Corporate Vision Issue 5

CORPORATE VISION / Issue 5 2018 35 visual design, front-end build and test – it was the largest single project undertaken by HT to date, and the most personally rewarding for the team and commercially successful for the client. Each new project has to be approached with an open mind and a client focus, so that the overall outcome meets clients’ needs and exceeds their expectations, as Rich highlights. “Typically, when we first begin a new project we are given some form of brief, sometimes really loose and sometimes quite tight and prescriptive. At this point, we always perform some form of research and insight generation, be it small and desk-based or more detailed and outbound, and always on our own time as part of a due diligence approach to our work. We use the output of this to probe the brief looking for points of validation or weakness. Additionally, we almost always find something of high value that augments the brief into something of greater worth to our client, sometimes pushing it up to the strategic level and at other times pushing it down to a more rigid, operational delivery level. Ultimately, our focus is on doing the right thing by the business and its customers - not just simply taking the brief and blindly running with it.” As a key part of achieving this, HT constantly invests time in emerging trends and technology. Being at the leading edge of the digital revolution, the firm has to work hard to maintain its strong industry position, and working to be at the forefront of emerging developments is central, as Rich highlights. “To ensure that we are always offering our clients innovative solutions, at HT we are always learning something. Be it a shift in consumer behaviour, interaction or technology, there is always something new to consider. The digital landscape is like a constant rolling canvas, if you don’t keep up then you quickly find yourself behind the curve. We have been actively exploring the area of IoT (Internet of Thinking Human - Acting Digital g Things) for over five years and it always features somewhere in our thinking. Also, we have recently started delivering VUI (Voice User Interface – think Siri or Alexa) solutions for our clients. Regarding VUI design, the principles are still the same as for traditional interface design, it’s just applied via a different medium and therefore has slightly augmented rules. Fundamentally, we are still human beings with the same set of needs, desires, hopes and limitations that we have always had.” Looking to the future, HT has many exciting developments ahead. As part of their annual Digital review, they have drafted six trends for Digital design likely to be seen in late 2018, which they are keen to adapt around. Firstly, HT believes that channel agnostic design is becoming a basic requirement - service design should now be conducted across multiple channels as standard, rather than approaching touchpoints in isolation. Additionally, the importance of design strategy is set to increase, with seemingly more varied touchpoints, the need for a well thought out design strategy is key to ensure that brand, interaction patterns and services are applied consistently and appropriately. User experience and visual design are set to become more specialised with the continued fragmentation of skillsets. Also, more specific roles will emerge within niche design areas, and project methodologies will continue to evolve in order to meet the challenges of lean UX methodology shortfalls and the end of traditional User Interface design as a separate step. The team also anticipate that they will see an emerging demand for intelligent machine interface design. This will go beyond the visual and interactive and push design into the semantic realm. Finally, HT expect to see an increase in VUI design activity and associated emerging mediums. All of these developments offer a myriad of exciting opportunities for this proactive and experienced team, and over the months to come they will seek to take advantage of them so that they can continue to offer clients a truly exceptional service that they can rely upon. Phone: 0203 289 8008 Website: www.human-thinking.co.uk