If you’ve been following our journey for any length of time then it’s no secret that, over the last two years, we’ve been talking about a change in our digital world. As a global pandemic forced us all to be more focussed on our screens, the need for brands to invest in better digital experiences has become more important than ever before.
Since mid-2020, our agency has observed a significant increase in the number of requests for well-considered UX design. Our expert team has helped to deliver improved user engagement and supported brands to make informed decisions about – and changes to – their customer experience.
Last year alone we helped switched-on brands such as Source Insurance, Foster Wales, Foot Anstey, Business Wales, Health & Her, Hodge Bank and many more, to both evaluate and significantly improve the digital journey offered to their customers, for both internal applications and external website experiences.
In 2022, we’re investing heavily in our ability to support this ever-increasing demand.
Through 2021 we laid the foundations for a greater efficiency and unique methodologies to allow our customers to get the most out of working with us. Heading into this year we’re now doubling the size of our UX design team, scaling our UX and UI teams that are led by two of the UK’s leading user experience experts.
Building an experience-led business
As a team and as a business we believe in the art of selling an experience. This is not simply referring to a great digital experience brought about by well-researched UX. This is about operating and growing a business that offers a great experience to its customers, its staff and also its suppliers.
The world of digital agencies (and therefore the brands who procure them) has become renowned for best price wins. But what if agencies focussed more on offering the best experience, not necessarily the best price.
Our focus on growth is centred around providing increasingly better, more valuable services to our customers, whilst continuing to build a team that is excited to do their best work every day.
When this is our philosophy, it’s then obvious that we should run head-first into growing a team that’s all about researching, testing and designing better experiences in the digital world.
Why does UX design matter?
We could talk all day about why UX design matters to brands in 2022 and beyond. Here are the highlights from our unique perspective as to the benefits of UX design and why we’re hedging our bets in this area as a business.
Improving existing experiences
Most brands that we work with at Illustrate Digital already have some form of digital experience that performs reasonably well. The internet and development practices have moved on a long way from the days when websites and applications needed entirely rebuilding just to improve the design.
It’s common for us to work alongside a brand to learn more about their existing and ideal customers, to create a new strategy or test new ideas with their audience.
Improving an existing digital experience is one of the best ways to benefit from quicker, short-term wins. Using our UX design methodologies for continuous improvement, we build relationships with great brands to influence the user journey of their websites and digital products, little and often.
How smooth and intuitive a site or application is to use is – although often subtly so – a huge factor in the likelihood of customers engaging with your brand online and returning in the future.
A simple question to ask is, “is my user experience enjoyable, or just tolerable?”
Designing entirely new websites and applications
When it’s time for a refresh or if you’re embarking on creating and launching something new, UX research and design is the first and arguably most important step in the product creation journey.
All too often we witness teams of developers rushing in to code together a solution to a problem, without too much exploration or consideration towards the user and how they perceive the problem for themselves.
In technology, it’s really easy to create a digital product or journey that people don’t need, want or that lands them in frustration.
The results of well-considered, properly tested user experiences are undeniable. Especially when a brand, product or service has the opportunity to start from scratch and get things right, UX design should be a huge consideration up-front.
Our UX work at Illustrate Digital is varied and exciting: full website experiences, in-house operational tools and customer service/product portals. They all benefit from and succeed as a result of one common thing and that’s user centred design.
Plans to level-up your customer experience in 2022?
If you’re already planning to go the next level this year and help your customers (and your bottom line) benefit from an improved or entirely new user experience, then our expert UX design team is here to help.
As we continue to invest in our team, the research behind our work and the methodologies we use to implement it all, we invite you to come on this journey with us. Benefit from everything that improved user experience at Illustrate Digital has to offer.
Interested in a career in UX design?
If you’re passionate about researching and creating better digital experiences and are looking to start or advance your UX design career, then come and join us on this exciting journey.
Send your CV and an example of your work/portfolio to careers@mmspei.com. Whether freelance, part-time or full-time, we’d love to hear from you.
