At Experience UX, our work is built on a foundation of usability testing and user research. These have been at the core of our work for over 15 years and continue to be the driving force behind many of our projects today.
As a business, we’ve built on this foundation to also offer a wide range of services that we collectively refer to as our ‘user-centred design’ process. This was developed ten years ago and has consistently delivered successful outcomes for our clients.
Over the past 12 months, like many businesses, we have not only navigated the challenges of the pandemic and emerged from lockdown, but also used the opportunity to revisit our identity and purpose – in a changing environment (both online and offline) how can we continue to support and grow our clients and each other as we focus more on people-centred long-term customer value?
A significant part of this work has focused on revaluating how we shape and present our services. We recognised the need for change, particularly in our linear user-centred design process, which had previously followed a strict sequence of Research > Architect > Design. However, when we asked ourselves why the process was linear, we couldn’t provide ourselves with a definitive answer.
Why couldn’t it be more flexible and adaptable? Well, it absolutely could be. In fact, we constantly engage in projects that deviated from the linear approach and when reviewing the questions and enquiries we received from new clients – it was clear that flexibility was key.
Early ideas & representation of our new service offering
This realisation delivered our new people-centred design service offering, divided into three distinct phases/layers/groups of work:
- Discovery & Research: Understanding to be understood.
- Architect & Design: Achieving effective efficiency.
- Create & Evolve: Providing an effortless experience.
Whilst the optimal format remains linear, we acknowledged that we add value in any one, two, or all three of these phases, regardless of the specific circumstances our clients bring to the table. Better for them, better for us and better for users.
I would love to know what you think – drop me a note at alicarmichael@experienceux.co.uk.
