Ease of use differentiates products in a highly competitive market place. It also brings an added value that culminates in a higher degree of customer satisfaction, repeated business, increased sales, and higher revenue. User-centered design is a strategic asset that companies can use to improve their customer relationships by learning more about their customers, and increase their sales. In today's economy, the measurement of intangible assets such as user experience has become a major need for industries because of the relationship between user-centered design and organizational benefits such as customer loyalty. As companies realize that the inclusion of user-centered design concepts in product or system design are a key component of attracting and maintaining customers, as well as increasing revenue, the need for quantitative methods to describe these benefits has become more urgent. The goal of this research is to develop a methodology to characterize user-centered design features, customer benefits and organizational benefits resulting from developing products using user-centered design principles through the use of an integrated framework of critical factors. Therefore, this research focuses on the identification of the most significant variables required to assess and measure the degree of user-centered design (UCD) characteristics included in the various aspects of product development such as physical design features, cognitive design attributes, industrial design aspects and user experience design considerations. Also this research focuses on the development of assessment tools for developers to use when evaluating the incorporation of user-centered design features in the creation of products and systems. In addition, a mathematical model to quantify the inclusion of UCD factors considered in the design of a product and systems is presented in this research. The results obtained using the assessment tools and the mathematical model can be employed to assess the customer benefits and organizational benefits resulting from including user-centered design features in the creation of products and systems. Overall, organizational benefits such as customer loyalty, company image, and profitability are expected to be impacted by the company's capability to meet or exceed stated design claims and performance consistency while maintaining aesthetic appeal, long product life, and product usefulness. The successful completion of this research has produced many beneficial research findings. For example, it has helped characterize and develop descriptors for estimating critical quantitative and qualitative components, sub-components, and factors influencing user-centered design that are related to customer and organizational benefits through the use of fuzzy set modeling. In addition, the development of specific tools, methods, and techniques for evaluating and quantifying UCD components resulted from this study.

In today’s society, businesses and organizations are facing increasing challenges to change and adapt to a digitizing world. In order to stay relevant in the market, businesses need to work constantly on developing and improving the efficiency of its various processes. This study is designed as a case study at MittSverige Vatten & Avfall which is a municipal corporation in Sundsvall municipality. Its goal is to be a leader in its sector by the year 2021. The study’s objective was to investigate if the digitization of information gathering could bring benefit to a company and its customers. The investigation has focused on the digitization of information gathering from the customer's water meter. The study's objective has been to identify and analyze how digitization impacts business processes and its financial condition with help from value stream mapping and a customer survey. The study was conducted with the support of written and web based literary sources. A survey as well as interviews was conducted. An investment analysis has been conducted to study and evaluate the benefits that the investment brings the customer and MittSverige Vatten & Avfall regarding cost. The study proved that the digitization of water meters would mean an improvement for both MittSverige Vatten & Avfall and its customers. / Verksamheter och organisationer står i dagens samhälle framför ökande utmaningar till förändringar och anpassning till en digitaliserande värld. För att kunna fortsätta vara relevant på marknaden så behöver verksamheter arbeta ständigt med utveckling och effektivisering av dess olika processer. Denna studie är utförd som en fallstudie hos MittSverige Vatten & Avfall som är ett kommunalt bolag i Sundsvall kommun. Studien hade som syfte att undersöka vad digitalisering av informationsinhämtning kunde tillföra för nytta för ett företag och dess kunder. Undersökningen har fokuserat på digitalisering av informationsinhämtning från kundens vattenmätare. Studien har haft som mål att kartlägga och analysera digitaliseringens effekt på verksamhetens processer och ekonomiskt tillstånd med hjälp av värdeflödesanalys och kundundersökning. En enkät och intervjuer har utförts. En investeringsanalys har utförts för att studera och värdera nyttan som investeringen tillför kunden och MittSverige Vatten & Avfall med hänsyn till kostnaden. Studien bevisade att en digitalisering av vattenmätare skulle innebära en förbättring för både MittSverige Vatten & Avfall och dess kunder.