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When creating a design system, you should think about developing and using a design checklist. A design checklist is a group of rules or standards that are tested against. They help ensure any foundation, component, pattern or element meets certain pre-defined criteria. Think of a design checklist as a quality assurance tool – a set of clear standards that all elements in your design system must meet.

The UX work we do is often invisible, but its impact is undeniable. Whilst this makes our roles at Border Crossing UX hugely fulfilling on a personal and professional level – it does make marketing our work and the outcomes we have achieved hard. So how can we market our impact when confidentiality is key?

In this post, we’ll discuss how being a participant of a workshop can improve your facilitation skills. Any practical knowledge and expertise is strengthened by remembering what it feels like to be part of the experience. That’s why we truly think that this role reversal is something every user centred designer should regularly do.

In this post, we’ll provide an overview of two key outputs that were developed following an engagement event, focussing on why and how these key deliverables were produced. We’ll also detail the additional links and resources that we benefited from throughout this project.

Sandyford Sexual Health Service wanted to explore key recommendations following a needs assessment of those who support adults with a learning disability on the topic of relationships and sexual health.

In the course of a recent project for NHS Highland we were asked to translate ‘discovery’ research into a set of representative and actionable proto-personas.

As external user experience consultants, there’s no doubt we’ve found the NHS design principles and digital service manual to be invaluable resources that we’ve turned to time and time again across a range of national and regional NHS projects we’ve worked on.

When developing a product or service that offers a successful solution, entrepreneurs typically adopt a hit-or-miss experiment. Framing assumptions as hypotheses can improve business experimentations and user experience design. In this post, we discuss the importance of building a culture of experimentation and different UX research techniques.

Over the years we’ve worked with clients who have had some truly massive digital content libraries. In some instances, these are a genuine asset. There is a clear content strategy and legacy content is well maintained. This often results in a clear competitive advantage.

At Border Crossing UX we always work to influence positive change. We know that’s a goal that many of you share. That’s why we’ve gathered our favourite sustainable digital tips to help you be more environmentally friendly. See how you could have an impact.

Lightning talks are a brilliant way to harness and share internal and external expertise. If you’ve participated in a research or design sprint before, then you’ll know how powerful a good lightning talk can be. In this post we discuss how to plan and prepare for them.

Want to facilitate great workshops and establish an even playing field? Then use an icebreaker to start off your session. Though icebreakers are often seen as a cheesy way to start of a meeting or a workshop they are a great tool in your arsenal. That is why they are the only exercise that is guaranteed to start every workshop that we facilitate.

Whether it’s a tin opener or a website, if people can’t use it, they won’t. Usability is integral to success. It directly influences the user experience. Poor usability impacts brand perception, employee productivity and your bottom line.

Delivering an experience that truly meets end-user needs and goals is difficult. Often, compelling user experiences are the result of an iterative design process. But how do you validate your designs in user testing without wastage?

A user experience persona is a fictional character that represents the needs and constraints of a range of real users. It is essentially a design tool used to inform the design at the beginning of a process and validate decisions in the later stages.

In the age of the consumer, it is vital for companies who conduct business online to identify their user’s goals.  By pinpointing the key tasks that people want to carry out on your website, you are establishing your ‘Red Routes’ or ‘Top Tasks’.

A persona is a representation of a user. A good persona should be based on interviews with real customers.  A persona then has the ability to help design teams empathise with the user and appreciate their frustrations and difficulties.

A storyboard is a method in which to illustrate the interaction between a person and a product. They allow a team to visually map out and specify how a user interacts and reacts to a product whilst considering additional external factors.

In an ideal world we’d all like to launch a beautiful, complete and bug-free product, on-time to a captive audience of prospective customers. But the truth is you’re more likely to launch a buggy product or service late to your pals.

Over the years I’ve come across and contributed to a diverse range of start-up launch plans. A key ingredient of the successful start-up launches I’ve observed has been a willingness to invest time and thought into an objective-driven plan.

Why are so many start-ups not willing to pre-launch their businesses? When lean start-up or minimum viable product are becoming such well known terms. As UX consultants we collaborate start-ups to pre-launch their business, not their product.

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is a process used to increase the percentage of visitors that complete a specific task or action. Generally this relates to financial or data transactions but what that task or action is, doesn’t really matter.

A formal or informal expert usability review is a common starting point for most of our projects. Oddly enough it’s also one of the only methods in user centred design that doesn’t directly involve people who will use the product or service.

Customer mapping or customer journey mapping is key to delivering an excellent customer experience, whether you operate online or not. It allows you to identify what your customers need, desire and feel when they interact with your company.

A sitemap is a visual representation of a website or application’s structure. It should clearly communicate how all the information is organised.If you are commissioning a new website or a redesign then you should include one in your brief. 

Businesses often throw themselves into web design or web development projects. It may take a while for it to happen but once a project is green-lit there’s normally a mad scramble to compile requirements, source quotes and kick-off the project as quickly as possible.

This is a question we are often asked by prospective clients. Normally a quick conversation is enough to convey its importance and the fundamental role it plays in the design and technical projects we undertake.

We do our best not to use jargon when communicating with clients. That said, we do use the terms alpha, beta and official release. These terms are useful because they help everyone understand where we are with a technical development project.

Now first off I want to state that I have learnt this the hard way. There was no epiphany this is just something I’ve learnt by being burnt.

VoC’ or ‘Voice of the Customer’ reports are becoming an increasingly popular topic. But what is a VoC report and do you really need one?