Exploring User-Centric Innovation
At the MUX-unit, we're dedicated to addressing a pivotal question: "How can innovations and digital technologies not only fulfill user needs and expectations but also generate economic value?" In a fast-paced era of digital advancement, our mission is to enhance user experiences by alleviating challenges and maximizing benefits, unlocking their full potential value. As researchers in the social sciences, we strive to inform and educate users about impactful innovations, recognizing that their true potential is realized through acceptance and effective utilization. This requires bridging groundbreaking innovations—from engineering to life sciences, linguistics, retail, and services—with social sciences research.
Our Focus
The MUX-unit operates primarily in two key areas. First, we conduct user, market, and business modeling research within the expansive media landscape, including advertising, broadcasting, online news, social media, publishing, and audiovisual production. Our emphasis is on personalized and immersive media experiences. Second, we delve into retail and consumer service marketing, exploring digitalization at the frontline and advancements in consumer well-being through technology-enabled services.
Methodological Innovation
Our methodological toolkit is diverse and comprehensive. Central to our approach is the use of a multidisciplinary living lab framework. This framework facilitates the design, development, and adoption of future products or services by involving stakeholders throughout the innovation cycle. We actively guide and coordinate prototype development, ensuring that all stakeholders have a voice in the decision-making process. We also study usage context, investigating how people interact with technology in their daily lives. To achieve this, we employ various methods such as co-creation, focus groups, interviews, observations, surveys, and experimental designs.
Enhancing User Experience
Our user research aims to optimize user experiences and promote the adoption of innovations. We identify both barriers and drivers for initial adoption and continued usage of technologies, thereby reducing costs from development through to end-of-lifecycle decision-making. We integrate user research with market analysis and business model configuration, evaluating market potential, required resources, stakeholders, and feasible business models. This approach ensures alignment between user needs and business strategies.
Key Research Areas
Our research unit specializes in personalized and immersive media, retail and consumer services marketing, transformative consumer and service research, persuasive communication, user-centered design methodologies, living labs, and social marketing.