Simon Heys

Do you know why UK Startups Are Investing in Professional UI/UX Audits? Picture this: I have launched a product. I’ve built it, and marketed it, but something’s off. Users aren’t engaging the way I hoped. Is it my idea? My marketing? What is it? For many startups, the answer lies in the UI/UX. Sometimes, it’s not the design but how users experience it. A professional audit is like a health check for a website or app. Experts analyze the user journey, identify friction points, and highlight areas causing frustration or confusion. Why UI/UX is a game-changer for startups like mine? 1. User Retention: An audit reveals what’s working and what’s not, ensuring we don’t lose potential customers due to poor design choices. 2. Boost Conversion Rates: Small changes, like simplifying navigation or optimizing buttons, can drastically improve conversion rates. 3. Stay Competitive: A polished, seamless user experience often decides whether users choose us or the competition. Investing in a UI/UX audit doesn’t just improve the product, it shows customers that we care about their experience. If you're looking for a comprehensive UI/UX audit, UIUX.STUDIO is here to help. We provide in-depth evaluations to enhance your user experience and design efficiency. Book a call with us: https://lnkd.in/dtE-2mwD Visit our website: https://uiux.studio/ #UIUX #CustomerExperience

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This morning I met up for coffee in Edinburgh with John Sunart - who runs The Facilitation Studio. Was super nice to meet a fellow designer, workshop facilitator and Substacker. If you're interested in workshopping, facilitation, learning more about how to run successful problem solving meetings - Check out John's articles and podcast episodes on the subject. #facilitation #workshops #problemsolving #design #ux #servicedesign #substack #blog #podcast

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I've been deep-diving token naming conventions as I'm starting to re-architect our shipwright design system. I'm going to be spending some time working on this for Intermode - Software Consultancy for Logistics & Supply Chain. That being said, it's crazy how everyone approaches tokens differently. I know Romina Kavcic and some others are working on a standard ( Thank you! ). Now I'm starting with Figma variables, which I know are not tokens but I want to make sure that we have a good representation in our design tool for our team. I'll be documenting this effort here as I build things! Attached is another rough exploration to help set the vision. #design #designsystems

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I recently spoke with FLUX about my career journey and product design leadership. Kristie Craft was a stellar interviewer, which helped me articulate a few things that I've been noodling on over the last little while... 👽 After years of struggling with impostor syndrome, it was when I chose to be brave and have the audacity that the best opportunities came. It's not easy, but it starts with the core belief that you are deserving of your dreams. 👀 The prerequisite of being a great designer is curiosity. Get curious about an aspect of craft, process, leadership, or business and dig like you're doing a deep dive on the hand in the IG story your crush just posted. 🏀 Put in your 10,000 hours. Practice makes perfect, the cliche is true. Whatever part of your skillset you're trying to grow, be patient and put in time — before you know it, you'll be an MVP. 📣 Great communication is a hallmark of a great leader. Great communication and feedback is clear, succinct, and aligned to the business. 🖼 Visual design craft excellence is a hot topic in product design lately. I have a love for graphic design, where I started my career. I just got this book, Sun Ra: Art on Saturn, a collection of sketches and album art Sun Ra created for his works. Very different than what most PDs are looking at every day, which is precisely why I recommend it. Look for inspiration outside of a screen. Check out the full interview and let me know what you think.

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How a UX audit unlocks a new perspective↓ We're so close to our products daily that our ability to spot problems others experience becomes challenging. This is why speaking with users is so important, but recruiting quality users and setting up calls to then analyse feedback is time-consuming and sometimes lacklustre, especially if you hit a streak of no-shows :( A UX audit is a condensed, value-packed, easy-to-digest boost that can save you time and reveal a new perspective. Here’s what a good UX audit covers: → Your Landing page - how well does your site explain what your app does and how the user can benefit from it. → Design continuity - does your App Store listing match the design direction of your website, or is there a disconnect? Is the value clear and easily understood? → Account creation - how quickly can you get the user set up and reach an 'aha moment' inside your app? (tip: the sooner the better) → Activating users - Is it clear what to do next? The user is in your app; what action must they take that is likely to incentivise further interaction? → Retention - Okay, the user did something in your app, but are they coming back to do it again? Is it clear to them that they should? What type of action leads the user to become a retained user, and are you optimising your onboarding to guide users into this action? (If you take anything away, it’s this point above.) A great audit can help you answer these questions and more. For a limited time, I’m opening up and offering free UX audits for teams that want to level up. A few friends in the product space can vouch for these types of audits. They’re a great boost for product teams. This is what you can expect to get: → Answers to all the above → List of quick wins → Friction point breakdown → First impression report → Holistic design review Sound good? Grab a free audit here: ↓ www.shapeshyft.co.uk

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Way back in March I ran a workshop for designers to discuss the potential impact of AI on our roles, and on the people who run and use the services we design. I finally, FINALLY wrote it up here: https://lnkd.in/eHfr-gCD

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If you work in FinTech, you might be interested in 30 clever website tricks we've spotted from big names like Stripe, Revolut and PayPal. We've looked closely at lots of top FinTech websites to create a handy guide https://lnkd.in/exnYFXai on how to use design to win more customers. Here's a quick look at four key ideas we found 👇 1. Clear Benefits: Stripe tells visitors exactly how they'll help - "Financial tools to grow your money". Simple and effective. 2. Local Touch: Revolut changes its website for different countries. It's like greeting customers in their own language. 3. Building Trust: Chime shows what happy customers say, alongside ratings from app stores. It helps new visitors feel confident. 4. Easy Sign-Up: Corefy makes joining simple with just three steps. It stops people from feeling overwhelmed. There's much more in our full guide https://lnkd.in/exnYFXai We cover everything from eye-catching main images to buttons that make people want to click. You can download our free guide "30 Conversion Hacks from Top FinTech Websites". The link is in the comments below. We hope this information helps FinTech companies create better websites and win more customers. #FinTech #WebDesign #Marketing #goodfaceagency #bestexperience

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I've long been a fan of Google when it comes to their design of physical and digital product, but their implementation of Gemini / AI has taken their already household search status to a new level. I'm genuinely so stoked to see this feature roll out. They enhanced search by showing you a relevant excert from the top result but now this takes it a step further to collate results for me in a tangible way. 👏👏 #google #userexperience #AI #gemini #search

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We recently announced some amazing new AI features at FFDC (see the timestamped announcement linked). Now while that may sound expected/cliche/trendy I believe what we've done is ground breaking within the development space and shows why visual development can be a dramatically more efficient, effective and engaging experience to creating applications when done right. The FlutterFlow AI features we've created are not intended to be one off bespoke experience aimed at going viral more than actually improving our UX. Each of these features we announced are meant to meaningfully improve the lives of all of our FlutterFlow users and are driven by insights into what needs people have when building applications. Don't get me wrong we can do more, and we will. The most exciting part is that what we've launched is just the tip of the iceberg, some of the features we are currently working will go even further to empowering developers, designers and entrepreneurs with tools that feel like this is what AI was meant to do all along, make us better/faster so we can focus on the things that matter, ideas, quality and the users we strive to create for. I can't wait for you all to get your hands on these features! #flutterflow #FFDC #ai #nocode #lowcode #development #flutter

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The UX landscape is shifting dramatically. AI is moving beyond chatbots, becoming woven into our everyday tools. Here's my take on what this means for designers in 2025 #UXDesign https://lnkd.in/e2VdTGqW

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+1. Not enough actual UX is being done to de-risk the business ahead of launches due to increasingly short launch times to keep pace with the competition. That, combined with a lack of behavioral analytics to assess whether said launches are improving customer and business outcomes, creates a wasteland of design and tech debt.

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Google releases their new feature to Google Meets: 'Whose watching me? 👀' - Now you can see who's looking at you on a Google Meet call - get HR involved if they stare too long! Satirical Screens | 07 #uxdesign #uidesign #productdesign #satiricalscreens #productdesigner #uxdesigner #uidesigner #productdesigner #Google #Googlemeets #Zoom #Slack #MicrosoftTeams

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The more I talk to hiring managers and senior designers about what they are looking for in designers, the more I back up the theory that portfolios shouldn't be X, Y, Z case studies, but explorations of your obsession with details. I've written up more thoughts on this so I don't spam your LinkedIn feed with an essay https://lnkd.in/e9CxHxzz

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A study found that if every adult in the UK sent one less "thank you" email, it could save 16,433 tonnes of carbon a year — the equivalent to taking 3,334 diesel cars off the road. Did you know that as a UX/UI or product designer you can make a real tangible difference to climate change? Here’s a short list to get you started: - How can you make your digital application more efficient? A simple UI is not only good for the users, it’s good for the planet too! - Can you nudge your users towards more sustainable behaviors? Sending fewer emails, avoiding duplicate work, making more sustainable choices digitally or physically will impact on the environment. - Can you become an advocate for all living systems, not just human users? UX designers became the advocates for users 20 to 30 years ago, making sure their needs and concerns were considered at every step of a design process - now we need to expand and care for ALL living systems. Which living systems do you directly impact? - What are the ethical considerations of your digital application? Who or what is most negatively impacted by it, and what are the opportunities to address that? And with that I’m going to start writing about being a designer in the GreenTech or ClimateTech world. Let me know what you think, is this something you care about? What things do you do to design more climate friendly services? Find the above and a whole lot more on ClimateDesigners https://lnkd.in/etaXcRB6 And make sure to follow me or https://lnkd.in/eaHq5E8d for more like this!

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Loose thoughts is back! This week I wrote about "staging component libraries" and how they can enable fast iteration of designs, prevent bottlenecks in design systems, and encourage experimentation https://lnkd.in/eS3KPKmQ

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“… even the best slogans, ads, landing pages, PR campaigns, etc., will fall down if they are not supported by the experience people have when they hit our site, when they sign up for an account, when they first begin using the product and when they start using it day in, day out.”

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Apple announced many interesting features at their annual developers conference WWDC this year, but one in particular got me thinking. Later this fall, they'll give developers access to the Control Panel in iOS18. What this means is that product teams will now have a new avenue to engage with their users outside of the application environment, which is a great reminder to think holistically about your users. What are they doing and thinking before and after they use your product? We do a lot of this kind of thinking at ZoCo Design during our initial Discovery phase, but it's important to always keep in mind that there are UX opportunities out there beyond the screen experiences we're currently focused on. #ux #uxdesign #apple #WWDC #productdesign #iOS18 #zocodesign #zoco #userexperience

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Talk to your users, and if you don't have users... Do this: 1. Find out who your perfect user is 2. Reach out to them 3. Ask them for an interview, alpha test or prototyping session 4. Write down their comments 5. Promise them a discount once the software is out Not being live yet is no excuse to skip customer discovery. Pro Tip: Build a quick landing page to find even more test users. Any other tips to talk to potential users?

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