Unleashing the power of UX/UI in development

Delving into BBD’s UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) creative competency

In the age of everything-online, UX design is becoming more commonplace and integral – giving those who make the investment an edge over their peers in the highly competitive and saturated digital space. But, getting it right for your business can be formidable, especially in the face of the longstanding disconnect between overarching creative vision and the technical delivery channel.  

Through the introduction of a dedicated team focussed on UX/UI, BBD brings together creative capabilities with proven technical prowess to truly drive an end-to-end experience, moulding viable and powerful solutions in line with our clients’ unique strategic goals.

Your product, designed for people

Think for instance of your favourite app. For most, it might be hard to think of one. But if you’re asked about your least favourite app, its probable that one will come straight to mind with a bullet point list of exactly why you dislike it. That’s because good UX is intuitive and designed exactly to your needs, as seamless and entrenched in our daily lives as breathing or blinking!

As the name suggests, UX deals with the experience your user has of your product: from what it looks like, how you navigate through it, to ultimately how easy (or difficult!) it is to interact with. While commonly mistaken for UI (which instead looks at colours, icons and other aesthetic elements, only one step in the UX journey), UX impacts the entire lifecycle of the customer’s interaction with your brand and is far more than simply a pretty interface. In fact, UX is pivotal to improving the relationship that customers have with your brand. “Each touchpoint with your customer is the opportunity to leave them feeling heard, appreciated, respected and most of all wanting more” explains Jana Barclay, UX/UI lead at BBD. How UX designers shape the experience of a product is not arbitrary either. “Each element is laid out based on principles tested over centuries”. This entails both universal human principles that guide our behaviours, to the more niche requirements of your user base: “UX design is all about understanding what will drive and guide your users’ behaviour in line with your business strategy. This is done through in-depth and qualitative user research which can help us build out user personas” she adds. With defined user personas, UX designers are able to tap into that group’s likes and dislikes, worldviews and more, to mould a product that’s right for that moment and market.

Why bring UX/UI into the development fold?

Whether it’s on account of a company’s vision not being what’s ultimately best for their users, or due to third party agencies selling dreams that aren’t technically feasible, even the best and most promising big ideas sometimes fail.

The UX designer is the key to ensuring that doesn’t happen. Straddling both the marketing and technical side of things, UX designers can facilitate important conversations with stakeholders across the board to achieve the best possible outcomes and drive the highest value for such companies. “UX designers are in essence good communicators, which allows them to facilitate difficult discussions while being empathetic to both the technical and human aspects of a project” says Barclay.

BBD has proudly introduced a specialised UX/UI design service into their existing capabilities, an addition which complements our extensive software development capabilities. A firm proponent for UX being involved from the start of a project, Barclay adds that including this offering allows BBD to offer a highly collaborative approach across our client’s and our teams. Not only does this ensure the product is both aesthetically pleasing and functional, but by involving quality assurance engineers along the way, that its refined and bug free. Further to this, leveraging the expertise of a UX design specialist across the development lifecycle means the ability to rapidly prototype and put ideas into demos to give clients and stakeholders sight of the product from early on in the process. The earlier the idea can be visualised and interacted with; the earlier decisions can be made, ultimately saving both time and money by reducing iterations and the need to resolve issues later on.

By including this capability within their service repertoire, BBD is perfectly positioned as an end-to-end partner that can walk the full product journey with our clients. Offering a streamlined process from digital advisory through to development, testing and to launch means reduced time to go-live and cost savings. “We get to know the ins-and-outs of your business,” says Barclay “while ensuring your vision and objectives remain our True North, we’re able to create products that delight your end users and drive high engagement”.

Bringing UX design creatives into a software environment is a power combo says Barclay; “Having UX design capabilities in-house at BBD not only positions us to offer a holistic approach to product development, it also means that we can truly walk the entire journey with our clients”.

Looking to unleash the power of UX/UI solutions for your product? Find out how we do it or get in touch today!