Maturity-Minded Experience Design

What is Maturity-Minded Experience Design?

Maturity-Minded Experience Design is user-centred design that is shaped by a team’s actual UX maturity. So I don’t just deliver the solution; I also pass on the knowledge behind it to your team. That way, your team’s UX maturity grows with every project.

I meet your team where it is today, not where it theoretically ought to be. Scope and pace follow your team’s real UX maturity. The result is what I call ‘realistic excellence’: the best solution your team can carry today, and a team that grows over the course of the project. Maturity-Minded Experience Design therefore describes not only the outcome but also the way there: the project and design process.

The goal: better design decisions, even without outside help

By the end of a project, you and your team should have more than a better product. You should also be making better design decisions, increasingly on your own. ‘Better’ mainly means:

• Better informed: Decisions are based on solid data rather than the opinion of the loudest person in the room. And your team knows how to get hold of that data itself.
• Better communicated: Your team speaks its users’ language, not the language of its own org chart. That also means the content is what users expect, in words they understand.
• Better collaboration: Leadership, departments, IT, editorial and marketing share a common vision and have agreed on where things are heading. Everyone knows more, and so there’s more understanding for necessary compromises, which brings us right back to the first point.

The result: Design that STICKs

All of this only lasts if the results stay good after the project ends. That’s why I go a step beyond ‘just’ user-centred and create Design that STICKs, an acronym for the outcomes I aim for: Sustainable, Team-ready, Inclusive, Credible and Kind. More on these outcomes and the Truly XD design philosophy.

Who is it for?

I’ll be honest: if you and your team are only after eye candy and flashy visuals, Truly XD isn’t the right studio.

You’re in the right place if …

• your team works with limited capacity but still wants more than a nice-looking launch,
• your organisation’s values shouldn’t just live in a mission statement but also show up in your digital product.

I typically work with value-driven businesses (for example those focused on sustainable value creation or social innovation), universities, independent media, museums and cultural institutions, think tanks, and associations and networks.

How do I know if my team is ready?

Maturity-Minded Experience Design is a good fit for teams whose UX maturity is emerging. In practice, that means user-centred design processes do happen in projects, perhaps only now and then. Quite often, whether they happen depends on a few individuals. On the Truly XD UX maturity scale, that’s level 2 of 5. If your team is further along, even better. Already know your team’s maturity level, say from an earlier assessment? Then just bring it along. If not, we’ll find out together with the UX Maturity Snapshot before a single euro heads in the wrong direction.

Services & Costs

Scope and pace depend not only on your team’s UX maturity but also on your plans and goals, so there’s no flat rate. After our introductory call, you’ll receive a no-obligation proposal for next steps that fits your team and your budget. Non-profit and social impact organisations, as well as educational institutions, receive a social impact or education discount.

I put every project together individually. These are the building blocks:

Clarity first, design second

Discovery & Co-Design

In tailored workshop formats, your team gets clear on where things stand today and jointly defines where they should be. This ranges from exploratory co-design and shared-vision workshops to very hands-on requirements workshops. The result is a shared picture of where you’re heading, before the first screen exists.

Knowing, not guessing

Research & Usability Testing

I review existing research data or gather new, solid data to inform the design that follows. With usability tests, we check whether solutions land with your users the way we intended. Depending on effort, scope and complexity, I do this myself or together with partners from my network.

Making ideas visible

Concept & Prototyping

Ideas need to become visible so they can be understood, evaluated and turned into plannable, workable concepts. This covers the structure and architecture of information and content, interaction concepts such as wireframes, and clickable prototypes that let you test ideas before they get expensive.

Recognisable, not interchangeable

Visual Design & Design Systems

I develop a coherent, clear visual language that represents your brand and organisation and speaks to your audience. If you’d like, that includes an accessible design system, built from scratch or adapted from an existing one.

What comes before – and after?

Does your team need the bigger picture and a long-term, competitive strategy that leaves room for ambitious innovation? Then I’m happy to support you and your team with UX strategy. More on UX strategy

To make sure what your team has learned sticks and UX strategies actually become reality, I’m happy to support you and your team with a Strategy & Design Retainer. More on S&D retainer options coming soon

Why Maturity-Minded Experience Design with Truly XD?

Truly XD is a maturity-minded experience design studio for value-driven organisations. I see experience design as a process, not a project. That’s why I don’t just deliver design solutions; I also make sure knowledge flows into your team. That puts you and your team in a position to implement good solutions yourselves afterwards, or to commission them more precisely.

What happens after the project matters to me just as much as the solution itself. In practice, that means a fully transparent design process with decisions you can follow. No smoke and mirrors. You can see what I’m doing and why at any time.

New to user-centred design? Then take a look at the UX Capability Builders from Truly XD. Every offer in this series introduces user-centred design processes to teams, often for the first time, and helps them take root. They’re deliberately compact, easy to access and designed to work together. Explore the UX Capability Builders