Summary
Want the benefits of user centered design but unsure where to even start? Got a product or site that just isn’t performing well? Our process covers the whole development cycle from initiation through to delivery with the level of involvement that works best for you.
We guide you through user definition, requirements gathering, feature prioritization and initial design. We validate concepts with your users and then do the design work to create screen templates and information architecture. We help you set the correct tone for your content and assistance text, and then train your developers to ensure they have the skills they need to implement the new design. At the end, you have the tools and experience to go it alone next time round.
Details
We are not a typical design agency. Your team needs to be involved at every stage of the process in order to create an interface that truly meets your users’ needs. We work on-site with your team members to give them the experience and power to create the product that your users deserve.
Our involvement is independent of your development methodology. We are flexible enough to work with waterfall and agile techniques.
- Workplace Anthropology – find out who your users are and what they do today
- Future History Workshop – set strategic direction for the next 3 years
- Design Definition Workshop – scenario planning, wireframe construction
- Information Architecture – build the correct site structure
- Paper prototype user test – get early validation of design ideas
- Content design – ensuring every word in the interface earns its keep
- Visual design – the look and feel; communicating core concepts to users
- Interaction Design – Developer training and pairing for hands-on problem solving during code development
- Interaction guidelines development – a manual for future generations of coders in your organization
We’ve found that successful projects require a good foundation of user knowledge and business vision to minimize confusion. Once we have good user insight, we build the minimum possible to make users happy, being confident that we’re delivering the right thing and saving you both development cost and time.
It’s never too late to engage in user-centered design. However, the earlier in the process we get involved, the more time and money we can save you. Much of the work we undertake can be performed before any code has been written. We can start working with key decision makers while the rest of the team are still wrapping up a previous release.
Once the time comes to start building things, we bring the whole team on board so that everyone understands the focus, and how to go about creating great software in a usable manner.
The beauty of this approach is that the information you gain about your users and the techniques you learn from us will become institutional knowledge – engrained in the team’s working practices and used on every future version of the product.
Of course, we can do the development work for you if you prefer. We have access to some truly amazing developers and will manage the whole process on your behalf.
Deliverables
You choose the level of engagement. We work with you to augment your existing team’s skill set. You can vary our level of involvement with each part of the process, or even pick and choose which elements you want help with. At one extreme we just get you started with an initial wireframe design, at the other we deliver the full working code.
Price: varies depending upon work we propose after we understand your needs.
As an example, the research, design and training work listed above could run $250-350k. Development and content creation fees are quoted separately. A typical minimum of 4 months elapsed time can be shortened by judicious pruning, depending on your circumstances.
Next steps
To find out more and to discuss how our involvement can improve your site or application, talk to us by e-mail: info@ [this site’s domain]