User Experience

While it's important we build a website that looks great, what really matters is building a website that works. Absolute’s UX designers will help make sure your next digital project is a success.

KICK OFF MEETINGS.

Getting everyone on the same page before the project starts

When undertaking any new project, it’s important to get all stakeholders together to talk through why the work is being done, highlight challenges in previous projects, decide who will be the key decision makers, and agree on what the key deliverables and measures of success will be. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page from day one.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS.

A large part of understanding what we want to achieve is getting an idea of what competitors are doing well and doing badly.

We can critically review key websites, and take lessons from their successes and failings, gathering inspiration from other websites, interfaces and designs to help influence the project.

WRITING THE BRIEF.

This is the creation of a formal document which outlines what the deliverables of the site are and what the guiding principles are.

It will outline browser and device support and depict project goals and user personas and journeys. Well-structured goals will ensure that everyone is on track to achieve the same successful end-result.

USER SURVEY DRAFTING AND ANALYSIS.

Once goals are defined and objectives are in place, a survey is created to ask real users what they would expect from your new website.

The surveys, which provide great insight into user experience, ask potential users for information and thoughts on your current site – what makes it good and what makes it bad.

We’ll ask for their views on competitor sites that they enjoy and also what they would expect to see on your new site.

USER PERSONAS AND JOURNEY.

In order to heighten user experience and preserve the human element to your website, our UX designers will create fictional characters representing the types of user that might visit your site.

Once identifying the behaviours of your potential customer base, the designer is equipped to make informed decisions about the creation of your new website in terms of visual design, navigation, service and features.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND CONTENT STRATEGY.

Once content has been discussed, time is spent considering the information architecture and how the site will be structured.

From the sitemap, analysis can be carried out on existing content, and a strategy will be formed to ensure the content provides a rich user experience. We’ll need to establish existing content, objectives of the content, the tone of voice and also accompanying text images.

PROTOTYPING.

Ensuring all skill sets are brought to the table, we’ll set aside time for sketching and ideas generation.

We’ll talk about what has been learnt so far and start to consider what we would like your site to do. From this, Absolute would start to turn the statics into working HTML, CSS and JS. Prototyping will quickly show any holes in the sketches in terms of interactions and how pages respond, and allow us to sanity check ideas on a device and browser.

USER TESTING.

User testing gives valuable insight to your website from the real people who will use your end product. User testing can be carried out in different ways, from utilising non-technical employees to conducting focus groups.

WIREFRAMING.

Wireframing is the floorplan design to your website.

Carried out by UX designers, wireframing defines the hierarchy of items on a screen, based on the needs of the user. Carefully planned and researched wireframing will ensure that your customers are able to navigate around your site with ease and efficiency, in an aesthetically pleasing setting.

SITEMAPPING.

A sitemap will categorise your website pages, outlining what pages relate to particular content on your website.

Our developers will create a sitemap for you allowing you to see the layout of your website pages, prior to design. This will give you the opportunity to make any changes to page hierarchy and formation.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE OPTIMISATION REPORTS.

Could bad UX be costing your business money through low engagement and conversion rates?

We understand the importance of the customer experience, and can conduct a site audit, reviewing your website and comparing it against a standardised set of usability principles. This will highlight issues with usability, performance, aesthetics and content, assigning them to a severity rating so our recommended actions can be prioritised for the business.

Please Contact Us if you are interested in effectively optimising your website and better understand how we can improve your marketing KPIs.

How users interact with your website is a reflection on your brand and business. When people use your website they want to navigate around it quickly and efficiently with as little fuss as possible.

We’ve produced a wide range of successful websites for B2B businesses and retail websites. First, we’ll audit your brand to find the best routes and functionality, and then create sitemaps and wireframes to plan the website before coding even begins. By getting design and content to work together we can help users navigate your site, resulting in an increase in the time they spend on it, as well as boosting return business.

While every project is different, with budgets, time allocations, goals and deliverables, there are processes and methodologies that we can draw upon to help ensure user experience is kept at the forefront of every digital project.