The Digital Brand Studio is a strategy and web consultancy that helps businesses develop business strategies & digital strategies that are focused on delivering their goals, & help them to create engaging, easy to use, websites & apps that deliver on their strategy.
About James
My journey to becoming a strategist/UX designer started in graphic and website design. Here, my background in product design meant that I was forever attempting to extend the brief to provide great usability and a great user experience, which led to my becoming a UX designer.
Working as a UX designer enabled an increased focus on delivering websites that provide both a great experience and meet the business objectives than had been the case when working as a designer. However, the problem-solving path led ever further back down the process of conceiving, designing, and developing apps and websites.
So often, the roots of a poor user experience, or the underperformance of an app or website, are the result of a series of decisions, and their consequences, made earlier in a project, often at the business and digital strategy stage.
This is why I now work to help businesses deliver the results that they had hoped for, preferably from the outset, by working holistically to connect business strategy to digital strategy, and strategy to web presence and customer interactions, be that in an app, SaaS product, website, or social media campaigns.
Elsewhere
Surviving The Gap
Operations director for Surviving The Gap, a startup whose aim is to support both those who find themselves between work and those who are classed as economically inactive but who wish to return to the workplace.
Board of directors, Small Business Networks
I am a director of a local business networking group for small businesses.
Talks, education, & mentoring
I am available as a mentor via Digital Boost and Grow Local, and I also visit the local further education college to give talks to technology students.
How I can work with you
We will help you create an app, website, or SaaS product that meets your business goals and the needs of your users or customers:
- Put you on the path to success with vision, goals, & strategy workshops
- Help you create & deliver a successful outcome via business-focused, evidence-based, sprints & workshops
- Diagnose, & fix when results are not as you’d hope for
Where I have worked
We have over 10 years of delivering strategy, UX and CX both directly with B2B & B2C businesses, and via agencies:
- Startups & small businesses
- Large businesses & organisations
- In-house teams
- Digital, PR, & marketing agency teams
A client-facing complement to your team
Our experience working directly with clients makes us a safe pair of hands if you are looking for someone to plan, and run, UX research and design activities alongside your in-house teams.
We handle both parts of projects and whole project lifecycles.
We work at pace, picking up work that is already in progress, and conducting handovers to the team who will be handling the next phase of work.
- UX research
- Definition & product strategy
- UX design
- App
- Web
- SaaS
Research your users, market, & product
Having qualitative and quantitive data about your users & your app, website, or SaaS product will enable you to zero in on what’s needed and measure the effectiveness of your solution.
Research & discovery
Define your product’s experience & strategy
Research synthesised into actionable insights brought to life through artefacts including personas and experience maps, and developed into experiences, journeys, product strategies, and roadmaps.
Product definition & strategy
UX design, prototyping, & testing
Digital experience design – workflows, user journeys, wireframes, prototyped and tested to realise your concept.
UX design & delivery