An involving process
The Building Blocks' design ethos is all about inclusion, because we know that involving people with understanding of the key areas of the solution is critical to its success.
At the very early stages initial concepts are developed; requirements defined; solutions are modeled, tested and refined.
So this is the point at which we bring together a number of key team members:
- Client stakeholders
- End user representatives
- Technical owner responsible for build
- Creative resource
- User experience/information architects
- Programme/project managers
Requirements management
Whilst most projects begin with a set of baseline requirements, these needs often change or evolve as the design process moves forward.
Once again, it's the fact that we have plenty of experience that means we can offer specialist expertise in requirement evolution and management.
End user definition
We believe 100% in User Centred Design principles, so we prefer to design to agreed user personas, scenarios and goals. Naturally, we will work very closely with you to accurately establish these essential benchmarks, using various information feeds:
- Data analysis for customer profiling
- Interviews and usability testing - for insight into customer motivations and behaviours related to existing competitor sites
- Task based analysis
- Fictional personas - a good way for design teams to 'sanity check' ideas
- Scenario and customer journey development for testing internally and with real users
User interface design
Once scope and strategy have been established, the team can begin to think about structure - how information, functions and navigation will be organized to best effect for users.
We work in a very visual way, creating click through wireframes to emulate the interaction and functionality of suggested solutions. It's the ideal way for stakeholders to experience how the final system can work. Wireframes also often highlight extra requirements, and allow early usability testing.
Technical solution architecture
In parallel with the interface design, a Building Blocks technical consultant will be working on the 'nuts and bolts' of the structure that will support the solution's functions and features. Their work will also cover integration with external applications, deployment processes, solution support, scalability, performance and future proofing.
Creative design
Our approach is to ensure the integrity of the solution's structure before visual design is applied. That's not to say that we see the creative side as less of a priority, it's simply a case of being certain that the design works and is scalable before the 'look' is included.
Prototyping and usability testing
Prototypes are often fully rendered and follow the persona scenarios previously defined, ready for internal and external usability testing. Our team carries out usability sessions using techniques such as 'Think Aloud Protocol' and eye tracking.