Last week we looked at the basics of UX and how important it is for the entire concepting and development process. “UX is about telling a story, and in story telling there is only one rule, make it engaging. UX is all about having the opportunity to engage your users emotions and hopefully guide them to a desired state.” All companies, even within the same industry, have a unique brand and story to offer the public. Being able to tell a company’s story is one of the exciting things about being part of an interactive team, and here at FIREANT we all get a chance to be deeply involved in this process.

Here are a few client examples of exceptional UX:

Davis Partnership Architects

Davis Partnership Architects is a Denver firm offering a full scope of architectural services, including planning, interior and landscape design. Their portfolio ecompasses everything from civic buildings, healthcare, commercial to residential. Davis required an extensive website, with a prominent feature being the portfolio section, displaying large professional pictures showcasing their projects and linking to detail pages with a fast, interactive hover.

With a site this large, UX is very important to help a user click through and be able to digest and navigate the information being given to them. FIREANT concepted this site with a navigation situated at the top of the page, remaining fixed while scrolling down. With the four main tabs and a homepage link easily accessible, the rest of the front page is highly interactive in a clear, strong, fun way.

Our favorite UX elements on this site:

• custom page loader for pages with large files
• fixed menu
• filtered project icons on the portfolio page
• the fast, interactive hover (featured on core services, on the boards projects, on the meet the team page)
• easy to follow directional calls to action/breadcrumbs

Novo Coffee

Novo, a local Colorado coffee shop, hand roasts their freshly imported beans. Dedicated to quality coffee and having fun, they offer cuppings and sell to Colorado restaurants, coffee shops and natural grocery stores. Novo required a fun but clean website using an ecommerce solution to sell their coffee.

With an ecommerce solution, UX is very important to lead the user through check out in a seamless, clean and intuitive fashion. If a user struggles with using the shopping cart, questions security on the site, or has to take too many steps to complete the transaction, your sale will be lost. FIREANT implemented a solution that is easy for a customer to use, and hooked up to the CMS (Content Management System), so Novo can edit and manage their products themselves!

Our favorite UX elements on this site:

• seamless ecommerce functionality
• easy to follow subscription forms
• slider with text and calls to action inside each slide
• prominent contact and locations page

Jinji Cycles

Jinji Cycles, a Denver bicycle shop started by bike mechanics, provides highly precise maintenance, repair and service. Their guiding principles include accuracy, communication, education, accountability, among others. They required a site to display company and contact information, show events, and show a service timer so users can see how soon their bike could be serviced and ready for pickup.

Our favorite UX elements on this site

• unique, custom service timer
• seamless news and tweet repository that matches design and is easily readable, but does not distract from main content
• clear and visual sitemap along footer
• easy to follow event calendar
• clear calls to action for Visit Us and Call Us in header
• accurate inventory page easily maintained by Jinji in the CMS backend

Success With UX

UX is built on best practices that help keep a process mostly consistent. For example, knowing you should find the location on the contact page, clicking on the logo will take you to the homepage, clicking on an icon of a shopping cart will take you to your virtual cart to begin checkout. That being said, with each company having a different story, it is our strong belief that a solution must be customized for each client. With a strong attention to detail and thoughtfulness, we build with integrity and perform unmatched quality assurance tasks to make sure the UX is top notch for each individual solution.