Strategy

User research

Understanding your customers needs has to be at the heart of every design initiative. This gives you an incredibly strong foundation for designing solutions that fully address their needs and expectations. 

What makes market research different from qualitative research is not only the scale but also the level of customer understanding and insight. 

Needs analysis

Research generates a mass of random data, so we employ our Method 5 framework to turn it into useful and actionable information that will have a positive effect on the rest of the process. This information then needs to be analyzed and synthesized so that it can flow smoothly into the problem definition and ideation phases.

Problem definition

By solving the problems for the people we’re designing for it’s important to us to deliver solutions that have longevity, are sustainable and ultimately deliver real user value.

Ideation brainstorm 

An ideation brainstorm is one of the most effective ways to explore new opportunities. And mastering creativity techniques is essential in squeezing the most out of every session. 

Sketching & Prototyping 

New ideas are not developed using Powerpoint and Excel as it’s counter intuitive to free thought. We encourage teams to use unfamiliar expression techniques, such as building blocks, plasticine, card and paper. Prototypes can then be taken to a fairly high level of finished state, which in the case of products could be clickable on-screen prototypes or service delivery blueprints, or even role play. 

Testing & Validation 

We use a wide range of testing techniques, from formal to informal, qual or quant, native or scripted, onsite or remote. Depending on project stage and requirements. Validating design concepts on actual people is essential and helps inform the design process, the team and the stakeholders. 

Our design methodology takes our clients through a structured framework of activities and services that aligns internal and external design teams behind the real problem to be solved, and then reveals routes to a solution based on insight and research. We have designed over 40 activities and services that our clients can utilise to reveal data and insights that guides the teams toward a solution.

Our playbook details how to apply these services in a real business environment in a 3 step process:

1. Define your business need - whether you're designing a brand new product or service, or redesigning an existing one, or maybe just running a benchmarking exercise.

2. Find a UX service pack based on your business need - each pack contains the activities and resources your team needs to deliver the objective.

3. Choose from tools recommended based on your UX service pack - from Explore, Empathise, Test, Prototype and Accelerate to sharpen focus on the project.

Alternatively, our playbook can help a team or individual researcher choose activities and tools based on solving a specific design question. Questions such as 'how do I define a project scope and prioritise?' or 'how do I understand users better?'.

Our design services fall into five distinct categories: 'Explore', 'Empathise', 'Prototype', 'Test', 'Accelerate'. We have tried to increase understanding and integrate user needs into our products and services.

We focus on each of service categories. They are concerned with 'what are we making' and 'for whom'. Depending our our clients business need, services are grouped in Service Packs or specific design questions.

Download our new UX Playbook that focuses on the first two categories: 'Explore' and 'Empathise' by clicking below.

Contact us to discuss ways in which we can help implement our Method 5 framework for your business and to receive your copy of the Playbook.