Connected Experiences

Experience Thinking is our framework that connects four critical areas: how people experience your brand, content, products, and services. Unlike traditional UX that often focuses on individual touchpoints, Experience Thinking creates connected experiences across your entire ecosystem. As detailed in our founder's book, this approach starts with the experience first, not the technology or business constraints, ensuring every interaction contributes to a cohesive journey from awareness through advocacy.

Tip: When evaluating UX services, ask how they connect different experience areas. A holistic approach prevents the common problem of fixing one touchpoint while others remain broken.

If your customers struggle to complete tasks, abandon journeys, or express frustration with your digital products, you likely need UX services. We've worked with over 220 clients across healthcare, finance, government, and technology sectors, finding that most organizations benefit from understanding their users' actual behaviors versus assumptions. The key indicator is often a gap between what you think users want and what they actually do.

Tip: Track where users drop off in your current experience. High abandonment rates at specific points indicate clear opportunities for UX improvement.

The first step is understanding your current experience landscape through research. This involves mapping existing journeys, identifying pain points, and understanding user needs. Drawing from Experience Thinking principles, we delay the technology-building piece and focus first on the intended experience. This approach helps identify whether an idea, product, or service is ultimately viable before major investments.

Tip: Start with lightweight research methods like user interviews or journey mapping workshops to quickly identify your biggest experience gaps.

Initial insights can emerge within 2-4 weeks through rapid research methods. However, meaningful experience transformation typically unfolds over 3-6 months, depending on scope. We use iterative approaches where improvements are implemented incrementally, allowing you to see progress while building toward the complete vision. Our experience with clients like Rogers and NB Power shows that phased implementation delivers value quickly while building toward long-term transformation.

Tip: Define quick wins alongside long-term goals. Early successes build momentum and stakeholder buy-in for deeper changes.

In-house capabilities are valuable, and we often work collaboratively to enhance existing efforts. Our flexible engagement models can supplement your team's skills, provide specialized expertise, or offer fresh perspectives. We've successfully partnered with organizations at various UX maturity levels, from startups to enterprises with established design practices, helping them reach new heights in their UX journey.

Tip: Consider external support for specialized research methods, strategic planning, or when you need an objective outside perspective on entrenched challenges.

Readiness indicators include leadership support, willingness to act on user insights, and recognition that current approaches aren't meeting user needs. You don't need perfect conditions to start - we meet organizations where they are in their UX maturity journey. The key is commitment to understanding users and implementing changes based on evidence rather than assumptions.

Tip: Start with a pilot project in one area to demonstrate value and build organizational readiness for broader transformation.

Organizations typically see reduced support costs, increased conversion rates, higher user satisfaction, and improved efficiency. Our case studies show outcomes like streamlined government services improving citizen access, or technology products achieving market differentiation through superior experiences. The Experience Thinking approach ensures these outcomes connect across brand perception, content effectiveness, product usability, and service delivery.

Tip: Establish baseline metrics before starting UX work. This allows you to measure improvement and demonstrate ROI to stakeholders.

The most effective approach combines multiple methods tailored to your specific questions. We use ethnographic research, user interviews, surveys, card sorting, usability testing, and journey mapping. Each method reveals different insights - interviews uncover motivations, observations reveal actual behaviors, and usability testing identifies specific friction points. Our Experience Thinking framework emphasizes understanding users holistically across all touchpoints.

Tip: Mix qualitative methods (interviews, observations) with quantitative data (analytics, surveys) for a complete picture of user behavior and preferences.

We translate research into specific design requirements, prioritized opportunities, and clear next steps. Our visualizations bring users to life through personas and journey maps that keep insights front-and-center during design. We've refined this approach across 509+ projects, ensuring findings directly inform design decisions rather than gathering dust in reports.

Tip: Ask for research deliverables that include specific design recommendations and priority rankings, not just findings.

User research focuses on how people actually use products and services - their behaviors, pain points, and task completion. Market research examines why people might buy or engage - preferences, perceptions, and purchase decisions. As highlighted in Experience Thinking, both are valuable but serve different purposes. User research drives design decisions while market research informs positioning and strategy.

Tip: Combine both types of research for complete understanding. Market research tells you what to build, user research tells you how to build it effectively.

The number depends on your research goals and user diversity. For usability testing, 5-8 participants per user group typically uncover 80% of issues. For surveys, you need larger samples for statistical significance. Our approach scales research appropriately - from intimate ethnographic studies to large-scale quantitative validation, always ensuring sufficient coverage of your key user segments.

Tip: Focus on recruiting the right participants rather than just hitting numbers. Quality insights from relevant users outweigh quantity.

We've developed strategies for reaching specialized audiences across healthcare, finance, and government sectors. This includes working with recruiters, leveraging client relationships, using remote research tools, and adapting methods to user constraints. Our experience shows that with creativity and persistence, even challenging user groups can be engaged effectively in research.

Tip: Plan extra time and budget for specialized recruitment. Consider incentives and flexible scheduling to accommodate busy professionals.

Analytics provide behavioral data at scale, showing what users do but not why. We combine analytics with qualitative research to understand motivations behind behaviors. This mixed-method approach, central to Experience Thinking, ensures decisions are based on both quantitative patterns and qualitative understanding of user needs and contexts.

Tip: Use analytics to identify problem areas, then conduct qualitative research to understand root causes and design solutions.

Validation happens through triangulation - confirming findings across multiple research methods and data sources. We also use iterative testing, starting with low-fidelity concepts and progressively refining based on user feedback. This approach, emphasized in Experience Thinking, reduces risk by validating ideas early before significant investment in development.

Tip: Build validation checkpoints into your project timeline. Testing assumptions early saves time and resources later.

Experience Thinking structures design around four interconnected areas: brand experience (how people perceive you), content experience (how information is consumed), product experience (usability and functionality), and service experience (the complete journey). This framework ensures every design decision contributes to a cohesive whole. Rather than designing isolated features, we create connected experiences that build from awareness through advocacy.

Tip: Map your current experience against these four areas to identify where disconnects occur and prioritize design efforts.

Iteration is fundamental to creating successful experiences. We start with early concept validation through sketches and wireframes, test with users, refine based on feedback, and repeat. Each iteration brings us closer to an optimal solution. This approach, core to Experience Thinking, allows us to identify issues early when changes are less costly and more impactful.

Tip: Budget for multiple rounds of design and testing. The cost of iteration is far less than the cost of launching a flawed experience.

We view constraints as design challenges rather than barriers. By understanding both user needs and business realities upfront, we design solutions that satisfy both. Our experience across regulated industries like healthcare and finance has taught us to find creative solutions within constraints. The key is maintaining focus on the intended experience while working within practical limitations.

Tip: Clearly communicate constraints early in the process. Transparent discussion enables creative problem-solving rather than late-stage compromises.

Deliverables vary by project but typically include user research reports, personas, journey maps, information architecture, wireframes, visual designs, prototypes, and design systems. More importantly, we provide clear rationale linking each design decision to user needs and business goals. All deliverables are created to be practical tools for implementation, not just documentation.

Tip: Prioritize deliverables that your team will actually use. A simple, actionable design system often provides more value than extensive documentation.

Responsive design is foundational, but true multi-device experience requires deeper thinking. We consider context of use - how needs differ between desktop research sessions and mobile task completion. Our approach ensures consistent experience quality while optimizing for each device's strengths. This aligns with Experience Thinking's emphasis on designing for the complete experience environment.

Tip: Think beyond screen sizes to usage contexts. Mobile users often have different goals and constraints than desktop users.

Accessibility is integral to good design, not an afterthought. We follow WCAG guidelines while going beyond compliance to create truly inclusive experiences. This includes considering diverse abilities in research recruitment, testing with assistive technologies, and designing with accessibility principles from the start. Creating experiences that work for everyone aligns with Experience Thinking's holistic approach.

Tip: Include users with disabilities in your research and testing. Their insights often lead to innovations that benefit all users.

Design systems provide consistency and efficiency across products. We develop systems that include components, patterns, guidelines, and governance models. Our approach ensures systems are adopted and maintained, not just created. Drawing from our experience with enterprise clients, we build systems that scale while remaining flexible enough to evolve.

Tip: Start with a pilot implementation of your design system. Prove value in one area before mandating adoption across all products.

Experience Thinking improves outcomes by ensuring all experience elements work together. As detailed in Tedde van Gelderen's book, when brand promise aligns with product delivery and service experience, customers move from one-time users to loyal advocates. This framework prevents the common problem where excellent products are undermined by poor service, or strong brands are damaged by weak digital experiences.

Tip: Audit your current experience using the four quadrants. Misalignment between areas often explains why investments in one area don't yield expected results.

Starting with experience means designing the intended user journey before determining technical implementation. As our book explains, this approach tests viability early through paper prototypes and concept validation before building. We've seen this save clients significant resources by identifying flaws before development begins. It's about understanding the complete experience customers need, then building technology to enable it.

Tip: Create journey narratives and test them with users before writing requirements. This reveals gaps and opportunities technical specifications might miss.

The four areas - brand, content, product, and service - create a reinforcing cycle. Strong brand experience sets expectations that product experience must fulfill. Content experience guides users through products, while service experience determines whether they become advocates. We've applied this framework across 500+ projects, seeing how weakness in one area undermines strengths in others.

Tip: Map touchpoints across all four areas for critical user journeys. This reveals where handoffs between areas create friction or opportunity.

Service design in Experience Thinking focuses on connecting all touchpoints into cohesive journeys. As our book emphasizes, service experience is the 'glue' binding products, content, and brand interactions. We design service blueprints that map both front-stage customer interactions and backstage processes, ensuring every element supports the intended experience from trigger through resolution.

Tip: Include operational stakeholders when designing services. Front-line staff insights often reveal critical experience gaps.

Emotion is central to how people perceive and remember experiences. Experience Thinking acknowledges that purely functional design misses the human element. We map emotional journeys alongside functional ones, identifying moments of delight, frustration, or anxiety. This emotional awareness, highlighted throughout our book, helps create experiences that resonate beyond mere task completion.

Tip: Chart emotional highs and lows in current journeys. Focus design efforts on transforming low points and amplifying positive moments.

Success metrics span all four experience areas: brand perception scores, content engagement rates, product usability metrics, and service satisfaction ratings. We also track cross-functional metrics like customer lifetime value and advocacy rates. This comprehensive measurement approach, core to Experience Thinking, ensures improvements in one area don't mask problems in others.

Tip: Develop a balanced scorecard covering all experience areas. Single metrics like NPS miss the nuanced picture of experience quality.

While the framework remains consistent, application varies by context. Healthcare experiences prioritize trust and clarity, financial services balance security with convenience, and government services focus on accessibility and transparency. Our framework's flexibility allows adaptation while maintaining focus on connected experiences. This universality is why Experience Thinking works across our diverse client base.

Tip: Identify your industry's unique experience drivers, then apply the framework to address them systematically.

Implementation success comes from involving technical stakeholders early and designing within realistic constraints. We create detailed specifications, component libraries, and maintain dialogue with development teams throughout the process. Our experience shows that the best designs balance user needs with technical feasibility, avoiding the common pitfall of creating beautiful but unbuildable solutions.

Tip: Include developers in design reviews. Their early input prevents costly rework and often sparks innovative solutions.

Support ranges from detailed handoff documentation to embedded collaboration with development teams. We can provide design validation during development, conduct implementation reviews, and help resolve issues as they arise. This continued engagement ensures the intended experience survives the translation from design to code, maintaining the integrity of Experience Thinking principles throughout.

Tip: Budget for design support during development. Having designers available to answer questions and validate implementation prevents experience degradation.

We integrate seamlessly with agile workflows, providing design sprints that align with development cycles. Our Design on Track methodology allows for both strategic design work and tactical support. We can work ahead of development sprints to provide validated designs or embed within teams for real-time collaboration. This flexibility has proven effective across various client development processes.

Tip: Establish a design runway staying 1-2 sprints ahead of development. This provides time for user validation without blocking progress.

Launch is just the beginning. We recommend post-launch monitoring, gathering user feedback, and iterative improvements. Experience Thinking views design as ongoing - user needs evolve, new technologies emerge, and business goals shift. We can provide ongoing optimization support or train your team to continue the experience evolution independently.

Tip: Plan for post-launch iteration from the start. Reserve budget and resources for improvements based on real-world usage data.

Successful UX transformation requires organizational change management. We help build internal buy-in through stakeholder workshops, pilot programs that demonstrate value, and training that empowers teams. Our approach recognizes that great experiences require not just new designs but often new ways of working and thinking about users.

Tip: Identify and empower internal champions early. Their advocacy accelerates adoption and sustains momentum.

We offer comprehensive UX training through our certification programs covering research methods, design principles, and Experience Thinking application. Training can be customized to your team's needs, from introductory workshops to advanced methodology courses. Our goal is building internal capability that sustains experience excellence long after project completion.

Tip: Invest in team capability building alongside project delivery. Skills transfer creates lasting value beyond individual project outcomes.

Consistency comes through shared design systems, governance processes, and unified experience strategies. We develop frameworks that maintain coherence while allowing appropriate variation. This systematic approach, rooted in Experience Thinking, ensures users have seamless experiences across your entire portfolio while products retain their unique purposes.

Tip: Start with experience principles before visual standards. Consistent user mental models matter more than identical interfaces.

We believe in collaborative partnerships where your domain expertise combines with our UX methodology. We facilitate workshops that bring together diverse perspectives, ensure all voices are heard, and build consensus around user needs. Our flexible working models adapt to your organization's culture and processes, whether you prefer embedded collaboration or structured project phases.

Tip: Map stakeholder influence and interest early. Understanding organizational dynamics helps navigate decision-making effectively.

Knowledge transfer happens throughout our engagement, not just at the end. We document decisions and rationale, involve your team in research and design activities, and provide training on methods and tools. This approach ensures your organization can maintain and evolve experiences independently, building lasting UX capability rather than dependency.

Tip: Assign internal team members to shadow UX activities. Hands-on participation accelerates learning more than documentation alone.

We use evidence-based decision making to resolve conflicts. User research provides objective data that moves discussions from opinions to user needs. We facilitate workshops that help stakeholders see beyond their individual perspectives to shared user outcomes. This approach, central to Experience Thinking, keeps focus on creating the best experience rather than satisfying internal preferences.

Tip: Establish user needs as the North Star for decisions. This neutral ground helps resolve conflicts productively.

We adapt to your preferred tools while bringing best practices from across our client work. This includes collaborative design tools, research repositories, and communication platforms. More important than specific tools are the methods - regular check-ins, collaborative workshops, and transparent documentation that keep everyone aligned and informed throughout the process.

Tip: Choose collaboration tools your team will actually use. The best tool is the one that facilitates communication, not the most feature-rich.

Momentum comes from visible progress and continuous value delivery. We structure projects with regular milestones, celebrate wins, and maintain energy through varied activities. Our iterative approach means you see tangible improvements throughout the engagement rather than waiting for a big reveal. This sustained engagement keeps stakeholders invested and excited.

Tip: Plan for regular stakeholder showcases. Demonstrating progress maintains enthusiasm and political support.

Remote collaboration has become seamless through refined tools and methods. We conduct virtual workshops, remote user research, and online design sessions that maintain the energy and effectiveness of in-person work. Our experience during and after the pandemic has proven that geography need not limit collaboration quality when the right structures are in place.

Tip: Invest in proper remote collaboration setup. Good audio, video, and digital whiteboarding tools make virtual sessions nearly as effective as in-person.

AI augments our capabilities in research analysis, design exploration, and pattern recognition. We use AI tools to process large datasets, generate design variations, and identify usability patterns. However, AI supplements rather than replaces human insight - understanding context, emotion, and nuanced user needs remains fundamentally human work. Our AI UX design services focus on creating experiences where AI enhances rather than complicates user interactions.

Tip: Consider AI as a tool for efficiency, not replacement for human-centered design. The best AI applications still require deep understanding of user needs and contexts.

ROI manifests in reduced support costs, increased conversion rates, improved task completion, and higher customer satisfaction scores. We help establish baseline metrics and track improvements throughout engagement. Our experience across 500+ projects shows that well-executed UX typically returns multiples of investment through efficiency gains and revenue growth. The key is measuring the right metrics aligned with your business goals.

Tip: Connect UX metrics to business KPIs from the start. Show how improved task completion rates translate to cost savings or revenue growth.

Scope depends on experience complexity, number of user types, research depth needed, and desired transformation level. Timelines reflect iteration rounds, stakeholder availability, and implementation approach. We scale engagements from focused improvements to comprehensive transformations. Our flexible models mean we can adapt to your needs and constraints while maintaining quality.

Tip: Start with a discovery phase to properly scope the full effort. Initial research often reveals complexity not visible from the outside.

Value delivery is continuous through our iterative approach. Early research provides immediate insights, design concepts enable stakeholder alignment, and each iteration brings tangible improvements. We establish clear success metrics upfront and track progress throughout. Regular check-ins ensure efforts remain aligned with evolving business needs and deliver expected value.

Tip: Define value metrics for each project phase, not just final outcomes. This allows course correction and demonstrates ongoing progress.

UX investment focuses on human outcomes rather than just technical delivery. Success is measured in user satisfaction, task efficiency, and business results rather than features deployed. The iterative nature means value emerges progressively rather than all at once. This human-centered approach, central to Experience Thinking, often yields unexpected benefits beyond initial project goals.

Tip: Frame UX investment as business transformation, not IT cost. The value extends beyond technology to customer relationships and operational efficiency.

Justification comes through connecting user experience to business outcomes. We help build business cases showing how improved experiences drive revenue, reduce costs, and mitigate risks. Case studies from similar organizations demonstrate potential impact. Starting with pilot projects proves value before larger investments. Our track record across industries provides credible examples of UX driving business success.

Tip: Use competitor analysis and industry benchmarks to show the cost of not investing in UX. Sometimes risk mitigation is the strongest argument.

Experience excellence requires ongoing attention. Plan for continuous research to track changing user needs, iterative improvements based on usage data, and evolution as technology and expectations advance. This might include quarterly research studies, annual experience audits, or retained support for optimization. The investment level depends on your industry's pace of change and competitive landscape.

Tip: Build UX into operational budgets, not just project budgets. Sustained excellence requires ongoing investment, not one-time fixes.

We provide frameworks, benchmarks, and evidence to support internal business cases. This includes ROI models, case studies from similar organizations, and pilot project structures that prove value. We can also facilitate stakeholder workshops that build consensus around UX investment. Our goal is empowering you to make and defend the case for experience excellence.

Tip: Focus business cases on risk reduction and opportunity capture, not just efficiency. Strategic benefits often outweigh operational improvements.