UI/UX Design

UI/UX is a human-first approach to design. When a user lands on your site, you have a very limited amount of time to prove your value to them. If the structure of your site is confusing or they’re put off by its visual appearance, they will immediately bounce to a competitor’s site. Our goal is to create a holistic web experience that entices users to stay on your site and travel further down the funnel to eventually complete a goal – whether that’s completing a transaction or inquiring about your service. 

At Matchbox Design Group we are fortunate enough to have an in-house designer who specializes in UI/UX design. He has helped our team perfect our process of delivering UI/UX design services to our clients in the St. Louis area and nationwide. We believe that web experiences don’t have to be complicated to be successful, all you need is a solid foundation and an enjoyable experience.

The Difference Between UI & UX

It’s important to note the difference between UI and UX. UI stands for “user interface design” which refers to the look, feel, and interactivity of a product or service. A UI designer will put extra thought into how icons, buttons, typography, color schemes, spacing, imagery, and responsive design are perceived by the user.

UX stands for “user experience” which refers to any and all interactions a user experiences in relation to your company along with its products or services. A UX designer will strategically curate all interactions between a potential or active customer and a company.

The only real difference between the two is that UI is strictly digital while UX can refer to any user interaction with a product or service like the shopper in our bread analogy. There is value in both UI and UX, but the real winning combo is when both are applied within the same design which is exactly what we strive for here at Matchbox.

Our UI/UX Design Services

Imagine walking into a store to buy a single loaf of bread and having to navigate a labyrinth of aisles without a single staff member in sight. Sounds stressful right? Well, that’s exactly how it feels to navigate through a website with a poor user experience. Your users will either wander in hopeless circles trying to reach their end destination or they’ll just give up completely and go to the store down the street i.e. your competitor. Our UI/UX-centric approach to design will ensure that your users will have a seamless and even enjoyable experience while navigating through your site.

Things We Do

• Wireframing
• UI/UX analysis
• Interface design
• UI/UX strategy
• User interaction mapping
• Usability testing

Our UI/UX Design Process

Discovery

As a St. Louis based web design agency, we work with many clients locally and nationwide who inquire about what actually goes into creating a positive user experience. So now that you understand the value of UI and UX design and what goes into creating it, we’ll dive a little deeper into what that process actually looks like.

During our discovery phase, we make sure to ask probing questions about what kind of experience you’re wanting to create. The ideal user experience for your website depends heavily on your industry, the type of product or service you offer, your target audience, the end goal of your user, and the amount of content you’re wanting to display. Once we have these details ironed out we will then get to work on creating a sitemap that will serve as an outline of your site’s structure. This step is crucial since the site map will act as the foundation of your website.

Research

After understanding the user’s needs and goals from a client perspective, we follow up with additional research. While we utilize things like Google Analytics on most projects, not all projects are the same which means we use different research methods to cater to a certain type of project. For web projects, conducting a competitive analysis by mapping out the user flow of competitors and comparing that to a client’s own user flow is more common. Whereas apps and other software typically involve user testing with prototypes we create to ensure the user experience is optimal. 

Once we’ve laid out the foundation, we’ll then move into wireframing. This step takes all the research and hones in on user experience by showcasing a stripped-down version of each web page which allows you to better understand each interaction without the distraction of colors and other flashy design elements.

Design

The final step in our UI/UX design process is then to incorporate UI elements such as colors, typography, imagery, etc into a style guide. Our goal is to put you in the shoes of your users by helping you visualize exactly how someone would navigate through your site. The beauty of this is that at the end of the day, we’re all users so if the experience is enjoyable to you it will most likely be enjoyable to your end-users as well. You will receive two rounds of design comps so that we can ensure that the design is exactly how you want it before we pass it on to our engineers for development.

UI/UX Design Case Study: Silgan Plastics

Discover the practical steps we took to overhaul Silgan Plastics’ online presence, a key player within the Silgan Holdings food packaging empire. Our goal was simple: improve usability, refresh aesthetics, and create a unified brand identity across multiple product line websites.

Unified Branding:

We crafted a consistent color palette and design elements, aligning Silgan Plastics with the overarching brand identity of Silgan Holdings.

Simplified Navigation:

Our focus on clear, intuitive navigation included prominent placement of key information and the introduction of breadcrumb navigation for seamless user journeys.

Streamlined Content:

We restructured page layouts for clarity, utilized headings and bullet points for easy scanning, and trimmed content for relevance, creating a more user-friendly experience.

Future-Forward Design:

Our case study highlights a visually appealing color palette, intuitive navigation, and sustainability focus, reflecting Silgan Plastics’ commitment to shaping the future of high-barrier plastic packaging.

We’re Here To Help With Your UI/UX Design!

As you can see, creating a positive user experience is no walk in the park. There are various important factors that come into play at every phase in the process which can be difficult to keep track of and even more difficult to implement. A partnership with us will take the stress and guesswork out of creating a website with the right user experience. You bring to us in-depth industry knowledge and we’ll bring to you many years of practice mixed with unique experience designing UI/UX-focused websites – and together we’ll create an amazing website.

Whether it’s designing your website from beginning to end or if you are just looking for a marketing strategy after your website is finished. Our experts are here to help with SEO and SEM skills that will take your website over the top and to the top of Google.

As a St. Louis UI/UX Design agency, we are excited to be listed as one of the top agencies in town.