Fraunhofer IAO: Business Model Co-Creator

I delivered this project in a team of two: a software engineer and me. Besides my work as UX Designer, I also took on project management. This included all client communication, organising the alignment meetings and documenting the project.

The client’s project brief contained detailed requirements and some guidance on the tool’s visual impression. Based on it, I developed a rough architecture and first design concepts. The client’s core idea was a circular diagram: rings representing the dimensions of a business model, and segments representing stakeholders.

What exactly are service networks? What kinds of business models exist, and what are they for? How do consultants use business models, and what does the consulting process look like? These were just a few of the questions I tackled in the first phase of the project.

In-depth research and numerous discussions with the clients helped me grasp the subject as a whole. Besides the project brief, we received a detailed description of every phase of the context of use: from the network members joining forces and commissioning Fraunhofer, through workshop preparation and the workshop itself, to the final evaluation. Since I could not accompany consultants during their process, this description was a valuable substitute.

The main challenge was presenting large amounts of text data in a clear, well-organised way. The data was collected from all stakeholders of a service network via LimeSurvey. Consultants needed to analyse, compare and rearrange it, get a quick overview and dig deeper wherever necessary.

The tool also had to be scalable and support different business model types (Business Model Canvas, St. Galler Dreieck (Magic Triangle), INDiGeR Model), so its content had to be dynamically adjustable.

Beyond collecting and organising data, consultants had to present and reorganise it live in workshops together with all participants. I therefore designed an architecture with two modes: a “Working Mode” for collecting, organising and preparing the data, and a “Presentation Mode” for the workshop itself.

The “Working Mode” offers a broad overview of all data from all network members. During my research I realised that the initial circular representation of network members and business model dimensions would not meet the tool’s purpose or the users’ needs. I therefore switched to dynamic tables, with columns for network members and rows for dimensions. Consultants can create individual views by collapsing or hiding content and expanding details where needed.

The “Presentation Mode” shows the organised content in a Metaplan-style layout (card-based workshop moderation). Tags created by the consultant appear as cards containing all tagged content. Each text snippet stays traceable to its source, so its context can be viewed when needed. Cards and snippets can be moved via drag and drop, which updates the tags accordingly.

Before refining the visual design, I built a clickable prototype in Adobe XD and shared it with the client.

Working within Fraunhofer’s brand colours and fonts, I built the visual design around generous white space and a clear structure, so that large amounts of text stay easy to scan. A set of meaningful icons helps users navigate between the two modes (Working Mode and Presentation Mode) and between different levels of complexity.

For tagging and commenting, I designed clear, intuitive context menus that give users the freedom to create tags and organise data as they need.

Each tag has its own colour, so related information is easy to recognise throughout the tool. Different visualisations of tagged content (clusters on the start screen, Metaplan view in Presentation Mode) provide a quick overview of the core topics. Users can jump back and forth between tagged snippets and their source or wider context, which keeps them oriented at all times.

The tool was tested internally by the client’s consultants, but only after it was fully implemented. Testing this late is never ideal, yet it happens often when clients lack the resources. Fortunately, it caused no problems here: we were in close, regular contact with the client, who in turn stayed in close contact with the consultants.

When the results were presented to us, we learned that another team had developed a second tool for the same requirements, so we effectively got A/B testing results. Apart from a few small change requests (e.g. making the type slightly darker), the whole team of consultants was enthusiastic and agreed that the tool made their work much easier.

“I’ve been in consulting for over 20 years and have seen many digital tools, often developed by huge teams, but I have never seen such a helpful and easy-to-use tool as yours.”Consultant feedback after testing the tool

The other team’s tool used the circular diagram look that I had dismissed during my research. It was perceived as visually pleasing but confusing and difficult to use.

Extensive research at the start of a project is always worth the time. It allowed me to give the client well-founded advice and ultimately led to a product that consultants found genuinely useful.