Vercel v0 transforms text inputs into functional UI components
Every draft can be tested immediately as a live preview
Unic combines tool expertise with human-centered design
Figma import and GitHub integration ensure a smooth transition into development
Clients receive a validated concept – not just a mockup
The journey from idea to first visible result takes too long in many projects. Lengthy coordination rounds, complex setups, and a lack of early feedback stifle innovation. This costs not only time – it costs decision-making confidence.
Vercel automatically optimizes the deployment of Next.js and other modern frontend applications. Every commit generates a live preview. Edge optimization ensures fast load times – without complex setup. For our clients, this means: every draft can be tested, shared, and further developed immediately.
Vercel v0 is an AI-powered development tool. It takes natural language or rough sketches and generates UI components from them. In our workshops, this happens in three steps:
Goal definition – We sketch out the goal and core features together.
Instant visualization – Vercel v0 delivers initial components, directly as a live preview.
Feedback loop – Clients see the result live, provide feedback, and we adjust in real time.
Important: Vercel v0 does not deliver a finished product. It is a powerful tool for the early ideation phase. Our strength lies in steering the tool with precision – knowing its possibilities and its limits.
Many agencies work either in design or in technology. Unic bridges both worlds. Our grounding in enterprise and business architecture, combined with our expertise in customer experience, enables us to extract valuable proof of concept from the raw prototype immediately:
Value proposition maps that clearly communicate the benefit
User flows that visualize the journey of users
Technical feasibility checks with backend integration perspectives
Clients receive not just a mockup – but a well-founded basis for decision-making. Within hours rather than days.
Existing Figma files can be imported into Vercel v0. Designers and developers can thus close the gap between design tools and AI-powered development. Via the GitHub integration, generated components can be versioned, reviewed, and incorporated directly into the existing codebase. A continuous flow without interruptions.
A mid-sized mechanical engineering company wanted to test a new customer portal before investing in full development. In a workshop session, we outlined the goal and core features – with particular attention to the industry-typical buying center structures of their clients. We then generated initial UI components and deployed them directly via the Vercel infrastructure. Within a few days, clients provided concrete feedback. The result: a validated concept that moved directly into the next development phase – approximately three weeks earlier than with the classic approach.
How can loyal existing customers of a physical product be engaged in the digital space? We answered this question together with a company from the greeting card and gift industry as part of a rapid prototyping project. Using purposefully designed landing pages linked via QR codes directly on the product, initial approaches for cross-selling potential and digital value-added services emerged – quickly, iteratively, and close to the real user experience.
This approach is suited for companies that have an idea for a website, app, or digital product – and need quick initial results without waiting months for a clickable dummy. We combine the speed of Vercel v0 with strategic guidance. This means you will have a tangible result in your hands after a short time and can make well-informed decisions.
On 20 May 2026 at SCORE! in Zurich, we are offering selected companies the opportunity to transform their idea into a first, testable prototype together with us.
Bring your challenge – we bring speed, tools, and expertise.
]]>For manufacturing companies, the quality of customer experiences is increasingly becoming the decisive competitive factor. Not because the product has become less important, but because customers today expect digital services, self-service portals, and proactive communication to work just as seamlessly as the machine itself. B2B customers are transferring expectations from the B2C space to their business interactions: intuitive interfaces, transparent processes, and information available around the clock.
At the same time, complexity is increasing. Technical documentation in multiple languages, customer-specific pricing and assortments, integration into ERP and procurement systems. All of this must be mapped digitally. And it must work for different roles: decision-makers need different information than maintenance technicians, and buyers need different information than design engineers.
In this dossier, we share what we at Unic have learned about digital customer solutions through our work with manufacturing companies. We share experiences from concrete projects, where things were difficult and what solutions emerged.
Our experts share knowledge on customer experience in manufacturing: in specialist articles, guides, and practical contributions. Each article examines a specific aspect, from strategic foundations and organisational challenges to concrete digital solutions. The articles are based on experiences from our projects with manufacturing companies and are continuously updated.
At Unic, we support manufacturing companies in the conception and implementation of digital customer solutions – from strategic analysis through to go-live and beyond. Our work encompasses customer portals, B2B e-commerce platforms, content systems, and integration into existing ERP, PIM, and CRM landscapes.
What sets our projects apart: we never start with the technology, but with the customer journeys and the people who go through them. In every project, we conduct UX research with end customers, analyse buying centres, and map system landscapes before designing solutions. This approach ensures that our solutions not only work technically, but are actually used.
The results from our projects speak for themselves: significant reduction in sales enquiries through self-service, measurable revenue increases in the spare parts business, and NPS improvements that demonstrate how better digital touchpoints strengthen the entire customer relationship.
We support you in analysing customer journeys, prioritising use cases, and developing a roadmap for the further development of your digital customer solutions.
Customer experience is the subjective perception of a customer that arises from all interactions with a manufacturing company – across products, services, and digital and human touchpoints. It encompasses all phases from the first point of contact through the purchasing process to use, maintenance, and potential reprocurement.
Customer experience itself cannot be directly designed, as it is a subjective perception of the customer. What can be designed are touchpoints, processes, content, and services that enable and influence customer experiences. The focus lies on the systematic improvement of these elements along relevant customer journeys.
Particularly impactful are digital touchpoints such as customer portals, service processes, e-commerce solutions, and IIoT-based services relating to machinery and the shopfloor. The consistency between different channels, the availability of relevant information, and the quality of personal interactions with sales and service teams also significantly influence perception.
Touchpoints are the places where interaction between the customer and the company occurs. Their quality, consistency, and relevance determine how customers perceive the working relationship. Every touchpoint influences the overall experience that emerges – positively or negatively.
Digital customer solutions consolidate touchpoints and make complex products and services usable. They are central enablers of positive customer experiences because they enable self-service, create transparency, accelerate processes, and allow for personalised interactions.
Since multiple roles are typically involved in industrial purchasing processes, customer experiences arise on a role-specific basis. A decision-maker experiences the interaction differently from an end user or buyer. Touchpoints must therefore take into account different information and usage contexts in order to be relevant to all parties involved.
They enable proactive, data-driven services. Customers experience greater transparency regarding the condition of their systems and machinery, reliability through predictive maintenance, and better planning of their operations – provided these services are made accessible via suitable touchpoints.
Many initiatives fail because attempts are made to design customer experience directly, rather than systematically improving touchpoints, value streams, and responsibilities. Further common reasons include organisational silos, insufficient resources, and a lack of measurability of success.
Successful transformations are characterised by clear prioritisation, consistent customer orientation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and an iterative approach. They continuously deliver business value, measure progress against concrete KPIs, and empower the organisation to develop independently.
Success is measured at multiple levels: customer satisfaction (e.g. Net Promoter Score, Customer Satisfaction Score), behaviour (e.g. usage rates of digital services, self-service rate), business outcomes (e.g. revenue development, service margin, customer retention), and operational metrics (e.g. process cycle times, support requests, error rates).
]]>In 2006, Simon Sinek put forward a simple yet powerful thesis: successful organisations start with the ‘why’, not with the ‘what’ or the ‘how’. The ‘why’ is not just mission statement rhetoric. It describes a conviction. The reason why an organisation exists. The inner drive behind decisions. We have adopted this model and developed it further. Today, our Why, How, What is not an external narrative, but part of our identity. It forms the basis for how we design, evaluate and further develop digital experiences. And above all, it ensures one thing: people remain the starting point for every decision.
People aren't interested in who you are and what you do. They want to know why you do it.
Simon Sinek
Our framework fulfils three key functions:
Guidance – decisions can be consistently measured against our purpose
Differentiation – our ‘why’ sets us apart in a substantive, not merely superficial, way
Connection – a shared conviction, embraced by everyone at Unic
That is our purpose. Not just a slogan, but a mindset. Customer experience is our guiding star, setting the direction for every decision we make. We firmly believe that the best digital experiences don’t stem from technology, but from a genuine understanding of people. Technology is a means to an end. Not the end itself.
We focus on impact, not features
A poor example would be: “We’ve built a React application with a headless CMS.”
What matters is: “People now find what they’re looking for in two minutes instead of eight.”
We measure success by results, not by activity
30% higher conversion rates
40% fewer support enquiries
50% faster time-to-market
These aren’t just marketing figures. They’re the basis for decision-making.
We develop solutions that people actually want to use
Technical excellence is a prerequisite, but it is never enough. A solution must be easy to understand. It must break down barriers. It must provide reassurance. And it must stand the test of everyday use.
A practical example from our work
In a major e-commerce project, we radically simplified the checkout process. Returning customers can place an order with a single click. New customers now need to fill in just five fields instead of thirteen.
The result:
+30 % conversion rate
significantly better qualitative feedback
This isn’t just a minor UX detail. It’s customer experience with a measurable impact.
For us, customer experience is not an abstract concept, but the benchmark for our day-to-day actions. It serves as our guiding star: in collaboration, decision-making and prioritisation. Our purpose only works if it is consistently put into practice. The following four principles therefore shape the way we work.
We operate within an open, respectful culture of communication. For us, diversity is not an ideal to strive for, but a reality. Appreciation is not just a buzzword.
In practical terms, this means:
We listen before we make recommendations
We speak our minds – clearly, constructively and honestly
We work as equals – both internally and externally
When launching projects, we deliberately bring together different perspectives: strategy, UX, technology and the customers themselves. Because better solutions don’t come from working in silos, but from collaboration.
We operate on a self-organised basis, following the Holacracy model. Not out of ideology, but out of conviction. Decisions are made where the knowledge lies – not where hierarchies end.
This leads to:
faster decision-making
greater responsibility
adaptive teams
When a UX issue arises, the design team makes the decision. Not management. This saves time and improves quality.
TQMI (Total Quality Management Integration) provides us with structure. But we are not process purists.
Our principle: as much structure as necessary. As much freedom as possible.
Code reviews are standard practice. The team decides on the format: pair programming, a brief review or an in-depth analysis – depending on the context. For us, process is not an end in itself. It serves quality. Not the other way round.
We are actively shaping the trends of tomorrow: AI, sustainability, new ways of working.
We make a conscious effort to create space for this:
Time for in-house initiatives
In-house programmes on new technologies
Collaborations with universities and start-ups
We started experimenting with generative AI early on. Today, we integrate AI where it delivers real added value and measurably improves the customer experience.
Customer experience is the common thread that runs through everything we do. It brings together strategy, design, marketing and technology to form a coherent whole. We develop digital experiences that captivate people and drive businesses forward.
A clear direction. Well-informed decisions.
We help organisations prioritise the right digital initiatives – ones that are feasible, scalable and effective.
Your added value:
clear decision-making criteria
measurable ROI scenarios
strategies that can be implemented internally
When people come first.
We design experiences that are intuitive, break down barriers and are used in the long term.
Your added value:
30% higher conversion rates thanks to optimised user journeys
40% less support required thanks to intuitive interfaces
Design decisions based on real user needs
Relevance rather than reach.
We develop data-driven, personalised marketing strategies with measurable results.
Your added value:
25% lower acquisition costs thanks to precise targeting
Higher customer lifetime value through relevant communication
Automation that takes the pressure off – not adds to the complexity
Technology that grows with you.
We build scalable, flexible architectures that can be developed further – without having to start from scratch every time.
Your added value:
50% faster time-to-market
Systems with true autonomy
Reduced technical debt
Our Why, How and What aren’t just words on a wall. They guide our day-to-day decisions.
Before we suggest a solution, we ask: Why do you need this? What problem are we actually solving? Only then do we discuss the how and the what.
Here’s an example: A client wanted a new website. During our discussion, it became clear that the real problem was the high bounce rate at the checkout stage. So that’s where we focused our efforts – with measurable success.
We don’t just develop features. We ask: How does this feature influence the user experience? Does it make the solution better for people?
For example: instead of 20 filter options, we’ve developed 5 that are genuinely useful. Users can find what they’re looking for more quickly. The technical complexity is lower.
We organise ourselves into Circles (Holacracy). Each Circle has a clear purpose. And the autonomy to put that purpose into practice.
For example: The ‘Experience Design Circle’ makes its own decisions regarding design processes and standards. This makes us more efficient and leads to better results.
Many people talk about customer experience. Few put it into practice consistently.
It is an attitude. An interdisciplinary responsibility. One that is ingrained in our DNA.
This means: designers focus on performance. Developers focus on usability. Strategists focus on the emotional impact. Everyone focuses on people.
Do you just need UX research? Or a complete transformation? We adapt to your needs – not the other way round.
That means: no rigid packages. No vendor lock-ins. Just a genuine partnership.
30% more conversions. 20% lower support costs. These are the figures that matter. Not the number of technologies used.
In other words: our project references demonstrate business impact. Not just technical details.
Our framework is not set in stone. It evolves alongside us.
What has become clearer:
CX as an explicit approach across all areas
A more modular, interoperable offering
Focus on business impact rather than feature descriptions
Forward-looking approach as an integral part of our methodology
What remains:
Our purpose: We make digital human.
Our belief: People first.
Our approach: self-organised, process-oriented where appropriate, forward-looking.
Our Why, How and What serve as our compass. They ensure that our work remains relevant – for people as well as for organisations.
For our clients, this means working with a partner who knows why they do what they do. A partner who doesn’t just build solutions, but creates experiences that make a real difference.
For us, it means: Clarity. Direction. And the ability to measure every decision against our purpose.
]]>Truly innovative solutions emerge where empathy meets technology – and where we are prepared to keep evolving.
Lorenzo Mutti, User Experience Director, Unic
The problem doesn't lie in the data itself, but in the gap between technical master data and what B2B customers actually need at various touchpoints. Your customers - often complex buying centers - expect complete, consistent, and context-relevant information: in the customer portal, on marketplaces, or in direct sales. Many companies don't clearly enough separate technical product data from sales-promoting product information.
The result: inefficient processes, inconsistent communication, and missed revenue opportunities.
At Unic, we close exactly this gap together with our customers - using Akeneo as the technological foundation.
]]>Traffic drop without a decline in demand: AI assistants answer search queries directly. Users click on websites less often, even though they continue to search for information.
New metrics instead of old KPIs: Measure your brand presence with key performance indicators (KPIs) such as brand mentions, number of citations, prompt gap and entity coverage. Our KPI overview provides guidance and shows you how to measure success across all relevant channels and interactions.
Act now: Many companies still measure by old standards and do not realise that their digital strategy is losing its effectiveness.
The online marketing landscape is currently undergoing one of the biggest changes since Google was founded almost three decades ago. AI-driven search technologies such as Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, as well as third-party systems such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude, have rapidly gained popularity and fundamentally changed users' search behaviour.
According to Sistrix, ChatGPT has achieved a market share of 9% after only a few years and records between 0.57 and 1.31 billion relevant search queries every day.
These changes are reducing traffic on many websites without diminishing users' need for information. Parent portals, baby websites and health portals with informative content are particularly affected, as a recent study by Sistrix shows. This content is increasingly being integrated into zero-click searches. The simpler and more well-founded the information is, the more likely it is to be returned by AI-driven search technologies, e.g. a postcode or the maximum amount for a pillar 3a pension plan.
We are also observing this trend at Unic. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we saw a decline in traffic among various customers, in some cases by up to 32% compared to the same period last year.
These developments raise the question of what role a company's own digital presence will play in the future. Marketing managers need to rethink their strategies for digital visibility, starting with metrics and KPIs and the question of what success actually means in the digital world.
Until now, website traffic has been considered one of the most frequently cited KPIs in digital marketing, even though in many cases it has never been a business-relevant metric. However, the increasing importance of AI-driven search engines is changing the rules of the game. Today, other metrics such as brand visibility, brand mentions and citations in AI-driven search engines are increasingly coming to the fore. Users receive answers directly from third-party systems without even visiting websites. Brands that are not present here risk losing potential customers at the very beginning of their journey.
Traffic-focused performance measurement is therefore problematic because it can lead to false conclusions. A decline in traffic can be misinterpreted as a loss of interest or demand, even though the actual goal of customer loyalty and conversion remains unchanged.
That's why brands today need to develop a more complete picture of their digital presence and success.
To meet the new requirements in digital marketing, we at Unic have compiled a KPI overview. The overview divides metrics into four levels, which together provide a comprehensive picture of digital presence:
Business Value
Engagement Rate
Brand Presence
Technical Foundation
Each of these categories includes specific KPIs that enable companies to precisely tailor their digital strategy. The KPIs at the business value, engagement and technical foundation levels are primarily measured on the company's own platform.
The KPIs for brand presence require a cross-channel analysis that includes all relevant AI-supported search systems. In addition, metrics from social networks, podcasts and other external touchpoints can be added.
As described in the article ‘Search Everywhere Optimisation’, digital visibility is increasingly shifting from individual search engines to a networked ecosystem of search and response systems. In this context, Search Everywhere Optimisation encompasses not only expanding presence across different channels, but also measuring cross-channel visibility.
In our view, the following metrics are becoming increasingly important:
Conversion rate from AI traffic: What is the conversion rate for users who arrive at the website via AI-driven traffic?
Referral traffic: How many users land on our website via LLM referrers? Which URLs receive particularly high traffic?
Engagement rate: How high is the engagement from AI-generated traffic?
Brand Mentions: How often is our brand mentioned in LLM responses?
Citations: How often is our website or content cited as a source in LLM responses?
Entity Coverage: Which entities or topics is our brand associated with?
Prompt Gap: For which prompt queries do our competitors appear, but our brand does not? What are our competitors doing differently from us?
Requests from LLM-Bots (user-triggered): How often do user-initiated LLM bots access the content on our website? What specific content is requested?
The overview presented above is not exhaustive and varies depending on business objectives, industry and other aspects. We note that existing KPIs are still relevant, but need to be supplemented by new metrics from AI-generated search in order to obtain a complete overview of user behaviour and the success of digital measures.
AI-powered search engines are not just a trend, but the future of digital marketing. Marketing experts must now lay the necessary foundations to enable data-driven decision-making in the new era.
An important first step is open dialogue with all relevant stakeholders. Only through transparent communication and clear expectations can all parties involved understand and support the necessary changes. This process creates a common foundation on which the entire strategy can be built.
A thorough review and adaptation to new KPIs are important next steps in successfully mastering the change.
At Unic, we offer a KPI workshop in which we work with you to analyse your business and online goals and translate them into measurable KPIs. This ensures a clear focus and enables you to measure concrete successes.
One of our customers in the travel and tourism industry experienced a halving of their click-through rate over several months following the launch of Google AI Overviews, while at the same time doubling their impressions in organic search according to Google Search Console.
Conversions on the website also increased during this period, which, given the consistently high customer demand, suggests an increase in zero-click searches. The customer therefore continues to focus strongly on conversion figures, and it is therefore important to enable the team to measure conversion paths on the website in a way that is both clean and compliant with data protection regulations.
Measure what really matters and adapt your digital strategies to the new circumstances. Question old KPIs and focus on brand presence in AI-driven search engines. Those who fail to act now risk losing digital visibility and missing the boat.
In our KPI workshop, we work with you to analyse which metrics are truly relevant for your company and how you can align your digital strategy with them.
]]>AI does not automate UX, but shifts the focus to earlier project phases.
Teams use AI tools for research, synthesis and rapid prototyping.
The value of UX increasingly lies in interpretation and strategic alignment.
Systemic thinking is becoming a core competence of UX professionals.
Whether UX rises strategically depends on how organisations use these skills.
AI is changing the way UX teams work. But not in the way many expected. I am observing this in current teams and projects.
AI does not automate design or generate unusual solutions. Instead, it quietly shifts where UX creates value. This value now arises earlier in the process. It is closer to daily collaboration. AI helps teams structure ideas. It supports the exploration of alternatives. And it encourages reflection on decisions.
This article shows what I am currently observing. It examines how AI is shifting UX work away from implementation and towards interpretation, direction and strategic impact.
What I'm observing is not a reduction of UX to tool usage. It's a redistribution of work towards earlier and more strategic activities.
AI-powered UX tools rarely create finished interfaces. Their value lies elsewhere. They help teams move from abstract requirements to concrete starting points. This happens much earlier than before.
This applies not only to interface design, but also to research and synthesis. Teams use AI for various tasks:
Creating early personas from existing data
Outlining user flows
Summarising input from interviews or workshops
In a project with a strong regulatory focus, the team faced the challenge of translating highly complex content into an understandable structure. The content was legal in nature, consisted of different document types and had to work for very different target groups. With the help of AI, this content was systematically analysed and translated into clear content. AI helped to identify typical patterns, recurring information needs and implicit jobs to be done from the texts.
On this basis, logically structured frameworks with clear entry points and priorities were created. The added value lay not only in better wireframes, but above all in the fact that customers immediately understood the logic behind them: why content is arranged in such a way that it provides orientation and builds trust.
The result is a shift in focus. UX specialists spend less time on basic artefacts. Instead, they evaluate: Does the structure make sense? Does it support the users' goals? What compromises does it entail?
As current discussions in the UX community show, faster implementation alone is not enough. The bigger difference lies in the ability to understand problems. It's about classifying options and determining the direction. These skills remain difficult to automate.
An AI-UX stack refers to a series of AI-powered tools. UX teams use them for research, synthesis, exploration and early decisions in the design process.
In addition to the shift in focus, the tool landscape is also evolving. Many teams are putting together an AI-enhanced UX stack. It complements established design tools.
These tools support activities that used to be time-consuming or scattered:
Summarising research
Structuring information
Exploring alternatives
Recording decisions
Turning early ideas into tangible prototypes
What sets this stack apart is not a single dominant tool. It is a different distribution of use throughout the UX process.
Research tools such as Perplexity help to consolidate and structure input more quickly.
Note-taking and productivity tools reduce the effort required for coordination. They make decisions traceable.
Prototyping and coding tools such as Figma reduce the cost of experimentation. Teams can test assumptions earlier.
Together, these tools make it easier to visualise thinking. They encourage discussion in the early stages.
This change is important because it influences how decisions are made. And who influences them. It becomes easier to explore multiple options. Teams can test assumptions without starting from scratch. This brings UX work into conversations that previously took place without it. At moments when the direction is still negotiable.
This can significantly influence results:
Assumptions are questioned earlier.
Compromises become apparent earlier.
Teams are less likely to rush into a solution.
In practice, this difference is subtle but significant. Teams that use these tools consciously discuss structure, intent and consequences earlier on, rather than arguing about superficial details later.
However, the same tools can also reinforce poor practices. When speed replaces reflection, AI only accelerates the wrong decisions. The influence of the AI UX stack depends less on the tools and more on the maturity of the UX practice in which they are embedded.
This change is particularly noticeable in projects with a high degree of complexity and uncertainty. In such contexts, teams do not use AI to design solutions autonomously. They use AI as a thinking aid. This happens throughout the entire strategy and conception phase.
Another important use case was quickly familiarising oneself with complex technical areas. AI helped to understand technical public content from expert material, guidelines and published documents and quickly translate it into understandable language. On this basis, key concepts, dependencies and decision-making logic were identified and UX artefacts such as jobs-to-be-done, user tasks or simplified information architectures were quickly derived from them. The added value lay in penetrating technical complexity at an early stage and translating it into user-centred structures without having to rely on long familiarisation phases or pure translation work.
The contribution of AI lies in helping teams to:
Understand complex subject areas
Translate technical language into understandable explanations
Derive UX artefacts such as jobs-to-be-done or information architecture from specialist and expert material
These artefacts create a clearer, shared understanding. Unfortunately, they are sometimes still dismissed as informal. But the alignment and collaboration they generate are valuable.
In an AI-enhanced environment, the advantage no longer lies in how quickly teams produce UX artefacts. It lies in how well they deal with complexity.
UX professionals who have the following skills will become central to decision-making:
Lead the discovery phase
Summarise scattered findings
Work with data
Formulate implications for the product and organisation
Their value lies less in creating screens and more in shaping the direction. They combine user needs, system constraints and business objectives to make coherent decisions.
As AI takes on more and more implementation tasks, a question arises: Will UX professionals move into more strategic roles? Or will this opportunity remain untapped?
Answering this question requires some rethinking. What do we expect from UX beyond delivery?
Systemic thinking becomes central in this context. Products are evolving into networked ecosystems. They are no longer isolated points of contact. The ability to anticipate consequences is becoming crucial. What happens when part of the system changes?
UX professionals are often well positioned to anticipate consequences:
Across different user stations
Across departmental boundaries
To a certain extent, also across technical limitations
This means that compromises are made consciously rather than randomly.
Ultimately, the strategic upgrading of the UX role depends on organisations. Do they recognise and utilise these skills?
The question is no longer whether UX specialists can design interfaces efficiently. The question is: Are they empowered to help shape system behaviour? Can they anticipate consequences and make informed compromises before decisions are finalised?
AI does not redefine UX value through automation. It does so through leverage.
By making it easier to explore alternatives and develop solutions, something fundamental changes. It changes when and how UX can influence results.
In this context, UX creates less value by refining solutions. Value is created through better decision-making quality:
Clarifying trade-offs
Anticipating consequences
Aligning systems with human goals
Whether this potential becomes reality depends less on the tools. It depends on how organisations use UX capabilities.
]]>The Betty Bossi and Switzerland Travel Centre projects are both nominated for the Master of Swiss Web 2026 – out of 317 submissions.
A total of four Unic projects are on the shortlist: Betty Bossi, Switzerland Travel Centre, ETH Zurich, and Jungfraubahnen.
Betty Bossi: In 19 sprints, Unic combined three separate systems into a seamless customer experience for 2.1 million monthly users.
Switzerland Travel Centre: Headless architecture and seamless booking integration create a compelling alternative to global travel platforms.
Public voting for the Master begins on March 17 – Vote via the Netzticker newsletter (registration by March 16).
For 26 years, Best of Swiss Web has been recognizing the best digital projects in Switzerland. The Master candidates are of particular importance: out of 317 submissions, the expert jury selects only ten projects for the Master round. Two of them come from Unic.
This is not new for Unic. We have won the Master title at BOSW five times so far – more than any other Swiss agency. And we're familiar with double nominations: in 2021, Zurich Airport and CSS Insurance were simultaneously in the Master round; CSS won. In November 2025, at the sister competition Best of Swiss Apps, the 20 Minutes App and the Nordic Challenge "Everyone Runs Long" from Graubünden Tourism both won Gold. Now the pattern repeats itself at BOSW 2026 with Betty Bossi and Switzerland Travel Centre.
2.1 million people visit bettybossi.ch every month. That's an impressive reach, but it alone is not enough. When Unic started the project in 2022, the starting point was clear: recipes, e-commerce, and magazine functioned as three isolated islands. A user found the perfect spätzli recipe, but neither the matching spätzli maker from the shop nor complementary cooking tips from the magazine appeared. The path from inspiration to action was left to her.
In 19 sprints following the human-centered design process, Unic developed a new architecture together with Betty Bossi: Contentful as an intelligent connection layer over the existing backend systems. Recipe management, PIM, and ERP remained in place, but users experience a completely new interface. 25,000 pages are delivered via a CDN using Next.js as a static site generator. The Algolia search shows recipes, products, and magazine articles in a single results view. And content editors now work in a single system following the Atomic Content Model.
The jury's verdict: "A convincing combination of inspiring content and functional commerce. The visitor and success metrics also confirm the approach – a successful step towards a consistently interlocked content and commerce strategy."
Switzerland Travel Centre, or STC for short, is the official and largest provider of Swiss travel. The competition is not just any provider: it's the large global booking platforms with millions of offers, sophisticated algorithm marketing, and huge advertising budgets. In this environment, STC can't win with more, only with better.
The relaunch, which went live in March 2025, focuses on exactly this approach. Technically, a headless stack is at the center: Drupal 10 as CMS, Nuxt as frontend, Nezasa as booking tool, Cloudflare as CDN. Content-wise, curation is at the forefront: carefully selected "Once in a Lifetime" experiences, imagery that inspires a desire for Switzerland, and a booking process that can be completed in just a few steps. The related platforms swisshotels.com and swissrailways.com are seamlessly integrated.
The jury's verdict: "Intelligent process automation increases efficiency and trust. The result is strongly growing booking numbers, higher revenues, and a significantly increased basket value – a convincing alternative to global travel platforms."
The double Master nomination would be a strong result on its own. But Unic has even more on the shortlist in 2026: ETH Zurich and Jungfraubahnen.
The collaboration with ETH Zurich has been ongoing since 2018 and shows what continuous development means. 2,500 authors manage over 700 websites. Unic has developed a design system that combines consistency and editorial freedom: a unified grid, a structured color concept, a new navigation, and an Algolia-based search with auto-suggest for people, events, and content. All without a big-bang relaunch in continuous releases following a Scrum-based process.
The project for Jungfraubahnen focused on a completely different challenge: employer branding. Under the title "Eiger, Mönch & YOU," a recruiting platform was created that gives applicants an authentic insight into the daily work life at the mountain railway company: discover work locations, hear real employee testimonials, find suitable positions. The concept focuses on experiential quality rather than job listings: those who visit the platform should feel what it's like to work on the Jungfraujoch, not just read about it.
Betty Bossi, Switzerland Travel Centre, ETH Zurich, Jungfraubahnen – four industries, four starting situations, four different challenges. What they have in common: In none of these projects was the question "Which technology do we use?" the starting point. The starting point was always the question of how people should experience a digital interaction – and what is necessary to make this experience coherent, fast, and trustworthy.
This is not a given. It's an approach that Unic has developed over years and is reflected in this year's jury verdicts.
The title "Master of Swiss Web 2026" goes to the project with the highest total score from expert jury evaluation, public voting, and live voting at the Award Night. The award ceremony will take place on April 16, 2026, at "The Hall" in Dübendorf.
The Netzticker public voting starts on March 17. Those who want to vote must register for the newsletter by March 16: www.netzwoche.ch/newsletteranmeldung
Would you like to learn more about our projects? Talk to us.
]]>Customer Portals: Self-service, after-sales, and integration of product, service, and customer data as central touchpoints
E-Commerce: Complex product configurations, customer-specific pricing, and ERP integration (Punchout, OCI) as key features in manufacturing
Content Platforms: Technical documentation, multilingualism, and personalization by industry, role, and context
Customer portals are central touchpoints for digital interaction between manufacturing companies and their customers. They consolidate information, processes, and services in one place, enabling customers to independently access relevant content and initiate processes.
Modern customer portals enable self-service functions that give customers autonomy while simultaneously relieving internal resources. Customers can independently create service requests, view the status of their equipment, access maintenance reports, and order spare parts. These functions are particularly valuable when available 24/7 and require no media breaks.
After-sales processes such as complaints, returns, or warranty processing can be made transparent and traceable through customer portals. Customers can see the status of their requests, receive automatic notifications, and have access to all relevant documents. This reduces inquiries and builds trust through transparency.
For a Swiss manufacturer of industrial valves, we designed and implemented a customer portal that combines self-service, spare parts ordering, and service ticketing in one solution. The unique feature: We integrated the machine master data from the ERP directly into the portal, so customers automatically see the appropriate spare parts, documentation, and maintenance histories based on their machine number.
The biggest technical challenge was real-time price synchronization: Our client had over 40,000 customer-specific price agreements in SAP. We solved this with a middleware layer that responds to price inquiries in under 200ms.
Results after 12 months:
62% fewer telephone orders
41% increase in spare parts business revenue
Customer satisfaction in after-sales increased by 24 NPS points
The value creation of a customer portal is largely determined by the integration of various data sources. Product data from PIM systems, service information from CRM platforms, order histories from ERP systems, and technical documentation from DMS must be provided consistently and in context.
A customer creating a service request for a specific machine should automatically have access to the technical documentation for that machine, its maintenance history, and relevant spare parts. This contextual integration reduces search efforts and significantly increases the quality of interaction.
E-commerce solutions in manufacturing differ fundamentally from B2C online shops. They must represent complex product configurations, customer-specific prices, individual assortments, and technical specifications. At the same time, they should maximize the efficiency of ordering processes and integrate seamlessly with existing procurement systems.
Industrial products are often configurable, have technical dependencies, and require extensive specifications. E-commerce platforms must represent this complexity without compromising user-friendliness. Guided selling, intelligent product filters, and visual configurators help customers find the right products and specify them correctly.
Pricing in B2B manufacturing is rarely standardized. Customers have individual conditions, tiered pricing, framework agreements, and special arrangements. E-commerce solutions must correctly represent this pricing logic and display the relevant prices for each customer. This is the only way to create trust and transparency in the digital ordering process.
In an e-commerce project for a German manufacturer of hydraulic components, we learned that the biggest hurdle is not technology, but data quality. Our client had over 120,000 items in their ERP – but only 30% of them were maintained with complete product data and images. Before we could build the shop, we had to establish a data governance process with the client and prioritize the preparation of the most critical 15,000 items.
Our recommendation for manufacturing companies:
Don't start with the shop, start with the data. In our projects, we typically allocate 30-40% of the total budget for data preparation and integration. This proportion surprises many clients but is the decisive success factor.
For many industrial customers, integrating their e-procurement systems with their suppliers' e-commerce platforms is crucial. Standards like Punchout and OCI (Open Catalog Interface) allow customers to access the supplier's catalog from their internal system, select products, and transfer the shopping cart back to their system.
This seamless integration reduces manual entries, minimizes errors, and significantly accelerates processes. For manufacturing companies, however, this means that their e-commerce solutions must support these standards and be able to communicate with various procurement systems.
Content Management Systems form the basis for providing product information, technical documentation, instructions, and marketing content. In the manufacturing context, they must meet high requirements for multilingualism, versioning, technical precision, and personalization.
Technical documentation in the industrial environment is not just nice-to-have, but regulatory required and business-critical. Operating instructions, maintenance manuals, safety data sheets, and CE declarations of conformity must be available in the correct language, version, and for the respective product.
Content platforms must manage these documents in a structured manner, version them, and provide them in context. A service technician performing maintenance on-site must be able to access the exact documentation of the machine in front of them via their mobile device, including all relevant safety instructions and maintenance steps.
Not every customer needs the same information. A customer from the food industry has different regulatory requirements than one from the automotive industry. A maintenance technician needs different content than a purchaser. A long-standing customer with years of experience needs less basic information than a new customer.
Modern content platforms enable personalization at various levels: industry-specific content, role-based navigation, recommendations based on previous behavior, and contextual information provision. This personalization reduces information overload and increases the relevance of each interaction.
We bring experience from integrated manufacturing projects - from data architecture to go-live. Let's find out in an initial conversation where your biggest lever lies.
© Image: unsplash.com
]]>Starting point: Many pieces of content describe places or experiences but do not support planning
New focus: practical information instead of generic descriptions
Implementation: starting with the most visited destination and experience pages
What can you experience at the Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen? What sights are there in Zurichand the surrounding area? How much time should you plan for the Aare Gorge? Anyone planning a trip is looking for answers to concrete questions. We know this from a user survey – and we also know that users do not always find the answers as quickly as they would like.
A sample-based audit of existing pages on Switzerland.com revealed a recurring pattern: many pieces of content read like encyclopaedia entries. Detailed and factually correct, but of little help to people planning a trip. The texts explained history and background rather than showing what visitors can actually do there.
However, anyone planning an excursion needs practical information: Is it worth visiting? How much time should I allow? What can I expect on site?
When redesigning the destination and experience pages, we consistently changed perspective. Instead of asking, “What can we tell people about this place?”, we asked: “What do visitors want to know in order to plan this experience – and in what format?”
This turns a description of the Rhine Falls into a planning guide. A text about the history of a castle becomes a concrete visit suggestion with time estimates. Good content, however, offers more than pure facts. That is why we deliberately integrated tips and experiential knowledge into the texts: first-hand recommendations that genuinely enrich the visit.
We focused on the two most important page types: destinations and experiences. Together, they make up more than 5,000 pages and are therefore among the most relevant content on Switzerland.com. Both pursue different goals, but follow the same basic principle: help rather than describe. Destination pages function as digital travel guides, while experience pages provide the key information needed for an excursion or activity.
Not every improvement requires a complete relaunch. Targeted adjustments to structure and wording can significantly improve the user experience – and sometimes removing content helps too.
Two examples:
On destination pages, users previously had to scroll far down to find a city’s or region’s highlights. These are now placed prominently at the top of the page, where users expect them.
On experience pages, we removed redundant content that already exists elsewhere on the website.
Such optimisations can often be implemented with small adjustments in the CMS – without the need to develop new components. See for yourself: Grindelwald, Lucern oder Gelmerbahn.
We had a lot of good content, but often from the wrong perspective. Working with Unic helped us systematically adopt the user’s point of view. The result: pages that genuinely help, instead of merely informing.
Lilian Spörri, Senior Digital Content Manager, Schweiz Tourismus
The collaboration with Switzerland Tourism highlights a number of principles that also apply to other projects:
User focus: every piece of information must provide practical value
Quality over quantity: it is better to implement a manageable scope consistently than to try to do everything at once
Clarity: short, focused and easy-to-understand texts without empty phrases
Structure: a consistent structure makes orientation easier
Action orientation: active addressing instead of passive description
The redesign shows that good content starts with users’ questions. Information becomes a service when it answers the right questions – at the right time and in the right amount. And sometimes this does not require a revolution, but simply a change in perspective.
Image: Switzerland Tourism
]]>China's digital ecosystems offer concrete inspiration for European CX strategies. The most important transferable principles are:
Integrated ecosystems instead of silos: Super apps such as WeChat combine communication, payment, e-commerce and services in a single platform – a counterpoint to fragmented European customer journeys across multiple apps and touchpoints.
Seamless commerce: The fluid transition between content, social interaction and purchase reduces friction. Livestream shopping and in-app payments are standard there, not an experiment.
Service-first thinking: Instead of product categories, Chinese platforms think in terms of customer services – this changes the entire CX architecture and makes solutions more intuitive.
Pragmatic innovation: Fast, iterative solutions to real customer problems instead of years of perfectionism – a mindset that also works under European compliance requirements.
These models cannot be copied one-to-one, but the underlying principles are adaptable and offer concrete levers for innovation for European companies.
Many established companies in the DACH region operate within a familiar digital framework: proven platforms, established tech stacks, manageable innovation speed. This is not bad per se – but it does lead to a certain degree of operational blindness. We optimise within known limits instead of questioning those limits.
China shows us that there is a completely different way of doing things. Not better or worse, but fundamentally different. And it is precisely this difference that makes looking to the East so valuable.
Super apps instead of fragmented touchpoints: While we in Europe struggle with fragmented customer journeys – separate apps for banking, shopping, communication, mobility – Chinese platforms integrate all of this into a single ecosystem. WeChat is not only a messenger, but also a payment system, e-commerce platform, service portal and more.
Seamless commerce: The transition between content, social interaction and transaction is fluid. Livestream shopping, social commerce and in-app payments are not experiments, but standard.
Data-driven personalisation: The integration of services allows for personalisation that goes far beyond what fragmented European systems can achieve.
Of course, this works in a different regulatory and cultural context. Data protection standards, competition law and user expectations in Europe are different. But the basic CX patterns – how to reduce friction, increase convenience, think ecosystems – are transferable.
The key is to understand the underlying principles and make them work for our reality.
Ecosystem thinking instead of silo mentality: How can we link touchpoints more intelligently? Where are we losing customers because they have to switch between too many systems?
Convenience over perfection: Chinese solutions are often pragmatic rather than perfectionist. Address real customer problems quickly and interactively, instead of spending years refining ideal solutions.
Integration of social and commerce: How can we enable purchasing processes where customers already are – instead of forcing them into separate shops?
Service first instead of product first: Many Chinese platforms do not think in terms of product categories, but in terms of customer services. This changes the entire CX architecture.
Of course, not all structures can be adopted. Compliance requirements, cultural expectations regarding data protection, market structures – all of these differ. But that is precisely why the transfer is so valuable: it forces us to abstract patterns instead of imitating surfaces.
The question is not, ‘Can we do it the same way?’ The question is, ‘What problem does this solve, and how would we solve it in our context?’
Customers' digital expectations are constantly rising. Those who rely on fragmented experiences, complicated user journeys and sluggish innovation cycles today will lose market share tomorrow. Not to Chinese competitors, but to European or American players who are learning faster.
Looking to China is not an end in itself. It is a tool for questioning and improving our own CX strategies. It provides alternative perspectives on problems we think we know all too well.
Chinese CX patterns offer an alternative catalogue of models from which European companies can selectively learn:
Which of our customer journeys are unnecessarily complicated?
Where could we integrate services instead of fragmenting them?
What convenience standards do others set that we are measured against?
Where do we think in terms of products, even though customers think in terms of services?
These are not hypothetical questions. They are concrete levers for innovation that can be translated into roadmaps, prototypes and working solutions.
The most successful CX strategies are not created through imitation, but through informed creativity. China offers us a glimpse into alternative digital realities – let's use it to advance our own.
Interested in how specific CX patterns from China can be applied to your industry? In our webinar ‘CX Innovation – Inspiration from China’, we team up with China experts to show you which patterns work and how they can be adapted.
Björn Ognibeni is a practical visionary and expert in innovation transfer from Digital China. For over 20 years, he has been guiding companies through digital transformations – beyond trends and hype. His focus is on translating complex technologies into actionable strategies. Instead of theoretical buzzword bingo, he delivers pragmatic classification, clear decisions and concrete results. Website: BJÖRN OGNIBENI 欧博洋, Practical Visionary.
Roy Voggenberger shapes digital transformation at Unic by turning ideas into effective business models that measurably move companies forward. His focus is on artificial intelligence: he translates complex challenges into clear opportunities and robust decision-making foundations. In parallel, he builds strategic foundations – from cloud governance to new fields of innovation. His approach is consistently human-centred, connecting technology with people, culture and sustainable impact.
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