IA/UX STRATEGY

User Personas

User personas help us understand our clients’ audiences, shape design decisions, and identify the challenges we need to solve. Here are some steps to ensure a successful user persona:

1. Set Goals

Define what the personas will help us achieve in the project.

• Big Questions:

  • Who are we designing for?

  • What outcomes do we hope to influence?
    
    

2. Collect Insights

Gather data from research, analytics, interviews, or surveys—sometimes with the client, sometimes independently through online research and competitive analysis.

• Big Questions:

  • What are the audience’s goals and needs?

  • What problems or frustrations do they face?

  • How do they currently interact with similar products or services?
    
    

3. Find Patterns

Use the collected data to identify common behaviours, challenges, and goals.

• Big Questions:

  • Which challenges are shared across users?

  • What opportunities exist to solve their problems effectively?
    
    

4. Build Personas

Create distinct user profiles with goals, challenges, and behaviours.

• Big Questions:

  • What motivates each persona?

  • What obstacles do they encounter that we can address?

  • How will these personas influence design and strategy decisions?
    
    

5. Apply & Test

Use personas to guide design and strategy throughout the project, refining as needed.

• Big Questions:

  • Are our solutions addressing real problems?

  • Do the personas reflect actual users?

  • How can we adapt our designs as we move further along the design process?

Understand the Users

Reference personas and research to clarify user motivations and behaviours.

• Big Questions:

  • Who is performing this task?

  • What steps might feel confusing or frustrating?

  • What are the user’s expectations at each stage?
    
    

Map the Steps

Outline every step the user takes from start to finish, including decision points and alternatives.

• Big Questions:

  • What actions does the user need to take?

  • Where might they get stuck or drop off?

  • Are there multiple paths to success?
    
    

Design & Optimize

Refine the flow to reduce friction, simplify choices, and guide the user efficiently.

• Big Questions:

  • Can any steps be combined or removed?

  • How do we make the flow intuitive and clear?

  • Are we solving the user’s problems at each step?
    
    

Test & Iterate

Validate the flow with stakeholders or users and adjust based on feedback. Remember to also self-test!

• Big Questions:

  • Does the flow meet the user’s goals effectively?

  • Are there unexpected obstacles or confusion points?

  • How can the flow be further improved for clarity and efficiency?

Content Audits

Our content audits help us get a clear overview of large websites, identify redundancies, evaluate component usage, and highlight what’s working well. Using site crawlers and Figma, we categorize and analyze content to uncover opportunities for both UX and UI improvements, ensuring no important elements are missed during a redesign.

See this example of a content audit we did for WhiteWater West. 

Stylescapes

Stylescapes are horizontal page layouts that present distinct design directions to clients. By using horizontal layouts instead of traditional webpage structures, we prevent clients from getting stuck on specific content placement and keep the focus on the overall design style.

They showcase different fonts, colours, and ecomponents—like contact forms, 50/50 blocks, and other recurring elements—often with textural backgrounds and image treatments. Typically, we present two options in Figma, incorporating components as they will appear in the final design, with minor tweaks as needed.

This approach helps both clients and our internal design team visualize the look and feel of the site before moving into refinements and high-fidelity wireframes, ensuring alignment on the design direction early in the process. The chosen stylescape will then serve as the "north star" and continue to be referenced for future design.

See this example of two stylescapes we did for Anderson Air.

Wireframes

Wireframes are low-fidelity layouts we create to map out key features and content on pages that require more unconventional or complex structures. 

By stripping away visual styling, wireframes let us focus on structure, hierarchy, and functionality first, ensuring clarity on how unique pages will work before moving into design.

See this example of wireframes we did for ZestyBitez.