In the competitive landscape of research and experience consultancy, the standard marketing playbook is clear: showcase the “sexy” UI, quote the “big” numbers, show off the latest tech, and blast the loudest noise. But for those of us operating in highly confidential and critical environments such as health and care, government, and complex financial systems, the playbook is fundamentally broken.
At Border Crossing UX, we face a unique paradox: our most impactful work is often the work we are least allowed to show.
The Iceberg of User Experience
The recent rise in the commoditisation of UX means that most stakeholders evaluate UX based on what they can see: the interface or surface they are using. However, user experience must go beyond the best practice of UI design.
In a systems-thinking framework, the interface is merely the tip of the iceberg. The true value lies beneath the surface: in the information architecture, the business logic, the security protocols, and the ethical data handling all to reduce and mitigate organisational risk.
When we work with partners like the NHS or the Scottish Government, we aren’t just designing screens or service blueprints; we are engineering trust. That trust must legally and ethically be built on a foundation of absolute confidentiality. While other agencies might prioritise their own portfolio growth by sharing “sanitised” case studies, we prioritise the integrity of our clients’ systems and their users data.
Thats why we never see our silence isn’t a lack of evidence, it is a guarantee of security and service integrity.
The ROI of Strategic Patience
The second challenge in marketing high-level UX is the obsession with immediate validation. In a world of “instant results,” many are uncomfortable with the reality that meaningful change takes time to measure.
Meaningful ROI in User-Centred Design (UCD) often takes 12 to 24 months to fully materialise. It involves tracking long-term behavioural shifts, reduction in operational overhead, and the adoption of new processes, services and tools. To promise “magic numbers” in a three-month turn around is often, in our view, at best naive and at worst professionally dishonest.
That is why we choose to work with clients and partners who value strategic patience: those who understand that deep-rooted systemic problems require evidence-based solutions, not superficial patches or vapid, carbon-heavy content campaigns.
Systems Thinking in Content Creation
Every piece of content has a cost: not just a financial one, but a carbon cost. In the midst of a climate crisis, the ethical brand must ask: Does this content add value, or is it just digital noise?
Last year we released a short video as a “retort” to the question: “Why haven’t I heard of you?” We didn’t use AI to churn out endless variations, and we didn’t fill it with vanity metrics. We used human logic to explain our human-centred approach. We applied the same Information Architecture skills to our 60-second script that we apply to a complex customer journey transformation. Ensuring that we kept the balance of people, planet and purpose that is core to our organisation in both the inception and production of this marketing asset.
We’re proud to take a different approach
Our approach isn’t for everyone and we are proud of that. It is for the pragmatic specialists who find fulfillment in solving the problems that no one sees. And it’s for the senior leaders who know that the most resilient systems are those built with quiet, disciplined expertise.
If you value robust methodology and momentum, and are an ethical business looking to solve complex challenges within an ecosystem of trust, then lets have a chat about how we can work together – in confidence of course.
