Additionally, these leaders recognize their role is to provide the business with appropriate tools sanctioned by IT and fit within their technology strategies<\/a>.<\/p>\n What not enough business and IT leaders recognize, however, is that while tools drive the enabling of business-led IT initiatives, citizen developers<\/a> still need skills, aptitudes and capabilities that are often overlooked. These skills, aptitudes and capabilities belong to the realm of digital design practices and are imperative in today\u2019s business environments to ensure employees, customers, partners, and vendors adopt the solutions citizen developers<\/a> create.<\/strong><\/p>\n The challenge is that organizations are deploying tools and teams without the rigor of product design expertise. They are producing to produce, but without the safeguards of usability and visual design to help achieve the purpose and goal of the software they are creating.<\/p>\n Design, as we define it at Centric, is the visualization of intelligence. Without the proper process, techniques, methods, and inputs design experts bring to the table, the solutions often fail and require immense amounts of refactoring. While refactoring is much simpler with the low-code\/no-code solutions<\/a> that Microsoft Power Platform<\/a>, Salesforce<\/a>, UiPath<\/a>, Outsystems, Mendix, and other tools provide, the results of citizen developers\u2019 work are still digital products and solutions. That means they should be somewhat derived by designers who are formally trained and skilled in turning user needs into useful, meaningful solutions.<\/strong><\/p>\n Before we talk about what organizations should consider doing with their citizen development programs to ensure design inclusion, let\u2019s address the tooling side of the equation and what capabilities they do \u2014 and do not \u2014 offer.<\/p>\n Now that we know a few of the pros and cons from the tool side, let\u2019s return to what citizen developers need to succeed. We firmly believe organizations need to integrate design skills for both user experience and interface design into their citizen developer programs. Design-savvy citizen developers will create products users will adopt faster and use more.<\/strong> These products also require less maintenance in the long run, driving down the value of cost and increasing productivity.<\/p>\n Here is what you need to ensure the success and inclusion of design in your citizen development efforts:<\/p>\n If you stand up DesignOps around the idea of citizen development, you can benefit from faster adoption, more longevity, and lower costs of your investments. While attention to design should not prevent you from exploring citizen development, it is essential to the long-term success of your citizen developer program \u2014 and it will set you apart from your competitors.<\/p>\n \n Why Use Design in Citizen Development<\/h2>\n
Some of the pros:<\/h3>\n
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Some of the cons:<\/h3>\n
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Successful Citizen Development Design<\/h2>\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n