. This often means testing with incomplete builds or even rough prototypes, but the feedback is always incredibly insightful. By mixing this validation with an iterative design process, we are able to build our confidence in our solutions and increase the chances of delivering products that delight our customers.