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User Experience (or UX for short) is a methodology for understanding the different people who use your products, services, or website and then designing experiences specifically around their behaviour and motivations. Find out why UX is important for every business.
Just like in the offline world, people behave in different, sometimes unexpected ways online. You can’t always guess what the users of your website will do until you let them loose on it. Thankfully, we know what signals to look out for that can help you understand these behaviours and design better solutions.
Sometimes, the way websites are designed is cumbersome, and people find quicker ways, just like in this example of a pavement making people walk the long route. Users take the quickest path, that of least resistance.
Sometimes, websites are designed to intentionally force certain behaviours, but people inevitably find a quicker way.
Taking the time to understand your users, plan around them, design solutions for them and (critically) test these solutions can create huge benefits for your business and your customers. You can read more UX insights or explore this page further.
There are few hard and fast rules when it comes to people’s behaviour, but our rule of thumb is that when you take the time to understand your customers and design solutions for them, you should see an improvement in three key areas:
By spending time to make things easier for your users, you make them more likely to return again and again, and rave about you to people they know.
When users can complete their desired actions, they are less likely to contact you for help, or to complain. This reduces the load on support staff and allows you to focus your time more effectively.
UX removes barriers for your users. Fewer hurdles mean that they are much more likely to make it through your registration form, online checkout or contact process.
These are just some of the steps we take to deliver a great experience. Not every one will be applicable to every project or situation, instead we talk through your needs and individual circumstances to design a programme of work that fits with your needs and budget.
User Research is important to inform the decisions you make when considering Experience Design. Good practice can only take you so far, sometimes you need to hear what your customers want directly from them.
Personas are fictional representations of your user types. Built using insight from real people, they’re a great way to remember and focus on the needs of the most important people – your customers – and ensure that everything you do is done with them in mind.
Information Architecture is the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability. Easy navigation means easy to use.
Not every user does the same thing when navigating through your website or app. User Journeys plot out the paths and actions so you can identify where to focus your attention and plan a programme of improvements.
All great ideas start with a sketch. Perhaps on a napkin? We start all our ideas with sketches as they allow us to iterate quickly, demonstrate ideas and rapidly identify ideas that aren’t working to prevent your valuable time and effort going down a rabbit hole.
Quicker and cheaper to produce than designs, wireframes are drawings of your website or app that focus on the user interaction and journey, before time is spent designing them up properly.
Sometimes, flat designs don’t do the interactions in your website or app justice. Creating interactive prototypes is a great way to test the flow of your screens with your staff and users.
Customer Experience is concerned with all the interactions that customers have with your brand, regardless of how they choose to make them. Online, offline, they should all be consistent.
Service Design is like internal UX – it improves the lives of customers and employees by planning and organizing people, infrastructure and communications to improve service and interaction quality for customers.
Examples of projects where our UX process made a difference, and the results.
If you have a project you’d like a quote for, or think we can be of service, why not get in touch with us to discuss your next project?
We don’t do hard sell, it’s no obligation and no pressure.
We’ve all been there. Support for our website customers is now managed on a ticketing system, to make sure you get the help you need as quickly as possible.
Sending an email automatically creates a support ticket.