Understand. Design. Improve.
We only work on projects that have a positive social impact. We do this by ensuring that we have a solid understanding of the problem we’re tackling. By creating design solutions that work. And by measuring the effectiveness of our work so that our clients can continue to improve.
We work with our clients, we work on our own projects and we can partner with you on joint bids, and are available to form larger consortiums with experts in our wider network.
Understand.
People are at the heart of great design; that’s why we take a human-centred approach to our work. We’ll work alongside you to understand your audience(s) and their challenges. We might also need to look beyond your primary audience and investigate the wider social or environmental issues. This helps us target where best to make change, and to identify any negative unintended consequences.We have a toolkit of techniques that can get to grips with these complex problems.
RESEARCH
We can conduct interviews, data analysis, workshops, diary studies, digital and offline ethnography and field studies, desk research and testing to understand the audience and their motivations, and to understand the challenges they face and to fully understand the problem at hand.
RESEARCH SPRINTS
Lean and rapid research is key when working to solve societal issues. We’ve developed a lean research sprint methodology specifically to explore social problems, and to work to tight timeframes and budgets. This stops a never-ending research phase and allows for rapid development and continuous improvement. We don’t rush, but we do move at pace.
MAPPING
We use a variety of mapping techniques to understand the research more clearly. We work with segments and personas, but also we do gap analysis, journey mapping and assumption and knowledge mapping that help us pick out the key parts of our learnings and display them in an accessible way to stakeholders.
Design
We’ll collaborate with you, and your audience, to ensure that we’re designing the right solution. We have extensive experience in designing products, services, and campaigns for household brands. Our rapid design, prototype, test and iterate methodology helps ensure your budget is spent wisely and effectively. We can also work on a consultant basis through a long term transformative project or as product owner to assist with a build project.
Service and product design
We’re experienced in designing complex services and products for social good.
Following on from the success of the research phase, we utilise design-thinking methods to create solutions that work. We like to rapidly prototype, test and then iterate.
Design sprints
We’ve taken the Google Ventures sprint process and have tailored it specifically for tackling complex social issues.
Have a service or product idea? We’ll spend an intense week working with your team, and with other experts, to help understand the problem, come up with potential design solutions, and prototype, test and validate them.
Web Design and Build
An accessible and functional website is usually a vital part of our clients’ digital strategy.
We particularly specialise in WordPress builds. Being open source, developing with WordPress means we can keep costs down, and that most people are familiar with using their content system.
Content
We have photography, audio and video editing expertise in-house. This type of content can really bring a digital product to life.
We also work with an array of talented freelancers who can become part of our team to create illustration, animation and copy if needed.
Brand
Brand design is so much more than simply designing a logo. We’ve experience in working with large organisations to develop their brand strategy, messaging, comms, and visual brand identity.
We’ll work with you, and your key stakeholders to build a brand identity that represents your values, showcases who you are and what you do, and communicates it effectively to your audience.
Co-design
We believe in co-design at Reply. That means we get to know our clients, and their audiences, and work together to design solutions that solve real problems. This often involves design labs or co-design workshops where we’ll tackle the problem area together.
This helps our designers create prototypes that they can test and iterate upon.
Improve
There are significant ethical considerations when tackling social issues. We can provide consultancy around how best to approach ethical dilemmas of your project or services.
We can also project ethics workshops with companies and at conferences, and we can help you measure impact and create an environment where continuous improvement thrives.
Training
We don’t like to complete a project and then run, leaving you in the lurch. Our processes are designed to be collaborative, and your team can learn the techniques we use as we work together.
We can train and mentor your team to pick up the project once we’ve done our part.
Consultancy
Saying that, if you’d like us to see the project through, we can help you find an ongoing technology partner and act as product owner during the build.
Maybe your team is a little short handed and you’d like us to be around for a while, or maybe you’d like to put us on retainer for regular advice.
Impact Measurement
We like to make sure everything we do can be measured and can be seen to be making the impact we wanted.
We can help you decide on what to measure, and how to measure it ongoing, and even how to report back to various stakeholders. We can help your team value and deliver continuous improvement.
Workshops, Talks & Media
Our team are expert communicators and facilitators. We’ve spoken at international conferences, have hosting panels at a variety of events, and have provided digital training to hundreds of charities, and have run countless workshops.
Workshops
We are expert facilitators and love to share some of the techniques that we use. We can run our workshops with your internal team, or at your conference. We can run workshops in any area of our expertise, but we currently have workshops ready to go in:
- Product Ethics
- Digital campaigning
- Digital strategy
- How to design and facilitate a remote workshop
- Red Team exercise
- Product innovation
Speaking Engagements
We can give an inspirational and educational talk to your team and we’re available travel to talk at your conference. We’re also expert panel facilitators and can host entire conference segments, which we’ve done at Camp Digital, Bath Digital Festival and UX Copenhagen. You can see examples of our past speaking engagements on the Our Team page.
Media
We’re camera and radio friendly, and have had articles published in a number of publications. If you would like to commission us please Get In Touch.
Some topics we can cover include:
- Ethics in tech
- Diversity and inclusion in tech
- Ethics in design
- Designing for Social Good
- Charity tech and digital