Digital impact is more than a frictionless interface
Digital products always originate from an intention. We often attempt to capture their success through data—such as conversion rates, retention, or the number of active users. Numbers provide a sense of control; they suggest that we know precisely whether an intervention is working. Yet, a dashboard rarely tells the whole story.
At Unc Inc, we frequently work on societal challenges, ranging from the energy transition to debt counseling. In the context of such complex issues, a digital solution never stands alone. Success, in these cases, is the sum of our clients’ strategies, the quality of the content, and the implementation within the physical world.
The numbers don’t tell the whole story
In the digital sector, the focus is often on what can be directly measured on a screen. We steer our efforts based on conversion rates or the time a user spends on a platform. The implicit assumption is that an efficient interface automatically leads to a successful social outcome. However, optimizing a specific action is something entirely different from achieving a goal. A product might be technically perfect, guiding a user through a process without any friction—yet that process itself may fail to align with the needs of the target audience or the operational workflows of the organization. Usage, in and of itself, says very little about the quality of the outcome. You could build a process that generates thousands of sign-ups, but if those sign-ups prove unusable for the organization responsible for executing the service, the social value is zero. The success of our work is not defined by the action taken on a screen, but by what that action sets in motion throughout the rest of the chain.
Navigating at Three Levels
To determine whether we are building the right thing, we must view the digital product as a link within a larger system. This requires a clear distinction between three levels of outcomes:
- Output (The product): Is the solution robust, secure, and accessible to everyone? This is the foundation we establish by bringing strategy, design, and technology together into a functional tool.
- Outcome (The behavior): Does the user understand the information, and are they prompted to take the appropriate next step? This emerges from the synergy between our interaction design and the client’s subject-matter expertise.
- Impact (The mission): Does this facilitate the societal change our client envisions? While we generally do not measure the impact ourselves, we design the product in such a way that it makes the greatest possible contribution to the organization’s objectives.
Designing for the shared ambition
Because societal value often only becomes apparent outside the application itself, focusing on the ultimate goal must be a deliberate design choice. This compels us to ask critical questions from the outset: What assumptions are we making about how this product contributes to the client’s mission? How does the interface ensure that the user not only completes a task but also receives meaningful, high-quality support?
This requires a level of business maturity where we do not claim the entire impact for ourselves. Instead, it is about gaining a precise understanding of how the interface we build strengthens the rest of the organization.
Ultimately, our work at Unc Inc is a success when the interactions we design pave the way for the change the client aims to achieve. Our value lies not in the code itself, but in ensuring that this code contributes optimally to a real-world outcome.
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