Our process is focused on your business needs and achieving real results.

Great design is the result of proper planning, background research and the continuous refinement of concepts in a series of iterations.

1 Objectives & Planning

Before discussing how your project will look or work, it is essential to establish objectives. Figureground approaches every project by asking questions and defining goals. What, exactly, do you want your project to achieve, and why are we building it? After our initial conversations and research, we provide a formal proposal outlining objectives, project scope, schedule and cost. A clear plan towards our goals lies at the foundation of every successful project. If we don’t have goals, we can’t measure success.

2 Research & Evaluation

Every successful design project requires groundwork. Asking questions and finding answers is what enables us to define our options, and our strategy for achieving your business objectives.

• If the project is a redesign, what about your existing solution is successful? Where does it fall short? How can we build and improve upon on what you’ve already invested in?
• How have similar organizations or competitors approached this problem? The success and failures of other existing strategies help to refine ours.
• How can we offer value to your audience?
• How will this project fit into your organizations existing operations?
• What tools and technologies are at our disposal?
• How will this project age and scale in future months and years?

Answering questions like these before we jump into designs guides our process while minimizing waste and maximizing what we can accomplish with available resources.

3 Concepts & Iteration

The creation of visual designs, content, and programming code are not considered independently of one another. New ideas for improvement materialize during the development process. Technical possibilities (or limitations) can influence how something looks and feels. Conversely, the look and feel of a given experience can be informed and enhanced by technical means. This is why we prefer to design iteratively with actual content and functional code, rather than mocking up precise non-functional visual designs. In other words, we don’t ask you to sign-off on a screenshot mockup to that’s written in stone. Rather, we build with agility in a series of small improvements, refining and polishing our ideas as we go.

4 Testing & Quality Assurance

Your project will exist within many contexts. Designing and testing for this range of context is fundamental to achieving a high-quality product. For example, your website will be viewed on a 30″ desktop display, as well as a 5″ smartphone screen. Your logo might appear on a full color billboard or a small black & white laser print. Considering and testing for context is part of every project we work on.