Experience Thinking is our unique framework that puts real users and customers at the center of design decisions. Unlike traditional approaches that start with technology or business requirements, we begin with understanding how people actually experience your brand, content, product, and service. This holistic approach ensures connected experiences from initial awareness through long-term loyalty. When you design with Experience Thinking, you create products and services that people genuinely want to use rather than have to use.

Tip: Before engaging any design partner, verify they follow a human-centered framework rather than technology-first approaches.

We view user experience as the complete journey people have with your organization across all touchpoints - not just the digital interface. Our Experience Thinking framework examines four interconnected areas: Brand (how people perceive you), Content (how information flows), Product (how interactions work), and Service (how everything connects). Most firms focus on one area, but we design the entire ecosystem to work together seamlessly.

Tip: Evaluate potential partners based on their ability to connect all experience touchpoints, not just optimize individual elements.

We start with understanding the complete experience lifecycle - from first awareness to loyal advocacy. Our Experience Thinking methodology means every project begins with deep user research to understand not just what people do, but why they do it and how they feel about it. We then design connected experiences that work across brand, content, product, and service touchpoints. This creates coherent journeys that feel intentional rather than accidental.

Tip: Assess whether a consultancy can demonstrate how they connect different experience elements rather than treating them as separate projects.

Akendi has been creating human-centered experiences since 2007 - over 17 years of dedicated focus on user research and experience design. We've completed more than 509 projects across diverse industries, from healthcare and finance to technology and government. Our founder Tedde van Gelderen developed the Experience Thinking framework through decades of practical application, which he published in the book 'Experience Thinking: Creating Connected Experiences'.

Tip: Consider the depth of experience and documented methodology when selecting a design partner.

Our multi-disciplinary practice includes specialists in behavioural science, experience design, data analytics, systems engineering, and graphic design. The variety of backgrounds ensures we approach challenges from multiple perspectives. We combine academic rigor with practical application - our methods are grounded in research but tested through real-world implementation across hundreds of projects.

Tip: Look for interdisciplinary capabilities rather than single-skill specialists when tackling complex experience challenges.

We operate from offices in Toronto and Ottawa, Canada, New York and USA, plus London and Cambridge in the UK. However, location isn't a barrier to great collaboration. We work with clients globally using flexible engagement models that fit your organizational structure. Whether you need an embedded consultant, a dedicated project team, or strategic guidance, we adapt our working style to your needs and timelines.

Tip: Focus on collaboration quality and communication processes rather than geographic proximity when selecting a design partner.

We've created successful experiences across healthcare, government and public services, finance and insurance, energy and utilities, technology, media, telecommunications, associations, and real estate. Our Experience Thinking framework applies across any industry because all organizations need to create meaningful experiences for their audiences. Each sector has unique challenges, but the fundamental principles of understanding users and designing connected experiences remain consistent.

Tip: Prioritize methodology and user-centered approach over industry-specific experience when solving complex experience challenges.

Our research always starts with understanding the complete experience context before diving into specific problems. We use both divergent thinking (exploring broadly) and convergent thinking (focusing solutions) throughout the process. This means we first map the entire user journey to understand where pain points actually occur, then design targeted solutions that work within the larger experience ecosystem. Every research activity connects back to actionable design decisions.

Tip: Ensure research plans include both broad context understanding and specific problem-solving rather than jumping straight to tactical questions.

We recognize that people play different roles throughout the experience lifecycle. Someone might be a customer when purchasing, a user when interacting with the product, and a client when receiving ongoing service. Each role has different motivations, goals, and success criteria. Our Experience Thinking framework helps design for these role transitions so the experience feels coherent as people move through different phases of engagement.

Tip: Map how your audience's needs change across different phases of engagement rather than treating them as static personas.

Experience Thinking starts with user understanding but immediately connects this to business value. We don't see user needs and business goals as competing - great experiences serve both simultaneously. Our framework helps identify where user satisfaction directly drives business outcomes like retention, advocacy, and growth. This alignment means you're not choosing between what users want and what business needs, but finding solutions that deliver both.

Tip: Seek partners who demonstrate clear connections between user experience improvements and measurable business outcomes.

Data informs our understanding but doesn't replace human insight. We combine quantitative metrics with qualitative understanding to build complete pictures of user behavior and needs. Numbers tell us what's happening, but human research tells us why it's happening and what to do about it. Our behavioral science background helps us interpret data within the broader context of human motivation and decision-making processes.

Tip: Choose consultants who blend data analysis with human insight rather than relying solely on either metrics or assumptions.

Implementation success starts with involving the right stakeholders throughout the research process rather than presenting findings at the end. We create clear connections between research insights and specific design decisions. Our Experience Thinking approach means recommendations fit within broader experience strategy, making implementation more systematic. We also provide practical tools and frameworks that internal teams can use to maintain experience quality over time.

Tip: Establish clear implementation pathways and stakeholder involvement before beginning research activities.

Testing happens throughout our process, not just at the end. We validate assumptions early through rapid prototyping and user feedback before investing in detailed design. Our approach tests both individual interactions and the complete experience flow to ensure everything works together cohesively. Testing includes measuring both task success and emotional response because great experiences deliver on both functional and feeling levels.

Tip: Plan for multiple validation points throughout the design process rather than single endpoint testing.

Experience Thinking helps prioritize activities based on experience impact rather than trying to do everything. We focus research and design efforts on the moments that matter most to users and business goals. Our framework helps identify which experience touchpoints require deep investigation versus lighter validation. This targeted approach delivers better results faster than superficial work across all areas.

Tip: Focus limited time on the highest-impact experience moments rather than trying to optimize everything equally.

Your team's involvement enhances project success because you bring essential context about your organization, users, and constraints. We structure collaboration around specific touchpoints where your expertise adds the most value - typically during research planning, insight interpretation, and solution validation. The level of involvement depends on your team's capacity and project goals, but some engagement always improves outcomes.

Tip: Plan for meaningful internal team participation rather than treating consultants as completely external resources.

Communication happens through regular progress updates, preliminary findings, and open dialogue throughout the project. You'll receive milestone reports that connect findings to actionable next steps rather than just documenting what we learned. Our reporting focuses on practical implications and clear recommendations that your team can act on immediately. We maintain direct access between your team and our researchers and designers.

Tip: Establish communication preferences and reporting expectations upfront to ensure alignment throughout the project.

We adapt our engagement model to complement your existing capabilities rather than replacing them. This might mean embedding with your team, providing specialized expertise in specific areas, or offering strategic guidance and training. Our goal is strengthening your long-term design capabilities while delivering immediate project results. We transfer knowledge and methods so your team becomes more capable after each collaboration.

Tip: Clarify how external consultants will enhance rather than bypass your existing design capabilities.

Requirements often evolve as understanding deepens - this is natural and often beneficial. Our Experience Thinking framework provides flexibility to adapt while maintaining focus on core user needs and business goals. We structure projects with regular check-ins to assess progress and adjust direction based on emerging insights. Clear communication about changes helps ensure everyone stays aligned on priorities and outcomes.

Tip: Establish change management processes and communication protocols before projects begin.

Knowledge transfer happens continuously rather than just at project end. We document methods, share frameworks, and explain decision-making rationale throughout the process. Our approach includes training your team on tools and techniques they can use independently. We provide templates, guidelines, and assessment frameworks that enable ongoing experience management without constant consultation.

Tip: Request specific deliverables that enable independent application of methods and insights.

Stakeholder alignment starts with understanding different perspectives and priorities early in the project. We help translate user insights into language that resonates with various organizational functions - executives see strategic implications, marketing understands positioning opportunities, and development teams grasp implementation requirements. Our Experience Thinking framework provides common vocabulary for discussing experience decisions across departments.

Tip: Map key stakeholder perspectives and communication needs before beginning collaborative projects.

Collaboration success shows up in shared understanding, aligned decision-making, and smooth implementation. We track how well insights translate into actionable plans and whether internal teams feel confident applying new knowledge. Successful collaboration means your team gains capabilities that extend beyond the current project. Regular check-ins help ensure expectations remain aligned and any issues get addressed quickly.

Tip: Define collaboration success metrics beyond just project deliverables to ensure lasting value.

Experience design ROI appears in multiple forms - increased user satisfaction, reduced support costs, improved conversion rates, stronger brand perception, and enhanced customer lifetime value. We establish baseline measurements and track improvements across relevant metrics. Our Experience Thinking approach connects user experience improvements directly to business outcomes because better experiences drive engagement, retention, and advocacy.

Tip: Identify specific business metrics that experience improvements should impact before beginning design work.

Over 17 years and 509+ projects, we've helped organizations navigate digital transformation, product launches, service redesigns, and organizational change. Our Experience Thinking framework proves particularly valuable for complex challenges because it provides structure for understanding interconnected problems and designing holistic solutions. We've worked with organizations from startups to large enterprises across regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and government.

Tip: Review case studies that demonstrate experience with challenges similar to your specific organizational context.

Building lasting capabilities requires transferring knowledge, establishing processes, and creating organizational culture that prioritizes user experience. We provide training, document methodologies, and help establish measurement systems that enable ongoing experience management. Our approach ensures your team can continue applying Experience Thinking principles after our engagement ends, creating sustainable competitive advantage.

Tip: Focus on capability building and knowledge transfer rather than just solving immediate problems.

Competitive analysis helps understand market context and identify differentiation opportunities, but we prioritize user needs over competitive matching. The goal is creating better experiences for your specific audience rather than copying what competitors do. Our Experience Thinking framework helps identify where you can exceed market expectations by addressing unmet user needs that competitors might be missing.

Tip: Use competitive insights to understand market context while focusing primarily on unique user value creation.

Innovation and optimization both benefit from understanding user needs and experience context. Innovation projects use Experience Thinking to identify unmet needs and explore new solution possibilities. Optimization projects apply the same framework to improve existing experiences systematically. Both approaches ground creative thinking in user reality while connecting solutions to business value.

Tip: Apply user-centered thinking to both breakthrough innovation and incremental improvement initiatives.

Risk management starts with early user validation and iterative testing throughout the design process. Our Experience Thinking approach reduces risk by understanding user needs before building solutions. We validate assumptions early, test concepts with real users, and iterate based on feedback. This de-risks investments by ensuring solutions will work before full implementation begins.

Tip: Plan validation activities throughout the design process rather than hoping final solutions will succeed.

Scalable experiences require consistent principles, reusable components, and clear guidelines that work across different contexts. Our Experience Thinking framework provides structure for maintaining experience quality as organizations grow. We create design systems, document decision frameworks, and establish measurement approaches that enable consistent experiences across multiple touchpoints and teams.

Tip: Invest in frameworks and systems that maintain experience quality as your organization scales.

Deliverables vary based on project needs but typically include research insights, user personas, journey maps, wireframes, prototypes, design specifications, and implementation guidelines. Everything connects back to our Experience Thinking framework, ensuring deliverables work together rather than existing as isolated documents. We focus on practical tools your team can use immediately and reference over time.

Tip: Request deliverables that serve as ongoing reference materials rather than just project documentation.

Multi-platform experiences require understanding how users move between different touchpoints and ensuring consistency across channels. Our Experience Thinking approach maps the complete user journey first, then designs each platform to support the overall experience flow. This creates coherent experiences whether someone interacts through web, mobile, in-person, or any combination of channels.

Tip: Design for cross-channel journeys rather than optimizing individual platforms in isolation.

Project timelines depend on scope and complexity, but our Experience Thinking process follows consistent phases: understanding (research and analysis), designing (concept development and testing), and implementing (detailed design and validation). We structure projects with regular milestones and decision points that keep work moving forward while ensuring quality. Timelines range from weeks for focused improvements to months for comprehensive experience design.

Tip: Plan sufficient time for user research and validation rather than rushing to design solutions.

Remote collaboration requires clear communication protocols, shared tools, and structured check-ins to maintain alignment. We've developed effective practices for virtual research, design collaboration, and stakeholder engagement. Our Experience Thinking framework provides common language and methods that work well across distributed teams. Regular communication and documented decisions keep everyone aligned regardless of location.

Tip: Establish communication rhythms and collaboration tools that work for all team members before projects begin.

Quality emerges through our systematic Experience Thinking process rather than final-stage checking. We validate decisions at multiple points, test concepts with users early and often, and maintain focus on user needs throughout development. Regular reviews ensure work stays aligned with project goals and user requirements. Our interdisciplinary team provides multiple perspectives on solution quality.

Tip: Build quality validation into each project phase rather than relying on end-stage review processes.

Technical constraints shape solution possibilities but shouldn't limit user experience thinking. We work with development teams to understand what's feasible while advocating for user needs. Our Experience Thinking approach helps identify creative solutions that deliver great experiences within technical limitations. Early collaboration between design and development teams prevents solutions that look good but can't be built effectively.

Tip: Include technical stakeholders in experience planning to balance user needs with implementation reality.

Post-project support includes documentation, training, and guidance for ongoing experience management. We provide frameworks and tools that enable continued application of Experience Thinking principles. Support might include periodic reviews, additional training, or consultation on new challenges. Our goal is ensuring your team can maintain and build upon project outcomes independently.

Tip: Plan for ongoing support and capability building beyond immediate project completion.

AI and emerging technologies should enhance human experiences rather than replace human judgment. Our Experience Thinking framework helps identify where AI can meaningfully improve user outcomes versus where human interaction remains essential. We design AI experiences that feel intuitive and trustworthy by understanding user mental models and expectations. Technology integration succeeds when it serves clear user needs within natural workflows.

Tip: Focus on user value and natural integration rather than implementing technology for its own sake.

We design for user device contexts rather than debating responsive versus adaptive techniques. Our approach starts with understanding which tasks users perform on which devices, then creates experiences optimized for those specific contexts. Whether the solution uses responsive, adaptive, or hybrid approaches depends on user needs and technical requirements. The goal is optimal experiences regardless of implementation method.

Tip: Prioritize user context and task requirements over specific technical implementation approaches.

Accessibility begins with inclusive thinking throughout the design process rather than compliance checking at the end. Our Experience Thinking approach considers diverse user capabilities and contexts from the start. We design for cognitive, physical, and technological accessibility while maintaining excellent experiences for all users. True accessibility enhances usability for everyone, not just people with specific needs.

Tip: Integrate accessibility considerations throughout the design process rather than treating them as final requirements.

Design systems succeed when they support consistent experiences while enabling innovation. Our Experience Thinking framework helps establish principles that guide system development beyond just visual consistency. We create systems that capture interaction patterns, content strategies, and experience flows that work across different contexts. Effective design systems accelerate development while maintaining experience quality.

Tip: Build design systems around experience principles and user needs rather than just visual consistency.

Privacy and ethics are fundamental to trustworthy experiences, not compliance afterthoughts. Our Experience Thinking approach considers how data collection and use affects user trust and comfort. We design transparent interactions that help users understand and control their data while achieving business goals. Ethical design builds stronger relationships by respecting user autonomy and privacy expectations.

Tip: Treat privacy and ethics as core design considerations that enhance rather than constrain user experiences.

API and integration design requires understanding user workflows that span multiple systems and data sources. Our Experience Thinking approach maps complete user journeys to identify where integrations can eliminate friction versus where they might create complexity. We design integration experiences that feel seamless while maintaining system reliability and performance. Good integration design makes complex technical systems feel simple to users.

Tip: Map end-to-end user workflows before designing technical integration points.

Performance is part of user experience, not separate from it. Slow experiences frustrate users regardless of how beautiful they look. Our Experience Thinking approach balances feature richness with speed and reliability. We design with performance constraints in mind and test experiences under realistic conditions. Great experiences feel fast and responsive while delivering the functionality users need.

Tip: Include performance requirements in experience design rather than treating speed as a separate technical concern.

Cultural transformation requires connecting user insights to business value in ways that resonate across different organizational functions. Our Experience Thinking framework provides common language and methods that help diverse teams understand and apply user-centered principles. We demonstrate quick wins while building longer-term capabilities that embed user focus into organizational decision-making processes.

Tip: Start cultural change with visible improvements that demonstrate user-centered thinking value.

Training combines theoretical knowledge with practical application using real organizational challenges. Our Experience Thinking methodology provides structured approaches that teams can apply immediately. We offer customized workshops, certification programs, and embedded consulting that transfer skills while solving actual problems. Effective training changes how people think about problems, not just what techniques they use.

Tip: Choose training that applies directly to your specific challenges rather than generic skill development.

Organizations new to UX benefit from starting with clear, achievable projects that demonstrate value quickly. Our Experience Thinking approach provides framework and vocabulary for discussing user needs and experience quality. We focus on building understanding and confidence through practical application rather than overwhelming with complex methodology. Early success creates foundation for expanding UX capabilities over time.

Tip: Begin with focused projects that build confidence and understanding rather than attempting comprehensive transformation immediately.

Leadership commitment enables experience transformation by prioritizing user needs in strategic decisions and resource allocation. Leaders don't need to become UX experts, but they need to understand why user-centered thinking creates business value. Our Experience Thinking framework helps leadership connect user experience improvements to organizational goals and competitive advantage.

Tip: Ensure leadership understands the business case for user-centered design before beginning transformation initiatives.

UX maturity appears in how naturally organizations consider user needs in decision-making, how systematically they gather user insights, and how consistently they apply user-centered principles across projects. We assess current capabilities, establish improvement goals, and track progress through both quantitative metrics and qualitative observations. Mature organizations embed user thinking into their standard operating procedures.

Tip: Focus on systematic application of user-centered thinking rather than just completing UX activities.

Agile and lean environments benefit from continuous user feedback and iterative improvement - core principles of Experience Thinking. We adapt research and design activities to fit sprint cycles while maintaining focus on user needs and experience quality. Our approach emphasizes rapid learning and validation that supports agile decision-making. User insights become part of the continuous improvement process rather than separate activities.

Tip: Integrate user research and validation into development cycles rather than treating them as separate processes.

Scaling UX requires consistent principles, shared methods, and clear governance structures that maintain quality while enabling local adaptation. Our Experience Thinking framework provides foundation that works across different contexts while allowing flexibility for specific needs. We help establish design systems, training programs, and quality standards that enable distributed teams to create consistent experiences.

Tip: Build scalable frameworks and governance structures rather than trying to centrally control all UX activities.