We help organisations use design and technology to build sustainable, accessible and user-friendly brands and do great things 🎉.
We've been operating since 2003, but we're not big, we're not in this for prizes, we're here to make a difference. We're here because we care, we love what we do, and we want to get paid well for what we do, so we can keep doing it ❤️.
We've partnered with a whole host of organisations, some you may already know.
We're based in Edinburgh but we've worked with people all over the world 🌍.
The problem no one talks about 🐘
Organisations fail their customers and themselves when they rely on user-centred solutions alone. Good design needs to consider the customer, the business, and the broader context. It should be holistic, providing a framework to sustain and nourish business.
We believe that accessibility, sustainability and privacy should be foundational to any project we undertake.
Looking good 😎 (is not enough)
Design processes that focus on creating pretty things don't guarantee good design. Bad design can still look attractive and not serve business, customer or organisation. It doesn't matter how good a design agency is, how many awards it's won, or how pretty things look if bad design decisions are part of its process.
No big reveal 🥳
If an organisation is not involved in design decisions, any decisions made will be sub-optimal. We help organisations make good design decisions, involving them at every step of the design process. That means no big reveal, having lots of conversations, making sure everyone feels heard. It means keeping people in the loop and sharing ideas ☀️ 🦄. It's not all sunshine and unicorns, though, and sometimes that means arguments too 😠.
We create tools and workshops so that together we can align our skills and ideas. Arguments then become disagreements, which then become discussions, new ideas and intelligent solutions 🤗.
Good design talks 🦜
We're all people working with other people, even if the goals are complex. We're all trying to do something to make a difference. When we forget this, things usually don't go the way we hoped.
We need to keep talking 🤐. We need to make sure people feel involved 😃. We need to embrace those awkward conversations 😬. Those awkward conversations are the ones that will test our ideas with rigour and help us make better decisions. The conversation is part of good design 👍.
🧐 If we've piqued your interest, please get in touch. – We're here to help! Just drop us an email hello@ushersmith.com ✉️
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