I'm a user experience designer
I design for your users
*user = person, human, citizen, customer, client, dude etc.
I stand in their (non-rational) shoes
People aren’t rational.
We are capable of rational thought but it is not a driver.
We are emotional, social, contextual, instinctive much before we are rational.
Feelings are more important than facts.
Trying to win people over with info, stats and industry speak mostly doesn't work.
You need to help them FEEL that they are achieving what they want to achieve.
As Maya Angelou said:
“People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel”
We are capable of rational thought but it is not a driver.
We are emotional, social, contextual, instinctive much before we are rational.
Feelings are more important than facts.
Trying to win people over with info, stats and industry speak mostly doesn't work.
You need to help them FEEL that they are achieving what they want to achieve.
As Maya Angelou said:
“People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel”
I can help you if...
You need to understand what makes your customers tick
You want to create user journeys that engage, delight and give users a reason to feel grateful
You want to create a more confident, user-centred culture within your organisation
You want to increase engagement, sales, retainment or, indeed, any metric/KPI
You need a creative thinker to think in new ways about your problems and propositions
You want to create user journeys that engage, delight and give users a reason to feel grateful
You want to create a more confident, user-centred culture within your organisation
You want to increase engagement, sales, retainment or, indeed, any metric/KPI
You need a creative thinker to think in new ways about your problems and propositions
Testimonials
Ian's perspectives are derived from a willingness to dig deep into customer motivations but always grounded in the reality of the business and what it is trying to achieve. Financial Services, intangible and complex as they are, challenge even the most experienced researchers and innovators but Ian has shown time and again that he can cut through the complexity and create customer journeys that make people feel in control of their money.
Ian is very likeable, easy to work with and a great team player. His core talent is his philosophy that creative design is all about improving the customer experience: a natural instinct, and skill, to understand the customers’ perspective and translate research insights into compelling customer-centric designs.
Mark, Founder/CEO at Quickheart
Ian is a delight to work with and has been instrumental in helping us not only research and develop fantastic journeys that our customers love and engage with, but has also been indispensable in helping us to embed a people-centred approach in our product development processes...I place immense value on his empathetic yet no-nonsense approach...His refreshing, expertly non-expert gaze...His truly collaborative way of working...always happy to take a lead or provide support as needed.
Tomur, Product Manager at Abundance
Case Studies
What do I do?
I design user journeys.
I listen to people and data.
I help public and private sector organisations to design solutions that empathise with people’s ‘non-rational’ and rational drivers.
I work with their teams to foster a user-centred culture - building confidence in design decisions via greater understanding of the customer.
We show people stimulus. We listen to what they say and what they try not to say. We learn what's a trigger and what's a barrier.
Informed by what we've learnt about the 'customer' we then form hypotheses about who they are (in this specific context) and what will help them achieve what they want to achieve.
We take these people-led hypotheses and allow my experience and our creativity to take over and design the thing and the journeys (web, app, offline) that will engage and motivate them into action.
We iteratively prototype, test, build and monitor the thing.
Once built, we can use data tools (like Hotjar, Inspectlet, Full Story, Amplitude) to see how users are actually using it. Improving journeys by identifying pain points - bugs, rage clicks, unused content, failed journeys. And identifying successful journeys and the cohorts that exhibit a behaviour that we'd like to encourage in others by applying personalised events (content, ads, emails, social media interaction, in page chat).
All the time we're getting to know more about what our users want and how we can help them achieve it.
Of course, some may believe that they already know what their users want, and that their logic and rational thought gave them those answers. They might be right but...
I listen to people and data.
I help public and private sector organisations to design solutions that empathise with people’s ‘non-rational’ and rational drivers.
I work with their teams to foster a user-centred culture - building confidence in design decisions via greater understanding of the customer.
We show people stimulus. We listen to what they say and what they try not to say. We learn what's a trigger and what's a barrier.
Informed by what we've learnt about the 'customer' we then form hypotheses about who they are (in this specific context) and what will help them achieve what they want to achieve.
We take these people-led hypotheses and allow my experience and our creativity to take over and design the thing and the journeys (web, app, offline) that will engage and motivate them into action.
We iteratively prototype, test, build and monitor the thing.
Once built, we can use data tools (like Hotjar, Inspectlet, Full Story, Amplitude) to see how users are actually using it. Improving journeys by identifying pain points - bugs, rage clicks, unused content, failed journeys. And identifying successful journeys and the cohorts that exhibit a behaviour that we'd like to encourage in others by applying personalised events (content, ads, emails, social media interaction, in page chat).
All the time we're getting to know more about what our users want and how we can help them achieve it.
Of course, some may believe that they already know what their users want, and that their logic and rational thought gave them those answers. They might be right but...
75% of organisations think they are user-centric
yet only 30% of their users agree!
UI, Print and POS
Methodology. Iterative design. Listening to humans and data
All Quickheart material copyright © Quickheart Ltd (Agilisys) 2007-2018
Ian JR Ward is part of Ward Creative Partners.
All rights reserved 2022
Ian JR Ward is part of Ward Creative Partners.
All rights reserved 2022