Design is the link between a business and the customer. A well-designed product is a promise to make tasks more straightforward and more enjoyable – not harder. A design-led company like Objective combines a design mindset with business principles and processes that deliver an outstanding experience for customers.

Design-led companies go far beyond understanding what users want and why they need it. We seek out what motivates people, what annoys them, and where the opportunities lie to ensure we deliver them an amazing experience.

Getting into the mind of the user
As designers, it’s crucial to understand the pain-points of our users to build solutions that resolve their problems. We need to understand user behaviours and empathise with them to create a platform that increases their productivity.

First, we try to decipher the inner workings of the user by observing them in their work environment and asking a series of questions: Who are we designing for? What tasks do they need to complete? How can we help them achieve these tasks? What hardware do they have at their disposal? Do they use dual monitors? Do they have a disability? Are they running Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome? We listen and observe in detail to capture as much information as possible to help us tailor a human-centric solution for them. Think of it like a house – you don’t start on the roof. First, you need a plan and a solid foundation.

Next, we ideate all the potential solutions to the problem – even the crazy ones. This is the solution-generating stage of design where we brainstorm on paper and with design tools and then test our hypotheses. It’s critical to avoid adding functionality for functionality’s sake – it just results in a blurred focus and compromised quality. We adhere to a lean approach where we experiment with a basic implementation of a new feature, get feedback and then re-design it properly to the point our customers are happy with it. The goal is always to make the end user’s life easier.

Then, it’s validation time – the good old sanity check. We test our ideas and create working prototypes that we can validate with users. It’s crucial during this stage that we don’t ask biased or leading questions – designers can become attached to their work, so we invite a ‘neutral design member’ to validate and test our work to ensure that we are designing and building the best possible solution for our users.

After validation, we build the product and continue to evaluate its success after its release. Design is never finished – it’s one of the things I love most about it. Like with life, things can always be improved. We are constantly evolving.

Opportunities at Objective
Objective gives designers the opportunity to solve real-world problems and create unique solutions for the government and beyond. We’re working at the forefront of tech to create unique experiences and products that affect millions of lives around the globe.

If you’re interested in tackling some of the design challenges we’re working on, check out our current vacancies at our jobs page.