Design your forms
Designing a great web-based or paper-based form can be difficult and often the final product can present all kinds of difficulties to your users. When designing forms for our clients, we start at the very beginning, we work out who the user is, what they need to do and then deconstruct and analyse the tasks to ensure each step is reflected in the final design.
We recommend the following activities
Design
At Stamford Interactive we are experts in designing and refining products to ensure that the user experience is enjoyable, intuitive and efficient. We apply our analysis and research findings to improve the design of products that demand a steep learning curve and rely on learned behaviour for users to complete the required tasks.
Our goal is to create designs that represent the union between your business goals and your user needs, increasing productivity and user satisfaction, therefore amplifying the real value of your product.
Conceptual design
Stamford's capacity for conceptual design sets us apart from the usability crowd. This often-neglected phase is the powerhouse where clear requirements are converted into a focused model, forming the DNA of the design solution.
Tasks may include:
- Requirements Analysis - Analysing the formal results of our process to identify patterns, relationships and directions
- Affinity Diagramming - Organising ideas to form and explore conceptual relationships
- Design Brainstorming - harnessing creativity to translate directions into design models.
Interaction design
Interaction design builds on the information and conceptual design framework, adding functional elements through which the user is able to both control and receive feedback from the system.
Our approach involves analysing the steps within a user's activity to ensure the product interface supports effective and accurate task completion. Identified user goals and processes are addressed through applying a comprehensive range of tools and methodologies. The outcome is an optimised solution for user interaction.
Tasks may include:
- Collaborative design
- Control and feedback design
- Procedural design
- Feature design
- Cognitive walkthroughs
Deliverables from the interaction design process include sets of screen blueprints or wireframes for use by developers. Alternatively, a business process diagram, flowchart or report may be provided for management.
Prototyping
In prototyping we develop a model of the proposed user interface so that we can test various aspects of the design, illustrate ideas or features and gather early user feedback.
Prototyping greatly reduces the risk and cost of building a product that may prove less than optimal to users' needs and therefore require further refinement. There are two common approaches to prototyping:
Paper Prototyping allows users to interact with paper-based representations of the proposed product keeping the cost of the user testing to a minimum. This approach tests the validity of a concept by testing the fundamental design elements prior to the aid of interactive cues.
Using the paper prototype method we can gather feedback from which we can easily (and cost-effectively) add more cycles of testing, more subjects or more prototypes as required.
Electronic Prototyping involves an electronic model of the proposed design being built for users to interact with. Although less cost and time efficient than paper-based techniques, this model closely represents the proposed interface allowing us to observe users' reactions to the solution at high fidelity. As with the paper prototype approach, this method provides feedback about the interaction between the user and the interface allowing us to add more cycles of testing, more subjects, or more prototypes as required.
Visual design
At Stamford Interactive we have demonstrated expertise in translating the findings from research activities in to a fully-realised interface design.
During the Visual Design phase of a project we bring together the outcomes of previous research and design components providing our clients with up to three separate design concepts that combine branding, visual style, and functionality.
Far from limiting our focus to attractiveness, our visual design forms an integral component of the usability framework of our designs, helping achieve both business and user objectives.
The Visual Design process results in a visual style/concept, which represents a detailed visual approach for your product. In line with our philosophy of facilitating ongoing usability, a Visual Style Guide can also be provided, capturing the specific design elements and approaches that were accepted in user testing. We can also supply a CSS to ensure that elements of the design retain their integrity as they are brought across to your website.
Evaluation
At Stamford Interactive we understand how important it is that customers can engage with your product easily and intuitively. Usability evaluation is our business so we are well versed in the ways of identifying and understanding the issues affecting the success of our clients' products.
User testing
User testing involves carrying out specific assessment tasks with carefully recruited, representative users in order to evaluate the effectiveness of a design or product.
Tasks may include:
- Usability Walkthroughs
- Prototyping and Testing
- Tracked Testing.
Accessibility audit
At Stamford Interactive we understand the importance of ensuring websites and intranets are accessible to all users. Providing accessible web-based communication and information is not only best practice but it also makes good business sense.
Using a combination of automated validation and manual review, our Accessibility Audit will identify general barriers to accessibility which exist on your website or intranet and provide an evaluation of compliance against W3C Guidelines.
We will provide you with an Accessibility Audit report advising where your site requires further changes to comply with either A, AA or AAA levels of the W3CGuidelines.