User Interface Design

Good user interface design isn't flashy. It doesn't require the latest technology or need to push the envelope of engineering complexity. A good design is simple, transparent, and in hindsight, obvious.

We offer several approaches to addressing your user interface design needs.

Solves These Problems

	How do we make improvements to our existing UI given limited time and resources?
	This is a new entry in the market, targeted at home-based users. It needs to be exceedingly simple and safe to operate.
	We need to revamp our product from the ground up. We need fresh insights and innovation. How do we get there?
	We have serious usability problems. These need to be solved in our next release or we will continue to lose market share.

Types of UI Design Services

UI Facelift. User interface improvements without major surgery. UI Facelifts help identify and collect “low-hanging fruit” - smaller, schedule-friendly changes that collectively, make a noticeable improvement to an existing software UI. We start with your database of usability defects and enhancement requests, and conduct a usability bench test to identify and prioritize design issues. Working with your engineers, we generate design change recommendations geared to having the most noticeable impact given your schedule and resource constraints. When needed, our graphic artist will produce new splash screens, icons, and bitmaps to create a fresh, polished, and aesthetically appealing look.

Conceptual Blueprint. We’ll create a conceptual blueprint - a high level design for the user interface of your new product or point release. A conceptual blueprint provides a user interface structure that solves the key issues of how to organize and present functionality, navigate effectively, and perform key tasks safely and efficiently. We’ll also create an aesthetically compelling yet effective visual treatment for the new UI - a contemporary, aesthetically appealing, and ergonomically sound look for the UI that helps create a positive brand image.

Detailed Design Specifications. The devil is in the details. We can create and document detailed design specifications for software UIs (screen and dialog layouts, widget selection, messages) that ensure a consistent, polished, and professional finish. We’ll create a graphics library that includes all of the resources (icons, bitmaps, splash screens, and backgrounds) your engineers need to deliver the UI.

Benefits

	Solves the key issues of how to organize and present functionality, navigate effectively, and perform key tasks safely and efficiently.
	Reduces the risk of use-related errors attributable to design flaws.
	Provides a consistent, polished, professional look and feel.
	Ensures you get the most usability mileage out of your development dollar.
	Enables your programmers to do what they do best - create robust code.

Our Approach

Our designers don't eat moon dust. They're not psychically aligned with the cosmic forces of the universe. They succeed by helping you collect, analyze, and interpret customer and user data, by applying well understood but seldom practiced design principles, and by continually enhancing design proposals based on user feedback.

Conceptual Blueprint projects start with user research aimed at profiling target users, their environment, and their clinical tasks. From there, we generate initial design ideas, bring them to life through storyboards and simple prototypes, and iterate based on user feedback. We work with your marketing team to create a visual treatment that is consistent with your brand image. In the end, we deliver design mockups for the major screens and a description of the structure and behavior of the new application.

Deliverables

User interface design document suitable for inclusion in design history file. PowerPoint presentation presenting key insights, including prioritized list of design strengths and problems.

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