Stake­holder interview

A stakeholder interview is a focused conversation with relevant stakeholders that can greatly assist the UX design process. They can help to ground any project with valuable insights that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to obtain otherwise.

Insights gained during the stakeholder interview influence the entire project process, for example in the areas of business goals, technical constraints, usability issues, etc.

If properly designed, conducted and evaluated, the interview with the relevant decision makers is one of the most effective research tools in UX design.

Heuristic analysis

In the course of heuristic analysis we systematically review the relevant pages and processes of the website, webshop and application based on our design experience and according to a system of criteria agreed with our client.

The aim of the heuristic analysis is to find usability errors, to identify obstacles hindering the users, to identify possible opportunities for repairing these and to formulate proposals.
Heuristic analysis, or expert opinion, includes analysis of the design or finished product by a UX expert to identify usability issues and strengths.

Expert opinion is a more general version of heuristic evaluation, a complex method of usability control in which Ergomania’s UX expert analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of usability through a variety of approaches.

Business goal and KPI definition

KPI definition is based on relevant business goals. Several KPIs are applied in former projects:

• Number of organic search results
• Micro and macro conversion rates (global, and based on traffic source/campaigns)
• CAC (Customer acquisition cost)
• Online acquisition results (number, volume, value)
• Cross-sales results

The more opportunities we have to examine the leads / users’ journeys in the client’s internal tools (CRM, account management tools), the better we are able to monitor business performance.

Website, webshop, application analysis

Our service consists of reviewing the functionality of a completed website, webshop or application, identifying its weak points and proposing solutions for them. The analysis covers usability, design and search engine optimisation.

Analysis of web analytics (like Clicktale)

Web analytics shows us where the users click, what elements they interact with, what elements they think they can interact with and where they focus their attention. This tool is perfect to determine what should be removed or rearranged in the actual content, and identify what gets too much or too little attention. Web analytics also help to decide where photos should or should not be used. We help the client to set up the web analytics tool.

User Interview

User Interview has been part of the UX design process from the beginning. Its strength lies in its simplicity: in the form of an interview, we ask users questions that are of interest and importance to us in terms of planning.

During the User Interview, as opposed to focus group research or survey, extremely intensive work can be done and due to the private environment, interviewees are also more likely to open up, speak more honestly than when they need to do so in front of others.

User Interview is led by a trained researcher who is able to quickly and effectively access information relevant to the team through targeted, decisive questions or answers to be explained. Due to its direct and personal nature, User Interview is primarily suitable for precision assessment.

Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research borrows its methodology from the science of ethnography. That is why it is also called shadowing, because the aim of ethnographic research is to observe the test subject without interference, almost unnoticed.

Ethnographic research can be helpful in examining very complex or critically important design challenges because it is essential in observing and/or interacting with real audiences.

Ethnographic research is a qualitative method, i.e. qualitative analysis is more important than quantitative. Researchers observe and/or interact with study participants in real-life settings.

Diary study

Diary study, or diary data collection, utilises an old tool tailored to modern methodology: diary writing. During logged data collection, users keep a real log of their experiences. It typically contains a date, a time, an activity, some expectations, and events recorded on a private digital interface.

The main advantage of Diary study is that we can track and learn about real user experience even when there is no way to have a direct personal tester present. It can also be used as a complement to user tests, as it can shed light on real problems that remain hidden under controlled conditions.

Logged data collection is one of the most time-consuming methods that requires a lot of attention and contrentation, but in return we can gain insight into the (reportedly) real behavior of the subjects, whose help makes it easier for us to understand contexts, longer-term processes and behaviors.

Mental model research

The goal of Mental Model research is to design a task/a series of tasks and their solution in a way that suits the thinking of users. We need to know where, how, and why users place emphasis, so the mental model is based on units of thought.

In order to map these, otherwise well-known processes well on the screen and online interfaces, we need to know what steps and concepts users are thinking about the given process.

Mental models provide us with a deep knowledge of people’s motivations and train of thought; and with them their emotional and philosophical framework within they act in everyday life.

We are also able to associate mental models with completely new services (e.g. voice-based payment or identification), but in this case our models are much more fluid. However, if we want to get to completely new service areas, it is also necessary to explore them.

Best practice research

The aim of best practice research in UX design is to optimize the design process by collecting workable solutions on the one hand, and using these good practices on the other to improve our own product or service.

Best practices are a set of guidelines, ethics, or ideas that allow for the most efficient or prudent solution in a given design process. In other words, best practice research is to prevent us from „reinventing the wheel”.

It is important to note that final or absolutely “correct” answers cannot be found in best practice research. As the saying goes, one’s best practice does not make all the others’ plans work flawlessly.

Lego Serious Play

Lego serious play is playing with Lego, not just for designers. Lego Serious Play is an innovative, experimental facilitation method in which participants have to solve a predefined task, problem or situation using only Lego bricks.

Lego serious play can build a path to better business results. Knowing the creative potential of Lego, it’s hardly surprising how effective a tool it is designed directly to increase innovation and business performance.

We do use Lego, although this time the goal is not to create a thematic scene or object. By applying it, we can attract the hidden expertise of the company’s employees and turn insight and awareness into commitment and common goals. It is important to note that Lego Serious Play is thus not the same as Service Design space and process modelling with Lego bricks.

Data analysis

Data Analysis is an essential part of any planning and business process. Without knowing accurate data, planning can only be based on estimates, intuitions or professional experience, but these only rarely produce reliable results.

Analytics, however, in the hands of professionals, shows all the connections we need to make informed decisions. Analytical software such as Google Analytics, Hotjar, or Mouseflow are the most popular data analysis solutions.

Millions of businesses around the world use these platforms to gain better insight into the behavior of their users when using their website, software, or online services. In the absence of adequate data, planning and decision-making becomes much more inaccurate.

Design Sprint

Involving all interested parties in an extremely intensive 5-day workshop series:

1. Mapping the problem
2. Creating various solutions
3. Assessment of the solutions
4. Modeling the best variant with a prototype
5. Testing the prototype and thus validating the business idea

There is also a shortened, 3-day version of the Design Sprint.

Personas

The extensive usage of personas (fictive users representing specific user groups) facilitates design work and makes it more effective. We create personas based on the user data and user groups specified by the client and we rely on what we learned during the stakeholder and user interviews. We also harmonize user needs with the relevant business goals.

Empathy map

Empathy Map is drawn by answering four simple questions, but the resulting drawing gives the clients a more detailed picture on their user types, their thoughts, their opinions, what they do and feel. It helps us to understand them in depth.
Empathy maps, for which data is obtained primarily from user interviews, help to jointly understand designers, product managers, other stakeholders and other team members, and help build empathy for users, while also helping us to learn about their patterns of behavior.

Business Model Canvas

Business Model Canvas is a business plan with easy-to-understand content detail located somewhere between a business idea and a detailed business plan. Business Model Canvas models the components of a planned business in nine areas, in short, written sentences.

Business Model Canvas was created by a team of 470 international experts based on the research of a Swiss economist Alex Osterwalder, with the intent to clearly display and develop the structure and operation of an entire business on a single sheet of paper, a.k.a. the “canvas.”

Using Business Model Canvas makes it easy to see the functionality of any business with any strategic and other design flaws immediately standing out. Another significant market advantage is its adaptability: Business Model Canvas could be readily tailored to reflect the changes in the business environment (and any other, relevant changes for that matter) should these arise at any given time.

Value proposition canvas

Value proposition canvas or as we call it in Hungarian, the value proposition sketch is part of the Business Model Canvas, and at the same time an independent and important element of business planning. Its main goal is to help us understand the needs and problems of our clients.

Business Model Canvas models the components of an imaginary business covering nine areas, in short sentences. At the heart, however, is the value proposition, because in this we clarify what problem we solve for clients and what needs we intend to meet.

Value proposition canvas focuses on understanding user problems and what products and services can solve these problems effectively. This is the value proposition that makes people love and use our clients’ products.

User journey

The role of the User journey is to map the relationship of users, their “journey” through interactions with the system, moreover, to assess and analyze what mental and emotional states users are going through.

The name of the method stems from the fact that we do observe routes and online movement within our own website, application, or other system. With User journeys, we can pinpoint the moment when our relationship with the user is in crisis during these encounters.

Identifying problematic situations helps us improve the user experience without losing any (potential) clients.

Kano Model

The Kano model is an effective way to measure user preferences, primarily during product development. It was developed by Professor Kano Noriaki in the 1980s, who named the method after his family name.

The main advantage of the Kano model is that it contrasts satisfaction with functionality by classifying customer priorities into five categories (Must-Be, One-Dimensional, Attractive, Indifferent and Reverse) and thus the path to faster and more concentrated development becomes smoother because it separates the “mandatory” from the „good to have” group.

The application of the Kano model is very popular, as it really points to user needs, as opposed to the wishes of the store or product owner, so the development will serve to meet real customer needs instead of imagined ones.

Card sorting

Card sorting, or page sorting, is a fairly useful tool in designing websites and applications. The purpose of the card sorting method is to easily sort the content and functions to be displayed into groups, also to label or rename the groups in order to help designing and building the structure of the website or application and facilitate the content upload.

Its strength lies in its simplicity, as it can be achieved with even a few sheets of paper and a pen: parts of the planned content are written on the sheets or “cards” and arranged as desired during research.

UX Flows

UX flow design is based on the realization that users can take many different paths when interacting with a product. This may sound like a no brainer, but the focus here is on the flows itself, in a process-based approach: the user does not perform a single thing in isolation (for example, clicking a button), but many interconnected ones, that in turn, form an organic whole.

UX flow design is therefore a visual representation of the many different paths that can be taken when using an application or website. The flowchart can be created on paper or digitally.

The flowchart starts with the consumer’s entry point on the product, such as the login screen or home page, and ends with the final action or outcome, such as purchasing the product or registering for an account.

Navigation, Content structure design

Based on the known features and content we design the structure of features and navigation and define the way they will work together to provide a smooth user experience. One of the most challenging aspects of interface design is the creation of a proper content structure and information architecture. The difficulty lies in the difference of the way of thinking of the companies and their clients. Properly arranged information helps the users to orientate comfortably and motivates them to do their business on your site.

Defining functions

One of the essential elements of UX design processes is the definition of the appropriate functions of the software, application, or the product in general. During this service – offered by Ergomania – we pinpoint the functions of a digital product together with our clients based on business ideas, user research, and natural, on financial and IT constraints.

For an existing product, defining the right features practically involves redesigning the whole product, resulting in both expansion and reduction of the features at the same time, as this is actually an optimization process.

The functions deemed to be kept should be weighted and prioritized, primarily on the basis of the Kano model, as this will best determine what the essential functions are, but also on the merit of what functions are those that make the solution unique and special.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is one of the tools of UX/UI design that has moved from the world of filmmaking into the toolset of designers. It was originally a technical screenplay that allows us to visually display the story before filming or animating begins. It can be a series of images of a few lines of sketches or even comic book images.

The pictorial screenplay often includes the dialogue the actors recite in the scenes as well as various technical instructions. But what is storyboarding or storyboarding in UX design? The UX storyboard is a tool that visually predicts and explores user experience with the product.

It presents the product like a movie in terms of how people will use it. This in turn can help UX designers understand people’s interactions with the product over time, clearly demonstrating what is really important to users.

Design studio

Design studio is one of the best and easiest to use methods of Design Thinking. It’s basically a group drawing workshop where stakeholders and users of a product or project work together to develop a common concept.

When working in a Design studio, participants first create sketches individually, which are then discussed and evaluated in a group, and finally develop them into one shared sketch concept.

The Design studio is an ideal tool for starting projects, developing the basic business and UX concept. It can be integrated organically into UX design processes, improving both the efficiency and acceptance of projects within the organisation.

Quick sketching

Visualising concepts and ideas is an efficient way to tackle challenges we are trying to solve. It’s the main method to deepen understanding of the design challenge and reaching common ground when used in a collaborative context. Although it doesn’t matter the tool we use (it can be a whiteboard, pen and paper or digital software) it’s important to keep the created sketches during the project for future reference.

Wireframing

Wireframing is a user-oriented digital interface design method that allows us to build a website, software, or application. The aim and purpose of a UX-oriented design is to focus on the user experience while designing digital interfaces to optimize efficiency, learnability, and satisfaction.

Wireframing needs to be applied in the early stages of development when visual design and content have not yet developed. Wireframes also allow for easier communication about the digital interface to be created, as it is much easier to argue and talk along specifics, as if only vague, unrecorded ideas swirl in the heads or float in functional specifications that no one understands and reads.

Service design

Service Design means human-centered design. The goal of a Service Design project is to focus on human needs rather than internal business needs, on proven practices rather than formal instructions. The result of a Service Design project is highest quality customer experience for your users with the total fulfillment of your business goals.

We are eager to work with you on the improvement of an omnichannel customer experience, including every touchpoint your customers may encounter when interacting with your product or service, with a special attention to physical interactions.

Voice user interface design

Instructing it to perform certain tasks – from switching on the lights to ordering plane tickets or sending money or getting detailed information. Our cross-functional team of professionals are ready to team up with your business to build a truly innovative voice-controlled product. Our specialized VUI team include usability experts, software engineers, AI experts, linguists, creatives, and copywriters.

User Testing

User Testing is a critical part of any development and design project. Although there are those who tend to sacrifice user tests on the altar of budget cuts, this is a serious mistake because if there are problems with the product they usually come up during User Testing.

The goal of User Testing is to validate the concept, processes and functions from a user perspective – how well-received it is for the target audience, what is its usability level and how user-friendly the design result is.

The application of User Testing is indispensable for all major projects where a lot is riding on first impressions and the feedback it would evoke from the target audience. Nowadays more and more people base their opinions on reviews, impressions or opinions of other users. User Testing should be almost mandatory in the design process.

A/B testing

A/B testing is also called split or multivariate testing. The goal of A/B testing is to compare two different versions of a chosen solution to find out which one gives more optimal results.

A/B testing is used in many sectors, from UI/UX design to marketing to medicine. Basically it can be used with high efficiency everywhere where several versions can be tested simultaneously to achieve a goal.

In case of UI design, variations of a call to action button are A/B tested to determine which version performs better among users.

Desirability research: determining the desirability factor

Design elicits a very rapid emotional response from users, ranging somewhere on the scale from highly likeable to neutral to highly repulsive. The role of the almost immediate emotional impression is very important, because it influences the way users relate to the product’s features and usability.

Desirability plays an important role in the UI design process and goes hand in hand with usability. The aim of desirability research is to discover and determine the possible emotional reactions and attitudes of users to a proposed or existing design.

The role of the desirability survey is therefore to validate what the design team needs to change in the existing design to achieve a more positive emotional impact and, of course, to strengthen the brand identity, or, for a product under design, which design variation is more desirable to users.

Navigation scheme testing

Testing the navigation scheme goes beyond checking simple website or application navigation. During testing, we validate the menu structure of our clients’ websites or software with real users.

Validation testers must adapt to the pre-set menu structure based on the tasks. For example, in an online bank, they need to find the menu item for applying for a personal loan. Navigation scheme testing is always conducted according to a test scenario imitating real activities created for a specific purpose.

The primary goal of navigation scheme testing is to detect possible errors, oddities, difficult-to-understand parts of the existing navigation and to optimize the navigation of the website or application using the test results.

Paper prototype test

Paper prototyping is a very useful component of the design process. Paper prototypes cannot be compared to the testing of the interactive site, its significance is in the modification and finalizing of the design plans based on the feedback. We can only be sure that our design is serving the users’ interest properly if we validate it with paper prototype testing.

UX guide

The UX guide is a document which presents UX guidelines used during the design, and offers additional principles that will help the site to preserve its content and feature consistency in the long run. Moreover, it helps how the approach used in the wireframes can be applied to further pages.

UI design

The aim of the UI design, ie. the design of the user interface, is to create an attractive surface for the target audience, meeting their expectations stemming from the wire frames created earlier. The goal is to find the surface beautiful, meeting their brand expectations, not just usable.

During the UI design, we design the individual screens so that they meet the functional requirements, while taking on an aesthetic, image-fitting look. During UI design, therefore, we focus on appearance and style. The goal of our designers is to create interfaces that users can easily manage and find pleasant to look at.

We create interfaces that fit the image of the client’s company (if needed, we can also create it) and at the same time meet the expectations of our client’s target audience, thus resulting in an optimal user experience created during the design.

Branding

Branding could mean many different things. Branding, or brand building, is essentially the activity of giving a company a certain design or symbol to promote its products and services and to make them identifiable. Not so long ago, this was a fairly accurate description of branding – at least that was the general perception at the time.

Branding is such a vast concept that a short and concise definition that truly encompasses all that it stands for cannot be created on its own without either becoming too broad or missing essential elements.

However, branding, or brand building, is most effectively defined as a process of identifying, creating and managing the set of assets and activities that shape the perception of a brand in the minds of the target audience.

Design system

There are several definitions of a design system, depending on the focus: components, recyclability or practices.

A design system is a collection and system of components that can be reused in different combinations, thus enabling an efficient and consistent design management.

Components that can be reused in a design system are guided by clear standards and can also be assembled to create any number of applications. Thus, a design system can be said to be a set of interconnected patterns and common practices.

However, this set is organised in a coherent, thoughtful way to support the achievement of the purpose of digital products.

Styleguide

The brand book consists of a document with attached PSD and JPG files. The book presents the graphic assets used during the design in a well documented and organized manner including suggestions and objections to ensure the visual consistency of the site.

Hire a pro UX, UI and Service Designer

For some time now, leaders in digital development and digital transformation disciplines have been struggling with the same thing: that it is quite close to impossible to hire developers and business analysts with the right skillset for a decent salary and within an reasonable timeframe. The trend has recently reached the UX, UI and Service Design fields. Many innovative companies have realised that UX, UI and Service Design services are not needed on an ad hoc basis, but must be relied upon regularly, in line with the design thinking philosophy.

Today, there is no successful digital product nor successful company without thorough and top-notch design. At the same time, it is not easy to find the right person with the right skillset and attitude in time. Ergomania can help you with our hire a pro service. Upon the initial assessment the professional we delegate will be integrated into our client’s team and they continue work together for months or even years, towards a common goal.

Development Quality Control

Development support is usually understood as a set of activities where a professional, a team or a whole company provides expert assistance in the development process, identifying bugs, weaknesses and opportunities.

In the field of UX-UI, development support is somewhat different: we act as designers and consultants in the UX-UI development process. Development support is a support activity in the sense that developers receive all the support they need to successfully complete a project and have UX-UI design competence.

Word­press devel­opment

WordPress is a cost-effective solution with significant international support for anyone who wants to have their own website. WordPress is a CMS, or Content Management System, originally designed for blogs.

Over the last ten years, however, it has evolved from a blog site to a full-fledged content management system, making it ideal for blogs, company brochures, web shops, portals and even complete magazines.

As an open system, anyone can program developments for WordPress and freely develop the system itself. Therefore, it has the undisputed advantage of a very wide range of templates and plug-ins, which can reduce the time and cost of web development by up to 80%, without compromising on the functionality required.

Frontend development

Frontend web development, also known as client-side development, is the practice of producing interdependent HTML, CSS and JavaScript codes and files for a website or web application. The goal of frontend development is to allow the user to see and interact with the website or application.

The challenge with frontend development is that the tools and techniques used to create the frontend of a website are constantly changing, so developers need to be constantly aware of how and where the field is evolving.

Frontend development is the way to ensure that websites and applications display correctly across browsers (cross-browser), operating systems (cross-platform) and devices (cross-device).

Backend development

Backend development means programming on the server. It refers to the activities that happen behind the scenes when someone interacts with a website or (web) application. Backend developers are responsible for databases, scripting and the architecture of websites.

Backend development is basically the process that makes the web, software and applications work. Yet back-end development takes place invisibly and without fuss to users, allowing people to browse their favourite websites, apps, use their voice-based systems or software in general without even knowing about the work done by the back-end developer or the back-end team.

Search Engine Optimi­sation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of getting a website to rank as high as possible in the organic (i.e. non-paid) search engine results (e.g. Google). Search engine optimisation is a complex process that relies on a strategy and employs a number of solutions to achieve the best possible results.

A SEO strategy provides guidelines and recommendations that can result in a significant increase in organic traffic to your website. SEO service can also be supported by Adwords and Facebook campaigns.

Search engine optimisation is based on a consciously structured system of quality content. Quality content includes internal links just as much as it includes quality external links – these links point back to the content from well-ranked, high-traffic, and content-related sites.

Business Analyst

By using our Business Analyst service, we can bridge the gap between the business, design and IT teams. We do so by providing one or more Business Analysts for our Clients. Through this service we can facilitate communication and understanding between different divisions.

Having a Business Analyst is particularly useful when a company is embarking on a development project but is not familiar with all the details of the development process. This is where the Business Analyst acts as an interpreter, translating the business requirements and then helping to interpret the results.

Business analysts can provide help right from the start. They help to gather the business requirements, define them into a specification and then help to ensure that these requirements are met during development. If the concept is not feasible due to a limitation, they are able to see through the system and its limitations and help find the ideal solution.

UX education

The aim of UX education is to introduce you to the inner workings of UX, the profession of enhancing the “user experience”, at the basic level, and to learn the science of UX as effectively as possible at the advanced level.

In essence, a UX designer is concerned with making software, websites and applications as good as possible for people. We use a complex set of knowledge and tools in UX design that can significantly enhance the customer experience – a priority in today’s highly competitive marketplace.

UX design is the process of giving functionality a usable and likeable user interface so that people not only use the software or website, but do so with positive emotions and satisfaction.

During UX education we introduce our clients to the inner workings of UX.

UX mentoring

UX mentoring is designed to provide the opportunity to talk to an experienced UX professional to those just starting to learn UX or the ones who are already immersed in UX but are stuck and would like to receive targeted, professional advice.

We often work specifically with startups and scaleups (startups that are capable of sustained growth and are growing rapidly), because UX mentoring does not mean a foundational or comprehensive education in UX. It’s about mentoring, the sharing of professional knowledge, and giving practical advice when someone wants to learn from successful UX professionals about mastery techniques or ways to get over initial hurdles.

Team-based UX mentoring is especially ideal for teams that want to solve specific, complex problems to perform at an even higher level.