Putting users at the heart of design

At Harvest Digital, we like to get right under the skin of users and find out exactly what makes them tick. We act like small sponges; absorbing everything we can to help us fully understand their motivations and goals.

It's adopting this user-centred approach that helps us assess every aspect of a digital product. We then consider other external factors to ensure that all main consumer touch points (such as display advertising campaigns, call centres and search marketing campaigns), are considered with the aim of creating a consistent and enjoyable user experience.

We work collaboratively with clients to explore and understand the business drivers behind each project, thus ensuring a solution that is business savvy, technically feasible and pleasing to the user.

Finally we throw our best practice and wealth of experience in usability and accessibility into the mix. By ensuring that users are first and foremost, we retain the delicate balance between brand, experience and technology.

The link between users and brands

We like to think of Harvest User Experience as a bit of a science that enables the project team to make informed and educated decisions based on:

• Understanding the current and potential user base
• Understanding the user's needs and goals
• Understanding the contextual scenarios users may be faced with
• Understanding how users may interact with the website
• Understanding the user's emotional journey

No two projects are the same. We fluidly apply our knowledge and tools in order to tailor our process according to the specific requirements of each project.

Results that make a difference

Our goal is not to generate a pile of dusty documents but to help our clients reach tangible business targets including:

• Increased revenue - the better the user experience offered by a product, the more users will choose to use it / buy it, over the competition.
• Increased customer loyalty - with the right user experience, customers become loyal, and will choose to support your brand and share with peer networks. This can reduce customer acquisition costs dramatically.
• Reduced customer service costs – if your product is easy to use and provides the right features people may contact you less.
• Reduced project costs and timescales – the process involves users and stakeholders early on in the project which can help to avoid costly changes later on.

Our experience toolkit includes activities such as: contextual enquiries, interviews, focus groups, card sorting, affinity diagramming, personas, needs analysis, user journey definition, concept scamps, wireframing, lo-fi and hi-fi user testing - to name just a few.

Clients that are already benefiting from our unique User Experience knowledge: Aga, V&A, M35, Auto Trader, and most recently Towergate.co.uk.