Design is about understanding people & their behaviours in the context of their situation.
A co-design approach with the audience ensures we; understand goals, challenges, motivations, feelings and the impact. Exploring various opportunities, validating suitability, and implementing a solution is key to creating meaningful digital experiences that are efficient, scalable and sustainable.
Research
Foster and nurture stronger relationships with your audience
Strategy
Recalibrate the compass and reach your true North Star
Design
Fuel innovation and revolutionise the digital world we know
Experience Research
Market, Employee, Customer & User Research
Research Benefits
Experience research is a fundamental aspect when it comes to comprehending how individuals engage with products, services, situations and environments. It holds a significant purpose and role in informing the design process effectively. By diving deep into people's thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, researchers can unearth invaluable insights, essential in creating outstanding experiences. Key benefits of effective research include:
• Enhanced Experience
• Identifying Pain Points
• Validating Assumptions
• Reduced Costs (particularly in the long run)
• Competitive Advantage
Prioritising research means organisations can create products and services that truly meet the needs and expectations of their target audience. Great leaders look for opportunities to disprove their hypotheses, rather than confirm their beliefs so that the likelihood of success is guaranteed and results reach beyond initial goals.
Conducting Research
Diverse methods, such as interviews, observations, surveys, and usability testing, are leveraged to capture the intricate nuances of experiences. These activities equip researchers with a holistic understanding of requirements, challenges, and preferences, which can then be translated into actionable steps for organisations. This exploration enables the development of truly innovative and user-centric solutions that resonate with the target audience. However, getting the most bang for buck requires a deeper understanding of what to do when along with the pros and cons of doing each.
These steps enable effective design thinking research, leading to a better understanding of people and their challenges, and guiding ideation of innovative and human-centric solutions.
Research Models
Qualitative vs Quantitative
These research methodologies play crucial roles in generating comprehensive insights and understanding various aspects of human behaviour and experiences. The choice between these methods largely depends on the research objectives, the nature of the research questions, and the depth of knowledge desired.
Qualitative Research revolves around deep diving into subjective insights concerning experiences. This method concentrates on unravelling the underlying motivations, reasons, and behaviours of individuals. Researchers aim to gain an understanding of the human experience and perspective.
Quantitative Research involves the systematic collection and analysis of numerical data. This data-driven approach enables researchers to spot patterns, trends, anomalies and significant relationships within the data set. By quantifying behaviours, preferences, and attitudes, quantitative research facilitates the generalisation of findings and provides statistical insights.
Qual explores opportunities to understand the reasons why something happens and provides insights into actionable steps to strive for goals. Whereas Quant can explain what is happening at a particular moment using numerical data, allowing teams to derive hypotheses and track performance.
Explorative vs Evaluative
Explorative Research revolves around the generation of fresh ideas, concepts, and insights essential for a robust design process. Methods such as brainstorming sessions, user group discussions, card sorting, and co-design activities are commonly used to spark creativity and direct the creation of user-focused solutions.
Evaluative Research aims to evaluate the usability, efficiency, and overall performance of design. Once a product or journey is ready, it is crucial to scrutinise its strengths and weaknesses. Split or multivariant testing, uncovers insights into how designs perform and align with requirements and expectations.
Attitudinal vs Behavioural
Attitudinal Research focuses on comprehending attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs, aiming to uncover the reasons behind decisions and actions. This type of research typically utilises surveys or interviews to inquire about feelings, preferences, or perceptions towards a product or service. It delves into the subjective aspects of people’s emotions and opinions to gain insights.
Behavioural Research centres on actions rather than self-reported behaviour. It often relies on techniques such as contextual observation, usability testing, eye-tracking, or heat maps to analyze and interpret behaviour accurately, removing cognitive dissonance from the equation and providing valuable insights into how people interact, offering an objective perspective.
People naturally value being heard and having their opinions considered. By fostering meaningful interactions and establishing enduring relationships, organisations can surpass the expectations of their customers. Particularly, in today's dynamic and competitive market, experience research has emerged as a crucial tool for brands seeking a competitive advantage and striving to stay ahead of the curve.
Activities
Research Planning and Mobilisation
AEIOU Framework
Interviews
Desirability Studies
Focus Groups
Workshops
Contextual Inquiry
Ethnographic Research
Secondary Research
Diary Studies
Card Sorting
Tree Testing
Affinity Mapping
Interception/Guerilla Testing
Concept Testing
Surveys
Desktop Research
Keyword Research
Competitive & Optimal Research
Website Audit & Review
Data Analysis
Behavioural Analytics
Clickstream
Eye-tracking
Usability Testing & Analysis
Unmoderated Testing
Concept Testing
Heuristic Evaluation
Customer Feedback Analysis
Synthesis
Conversion Rate Optimisation
Retrospectives
Assets
Research Insights Reports
Competitive Analysis
CRO Report
Experience Strategy
Service Design & Customer Experience
Strategy Benefits
To succeed in today's fast-paced, ever-evolving business environment, it is essential to simplify and understand the bigger picture. This involves carefully assessing the impact of actions, analysing the market, and keeping a close eye on competitors and their capabilities. Understanding legislation, policy, reform and the impact they have on communities is influential. Recognising unique irreplaceable offerings, where organisations excel and growth opportunities allow you to make informed decisions to strategise effectively.
The ability to remain open-minded and embrace new ideas nurtures a culture of innovative thinking within organisations. This willingness to explore alternative options and embrace change sets the stage for continual growth and adaptation, ensuring you remain agile and nimble by nature. By incorporating these principles into your strategic thinking and decision-making processes, you can navigate the dynamic business landscape with confidence and drive towards success.
Including CX design, service design, and strategic design principles can help create cohesive and impactful experiences for customers. The process of creating design assets help articulate the vision, which unites teams. Putting people at the centre of design decisions, focusing on service excellence, and aligning with strategic goals, can differentiate you in the market as you build lasting relationships.
Customer Satisfaction - improved offering to meet and exceed customer expectations
Increased Loyalty - build upon brand loyalty by consistently delivering exceptional service
Competitive Advantage - differentiate yourself from competitors by offering unique, personalised experiences
Reduce Expenses - streamline processes, eliminate bottlenecks, and reduce operational costs with better allocation of resources
Innovation - push boundaries to create new, improved solutions for customers. stay ahead of trends and meet evolving customer needs
Employee Satisfaction - feeling connected to company goals and values, leads to a more positive work environment and boosts morale
Brand Reputation - turn customers into advocates of your brand, contributing to positive word-of-mouth and a strong brand resonance
Activating Strategy
By maintaining a focus on effective communication, resource allocation, employee engagement, and continuous improvement, organisations can enhance their ability to successfully execute their strategies and achieve long-term objectives. Designing an experience strategy is a critical component of achieving organisational goals and staying competitive in the market.
Some crucial elements to create seamless experiences for customers:
Define - align business objectives by setting clear goals, mission, and vision, outlining actions needed and determining the resources required
Communicate - ensure everyone understands the direction the business is heading in and their role
Define Audience - identify key audience segments, needs, preferences and pain points
Conduct Research - gather insights about market trends, competitor strategies, and customer expectations and analyse data to inform decision-making.
Resourcing - allocate budget, personnel, and technology to support the implementation and enable success
Set OKRs and KPIs - establish baseline metrics to track performance, set goals, identify areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions to adjust accordingly
Engage Employees - encourage collaboration, provide training, and motivate employees to make decisions that support working towards a common goal
Design Experience - Use insights gathered to document a seamless and curated experience for each of the customer segments
Implement & Test - Roll out in a phased approach, starting with pilot programs or small-scale releases
Monitor Progress - monitor progress against KPIs and optimise based on feedback, market conditions, or internal challenges
Celebrate Success and Learn from Setbacks - Recognise milestones achieved during the execution, and learn from failures to avoid similar issues in future
Review and Refine - Conduct reviews to identify what works well and needs improvement. Refine to ensure it remains relevant and effective.
Experience Strategy involves setting clear objectives, identifying key performance indicators, and establishing a roadmap for implementation. By aligning CX and Service Design initiatives with the organisation's strategic goals, companies can drive sustainable growth and gain a competitive advantage increasing market share.
Defining Strategy
Service Design
Service design goes beyond products to encompass the entire service ecosystem. It involves mapping out customer journeys, identifying pain points, and finding ways to improve delivery. Involving stakeholders from different departments and focusing on collaboration, service design aims to enhance the quality of service, streamline processes, and ultimately unlock value for customers.
Service design is a multidisciplinary approach that focuses on creating optimal experiences for customers. It involves understanding and improving interactions between service providers and customers across various touchpoints.
Key aspects of service design include:
Customer Experience - Mapping journeys
Service Blueprinting - Mapping customer and employee perspectives, front-stage and back-stage elements
Prototyping and Experience Testing - Opportunity to test, gather feedback and refine services
Service Ecosystems - elements such as people, processes, technology, and physical evidence to understand service impacts and dependencies
Service Innovation - encourage a culture of experimenting with new concepts/technologies to improve services and innovate
Measure Success - defining success factors to track the effectiveness of efforts, evaluate the impact of improvements and make informed decisions
By considering these aspects of service design, organisations can create valuable and sustainable services that resonate with customers and drive business growth.
Customer Experience (CX) Design
CX design focuses on understanding customer interactions with an offering. By optimising touchpoints and ensuring a user-friendly journey, CX aims to create positive and memorable experiences which lead to customer satisfaction and loyalty. From intuitive interfaces to personalised interactions, every aspect of design plays a role in shaping the overall experience.
Personalisation - tailored products or services to meet individual customer needs
User Experience - seamless and easy-to-navigate interface when interacting with products
Customer Service - timely and effective support to address customer inquiries, issues, or feedback
Omni-Channel Experience - consistent unified experiences across various touchpoints such as online, mobile, and in-person interactions
Feedback and Surveys - customer feedback to understand satisfaction levels and areas for improvement
Customer Journey Mapping - visualisation and comprehension of end-to-end experience to identify pain points and opportunities
Employee Engagement - empowering and training employees to deliver exceptional service with frameworks
Data Analytics - gain insights into behaviours, preferences, and trends to enhance the overall experience
Personalised Communication - engaging with customers through targeted and relevant messaging based on behaviour and interactions
Continuous Improvement - iteratively refining processes and offerings
To execute experience strategy successfully, organisations should focus on understanding customer needs, preferences, and pain points. Service & CX Design play a vital role in communicating these insights into tangible solutions, such as intuitive interfaces, optimising processes, and delivering personalised experiences. By collecting and analysing data, we can gain valuable insights to tailor services and products accordingly so organisations can create meaningful experiences for customers, drive operational efficiency, and achieve long-term success. It is essential to approach these disciplines holistically and iteratively to adapt to ever-evolving customer expectations and market dynamics.
Activities
Market Scans
Point of Views
SWOT Analysis
Best Practice and Liquid Expectations
7S Analysis
6Ms of Strategy
Strategy Sketching
Op Model Analysis
Innovation Mapping
Outside-In vs Inside-Out Strategy
Jobs-To-Be-Done
Kano Analysis
How Might We…
Synthesis
Retrospective
Assets
Ecosystem Map
Org Chart
Service Blueprints
Customer Journey Maps
Gap Analysis
Target Op Model Flows
Experience Principles
Problem Statements
Sun-Dial Chart
Kano Modelling
Business Model Canvas
Lean Model Canvas
Opportunity Canvas
SWOT Matrix
RACI Matrix
Stakeholder Matrix
Ecosystem Mapping
Capability Mapping
Ideas Roadmap
Reports
Experience Design
UX, Strategic, Tactical & Interaction Design
Design Benefits
The design process empowers teams to reach their fullest potential through collaborative efforts to create innovative products that positively impact the world. Bringing people together allows for a rich exchange of ideas that can lead to groundbreaking solutions explored fuelled by creativity. Co-design ensures we create desirable, user-friendly and meaningful experiences based on meeting user needs.
By combining these two approaches and leaving our personal biases at the door, we can:
• Enhance user satisfaction
• Reduce moments of frustration and blockages
• Improve usability
• Boost innovation
• Increase efficiency
• Drive user engagement
Prioritising user needs and preferences from the outset can create products that not only meet user expectations but also drive innovation and business success. This commitment to excellence drives a continual pursuit of new ideas and approaches which challenge the status quo. Seeking out new possibilities and improving approaches, help revolutionise the world with innovative ideas. By encouraging curiosity, providing a safe experimentation environment and embracing tested methods, we leave a lasting impact.
By focusing on creating a positive experience for users interacting with their products or services, organisations can:
• Drive sales
• Increase conversion rates
• Gain competitive advantage
• Build on market share
• Enhanced brand perception and resonance
• Save on costs
• Customer loyalty and retention
• Grow advocates from users
In conclusion, integrating UX design into the core of business strategy can yield many benefits. Businesses that prioritise user experience demonstrate a commitment to meeting audience needs and building long-lasting relationships.
Executing Design
Experience design is a critical component of product development, ensuring that products not only function well but also provide a seamless and enjoyable experience.
Integrating experience design into the product development process involves several key steps:
User Research - understand the target audience's needs, motivations, and pain points
Information Architecture - range of activities and mapping to communicate content for user understanding and navigation
Ideation - brainstorming, generating, designing explorable solutions and sharing ideas collaboratively
Wireframing and Prototyping- refining ideas into wireframes and prototypes to visualise product structure and functionality
Experience Testing - testing with real users to gather feedback on the product's usability and overall experience
Iterative Design - embracing feedback from research insights to inform ongoing design refinements
By incorporating experience design principles into the product development process, teams can create products that not only meet user needs but also delight and engage users with a seamless and enjoyable experience.
Dual-Track Agile Design
Strategic Design vs. Tactical Design
The primary difference between strategic and tactical design lies in their scope and focus. While strategic design deals with setting overarching goals and defining the direction of design efforts, tactical design is about executing specific tasks to realise those goals. Strategic design is about making high-level decisions that shape the overall design strategy, whereas tactical design involves carrying out the detailed actions required to implement that strategy. Both strategic and tactical design are essential components of a comprehensive design approach, working together to drive success and achieve desired outcomes.
Strategic Design is the process of aligning design decisions with an organisation's overall objectives and long-term goals. It involves setting a clear direction and laying out a framework that guides design efforts towards achieving specific outcomes. Strategic design focuses on the big picture, taking into account factors such as market trends, customer needs, and competitive landscape. It often involves top-level decision-making that shapes the overall trajectory of design initiatives within an organisation. Strategic design entails the convergence of creativity and purpose to achieve long-term goals and deliver meaningful outcomes.
Several key aspects define the strategic design process:
Vision and Goal Setting
Research and Analysis
Collaboration and Cross-functional Teams
Iterative Prototyping and Testing
Brand Consistency and Experience
Adaptability and Future Orientation
Incorporating these aspects into strategic design practices, organisations can create innovative solutions that drive growth, differentiation, and lasting impact.
Tactical Design is concerned with the execution of specific design tasks and activities to achieve short-term objectives. It involves the implementation of strategies and plans defined at the strategic level. Tactical design is more hands-on and detail-oriented, focusing on the practical aspects of design such as visual aesthetics, user experience, and content creation. It deals with the day-to-day aspects of design work and aims to address immediate challenges and opportunities that arise during the design process.
Essential elements of a structured methodology to ensure a seamless user experience:
User Research
Information Architecture
Ideation
Usability Testing & Analysis
Iterating
A successful tactical approach to UX design involves collaboration among multidisciplinary teams. Designers, developers, marketers, and stakeholders must work together throughout the process to ensure a cohesive and user-friendly product. Being tactical is about striking a balance between long-term strategic goals and short-term needs. By staying agile, data-driven, and user-focused, designers can create impactful user experiences that deliver results quickly and effectively. Following a tactical approach helps deliver meaningful and impactful solutions, both quickly and effectively.
Activities
Information Architecture
Competitive/Optimal Analysis
MSCW
Ideation
Feature Exploration
Design Jam
Design Crit
Design Studio
Dual-Path Design
Strategic Design
DVF Scoring
Synthesis
Retrospective
Assets
UX Model Canvas
Gannt Chart
Mind Map
Empathy Map
Proto-Personas
Personas & User Archetypes
Sitemaps
Ecosystem Maps
User Flows
User Journeys
User Stories
Target Op Model Flows
WireFlows/Feature Release
UX Playbook
Wireframes
Proof of Concept
Product Roadmap
Demos/Playback
Reports
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