So your team is developing a next generation trading application but the interface is a little less than perfect?
With a bit of collaboration we can help you create a cutting edge interface that focuses on your users while still incorporating your brand identity.
Information architecture is the science of expressing a model or concept for information. Traditionally this is done through use case scenarios and site wireframes. We determine who your users are, what information (or systems) they need to access, and how to logically group that date in the most efficient / usable construct.
A team full of developers but no-one for design? When you collaborate with a design team you're trusting they'll bring a creative element to your project while continuing to share your companies aesthetic and brand sensibilities. We use an iterative approach to reach a look and feel that you're excited with.
For instance, if we're redesigning a grid we may come back with three alternatives, then you shop the designs around the company to get user and business feedback before we finalize.
A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to the product and serves to create associations and expectations around it. A brand often includes a logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, and sound, which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality.
Brands, "branding" and brand equity have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as "cultural accessories and personal philosophies"
We can help you create your brand or simply roll out your existing brand across multiple applications. Creating the 'next new thing' does not always mean just creating something 'new' - keeping your brand in-line (but fresh) will allow users to trust your offerings.
Whether you're building a new application or upgrading, we can assist you in creating and implementing a new user interface. By following a design method we can work with your business, marketing, and development team to produce iterative slides that will meet your users needs.
By combining other tools such as usability testing, information architecture, brand and standards creation we can help make your project a success.
Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. Usability can also refer to the methods of measuring usability and the study of the principles behind an object's perceived efficiency or elegance.
Dealing with financial applications we have to be aware that what might be termed 'usable' in the commercial marketplace may not be exactly what we need. For example: a user of a trade platform may not need/want an extremely 'designed' interface with all the bells & whistles, instead they may use their keyboard to tab through fields and enter data as quickly as possible rather than using their mouse. Something traditional design firms will miss every time.
User testing is a means for measuring how well people can use some human-made object (such as a web page, a computer interface, a document, or a device) for its intended purpose, i.e. usability testing measures the usability of the object. Usability testing focuses on a particular object or a small set of objects, whereas general human-computer interaction studies attempt to formulate universal principles.
If usability testing uncovers difficulties, such as people having difficulty understanding instructions, manipulating parts, or interpreting feedback, then developers should improve the design and test it again. During usability testing, the aim is to observe people using the product in as realistic a situation as possible, to discover errors and areas of improvement.
Designers commonly focus excessively on creating designs that look "cool", compromising usability and functionality. This is often caused by pressure from the people in charge, forcing designers to develop systems based on management expectations instead of people's needs. A designer's primary function should be more than appearance, including making things work with people.
Simply gathering opinions on an object or document is market research, rather than usability testing. Usability testing usually involves a controlled experiment to determine how well people can use the product and in the end you have hard core metrics to problem solve with.
Creating a set of standards insures a number of things; that users will be provided with a consistent experience (and will not have to re-learn functions over and over), provides a platform for development to access, and acts as a living document to roll new features/upgrades into.
In addition if you're dealing with a full product line or multiple lines, creating a standard and style guide will allow you to normalize the user interface and will allow your developers (or teams) share resources.
If a user clicks on a calendar control in one application it should be the same calendar control used across all your applications.
Development is a broad term for any activities related to developing a web site for the World Wide Web or an intranet. This can include e-commerce business development, web design, web content development, client-side/server-side coding, and web server configuration.
Most financial firms already have a mature development team in place, however we can work with your team to insure that our design is implemented seamlessly. A design often needs to be customized depending if the app is written in .NET, Java or a web application
Interaction Design (IxD or IaD) is the discipline of defining and creating the behavior of technical, biological, environmental and organizational systems. Examples of these systems are software, products, mobile devices, environments, services, wearables, and even organizations themselves. Interaction design defines the behavior (the "interaction") of an artifact or system in response to its users over time.
Interaction design is typically informed by user research, design with an emphasis on behavior as well as form, and evaluate design in terms of usability and emotional factors.
'Rich media' is a term used to describe media that uses multiple forms of information content and information processing (e.g. text, audio, graphics, animation, video, interactivity) to inform or entertain the (user) audience.
Within financial applications this could include video feeds, Flash animations, podcasts, rss feeds, blogs, and any other tool we can utilize to help facilitate sharing information, capturing attention, and delivering content in a compelling way.
Form before function has always been the rule in fiance. But how about function AND form?
A well designed interface will allow users to understand and roll through the construct with less confusion and fewer 'learned behaviors'. Quicker trades, less help-desk action, more efficiency - one click instead of three clicks, interactive grids instead of pop-ups, consistent and intuitive widgets that walk all over yesterdays spreadsheets.
Is your application ready for market?
We treat sufficiently advanced technology as though it were human, conversely we treat outdated technology as if it were trash.
Believe it or not, attractive things actually work better, and according to usability studies, the “appeal of the overall visual design of an application, including layout, typography, font size, and color schemes,” is the number one factor we use to evaluate credibility.
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