A web application’s UI design is more than just the aesthetics of the brand. At its best, UI design can be a tool to help the user achieve what they need in an efficient manner. It is a key part of the overall user experience, that supports the application’s workflow and seamlessly delivers the functionality and information that the web application was designed to deliver. We’ve helped many of our clients to craft web applications with an experience their users love.
Understanding Client Needs
We are committed to providing our clients with the best web application design experience, but before we begin writing a single line of code, or jump into designing wireframes, we do a deep dive with our clients in our Discovery & Strategy sessions. We want to understand our client’s business objectives, talk through expectations from their subject matter experts, interview their customers, identify competition, etc. This allows us to uncover any opportunities, constraints or possible roadblocks.
Internal Research
Internally our team engages in extensive preliminary research to identify opportunities that we can implement in the conceptual design process and develop those findings into a more realistic design that supports their users’ expectations when using their web application. We dive deep to learn more about who the users are by asking our clients questions and by conducting user interviews.
Understanding the User’s Needs
After gathering all the insights from the client, the research, and the assumptions, we began to make an assessment of what the users will value and need as they interact with the web application. We learn about their current experience with our clients, how they interact with the products/services, their needs, and usual routines when engaging with their brands. We also look at what competitors are doing, how they are attracting users, and how users respond to their experience with said competitor’s products/services. During this time our goal is to gather as much knowledge and inspiration to begin forming an idea of the experience we want the users to have.
Balancing User Interface & Experience Design
In order to create a successful web application, there must be a balance between good user interface and the user experience. The two concepts create harmony for the application and work together to accomplish the user’s needs. Our success comes from our ability to find the right mix that allows the design to integrate and complement the experience of the user. Our expertise comes from working with varied clients throughout several different industries from Software companies that work with big data, like Aginity to companies that leverage blockchain technology like Owlting.
Designing the Experience
The design phase begins by creating a foundation based on our previous explorations by our team creating a style guide. This style guide formulates the language of the design by describing the colors, typography, space, and information architecture which will come together throughout design phase. Working through this phase, the team will begin drafting sketches, story boards, and UI components of different concepts to bring together a visual mockup of what the user experience will look like in the finalized web application. Our Design Review process examines the flows side by side with our clients to see what is working or where the flow experience is fractured, then we make changes and rework the flows until we have the experience we envisioned for the application. Once the concept has been drafted, the design direction & wires are passed over to our technology team, who work closely with the design team in order to bring everything together into a working prototype. Throughout this entire process, we are communicating with our clients and have design reviews that give our teams the feedback needed to finalize the concept.
Bringing The Web Application to Life
During the prototype phase, the development team selects appropriate frame works, develops a test plan, and collaborates with the entire team to outline deployment strategies based on project needs and goals. The prototype is then built with the client’s input so that we can incorporate their needs and visions. Throughout the buildout, our creative team holds review sessions to ensure that all expectations are being met, and provides feedback to the technology team. We gather both client input and user feedback through internal and external testing to ensure that everything works correctly and the application is entirely intuitive. Anomalies are logged and corrected, then when everything is in place, we move forward to the final stage of planning the deployment of the web application.
Showcasing the Web Application to the World
The countdown to deployment is started in our office and preparations for the web application launch are set in motion. This phase of the launch brings us closer than ever with our clients as we prepare them for the launch of all their dreams and hard work. Even after launch, our support continues to ensure that their web application is maintained and continues to evolve with the growing and changing needs through our support and maintenance services.
