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Design

Technical Account Manager

Andy Mardell

We’ve seen it happen too many times. You’ve invested in a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/develop/mobile-apps">new app</a> or <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/develop/websites">website for your business</a>. The team is excited and everyone’s ready to launch. Then six months in, your budget has been blown, key features don’t work the way users need them to, and the project that was supposed to transform your business is now back down at the foot of the mountain.But the problem isn’t bad design or poor code. It’s much simpler: you started building before you knew what to build.Back in the early 2000s, we did the same thing. We’d come out of a client meeting and jump straight into design and development. We’d ask all the obvious questions, “who’s your target audience?”, “what does success look like?”, but we were only skimming the surface. We weren’t really digging into what their users actually needed. We had no idea what problems we needed to solve.Our clients loved what we delivered. But a few months down the line, they began to realise what features their users actually wanted. And adding these in post-launch would cost them more money. The smiles turned to frustration. The excitement turned to firefighting.It was time to take a step back and change our approach. Instead of jumping into design and build, we slowed down to understand. We asked tougher questions. We mapped out future needs. We analysed data. We did our research. We stopped treating <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover">discovery phases</a> as a nice-to-have and started treating it like an insurance our clients had to have.Around <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/transformation/our-insights/common-pitfalls-in-transformations-a-conversation-with-jon-garcia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">70% of digital products fail to hit their desired targets</a> according to research from McKinsey. Companies wasted tens of thousands of pounds designing and building features that their users simply didn’t want. And the cost of fixing those problems post-launch can be up to 100 times more expensive.This isn’t about adding time to projects. It’s about not wasting the time you’ve already got. So let’s talk about why discovery phases aren’t just valuable. They are a must-have.

We've seen it happen too many times

Skipping discovery phases is an industry-wide problem, affecting projects big and small. And it’s leaving some interesting stories in its wake.Remember Quibi? You’ve probably never heard of them. And that’s exactly the point. In 2020, former Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, former HP CEO, launched a mobile-first streaming platform for premium short-form video. They had around $1.75 billion in funding, and an impressive list of A-List celebrities like Dwayne Johnson, Chrissy Teigen, and Steven Spielberg behind them to create the content.But six months later, they shut down.Quibi didn’t fail because of bad execution or poor timing. They failed because they didn’t validate that anyone wanted what they were building. They spent over $1 billion creating content before even asking their audience a single question. They assumed users would pay for paywalled videos when YouTube and TikTok were already delivering free, sharable content. By the time they realised their users wanted social features rather than premium isolation, they had already burned through nearly $2 billion.Another example is Google Wave, an ambitious project launched back in 2009 that survived just over a year before being shut down. Why? Because Google didn’t figure out what users needed. Wave was billed as a groundbreaking new communication platform that would reimagine email by combining real-time collaboration, instant messaging, and document editing in one place.But Google skipped the vital discovery project phase and brought a product to the market with no foundation to give users the answers to their problems and no clear value proposition. They made assumptions without validating them with users, which resulted in a product that users simply didn’t need. And, as it turns out, users don’t want a platform that merges all their communications into one place.One last example is Panels, an app from YouTuber <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/marquesbrownlee" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Marques Brownlee</a>. The app was built on a simple idea – premium subscription phone wallpapers, and launched in September 2024. The app was born from comments on his videos, often pointing out how nice his wallpapers were.Are comments on videos enough information to warrant building an app? No. In a world where background images are readily available for free on platforms like Unsplash and Pexels, it turns out nobody wanted to pay $50 a year for a subscription to get “premium” ones regularly.Panels closed down in December 2025, and it ultimately boils down to skipping that key discovery phase. If the Panels team had conducted proper user research, they would have found out before even starting to write a line of code that there was simply no market for a premium subscription wallpaper app.

An industry avalanche

It’s easy to sit here and analyse failed digital product launches, but why does it keep happening? And to projects funded by big and small companies?<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Pressure to move quickly</h3>Key stakeholders are driven by results. They want to see tangible output from their investment. Discovery can feel like standing around when everyone wants to sprint. So teams often skip it and dive straight to design and build, only to discover six months in that they’re building the wrong thing. And what they end up missing is the key foundational information that underpins the entire project.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Discovery gets mistaken for delay</h3>Nobody wants project delays. And stakeholders can be sensitive to this. They often see the research phase as a stalling tactic rather than essential groundwork. This is a dangerous misconception. Skipping discovery phases isn’t efficient; it’s a false economy that compounds into blown budgets and wasted time.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Activity gets confused with progress</h3>Wireframes feel like progress. Code feels like progress. Research? That just feels like more meetings. Stakeholders confuse visible activity with actual value, ignoring the fact that building the wrong thing quickly is worse than building the right thing thoughtfully.The result? Teams rush into execution, only to spend months, and tens of thousands, correcting avoidable mistakes.

So why does this keep happening? 

The most obvious cost of skipping a discovery phase is the failure of the project. But that’s not the case with most teams. There are more discreet, invisible costs involved. Most teams finish their project, but they finish with something that cost them twice as much, took significantly longer than it needed to, and doesn’t actually solve all their users’ problems.These are the invisible costs. The ones that don&#39;t show up until you&#39;re deep in development. And by then, they&#39;ve already compounded.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Stakeholder misalignment</h3>Everyone thinks they&#39;re on the same page. They&#39;re usually not. The managing director has one vision, the project manager another, and the development team a different vision again. And these differences all stay hidden during the honeymoon phase of the project, the phase where everyone’s excited and inspired. But when real decisions need to be made, everything explodes. You’re three months in, the budget half spent, and stakeholders are arguing over features that should have been agreed on from day one.<a href="https://teamstage.io/project-management-statistics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Research backs this</a>. Lack of senior management involvement in projects is the primary reason that 33% of projects fail. And 78% of project managers say they want stakeholders to be more involved and engaged. A clear sign that plenty of projects suffer from a lack of alignment.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Technical surprises</h3>When you skip discovery phases, you fail to uncover the technical landmines until it’s too late. That seemingly easy integration you thought would be a quick win? It needs <a href="https://sidigital.co/faraday">bespoke middleware</a> to work. That feature the client requested? It doesn’t work with the platform architecture. These kinds of discoveries when a project is in full motion mean more than just delays; they force costly reworks and scope creep.Fixing these kinds of issues during development phases can <a href="https://www.blackduck.com/blog/cost-to-fix-bugs-during-each-sdlc-phase.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">cost up to six times</a> more than catching them during a discovery phase. <a href="https://www.blackduck.com/blog/cost-to-fix-bugs-during-each-sdlc-phase.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">15 times more</a> during that testing phase. And post-launch? <a href="https://www.blackduck.com/blog/cost-to-fix-bugs-during-each-sdlc-phase.html">Up to 100 times the cost</a>.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Unvalidated users need</h3>Around <a href="https://www.pendo.io/resources/the-2019-feature-adoption-report/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">80% of software features are rarely or never used</a>. Why? Because teams build in functionality they assume the user wants based on internal logic and stakeholder preference, not actual user research. And this results in bloated products full of features that nobody asked for. As for the things users genuinely need, these get deprioritised or forgotten completely.If you’re a startup, this can have detrimental effects on the business. Around 42% of startups fail because of “no market need”. It’s the number one cause of failures according to <a href="https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/startup-failure-reasons-top/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CB Insights’ report</a>, which analyses nearly 4,000 failed startups. Teams assume, users needs aren’t met, and money gets wasted.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Scope creep</h3>Requirements are often vague without a discovery phase. And vague requirements mean endless clarification needs during build. Every clarification then opens a door to a new idea, which in turn shifts priorities and even “while we’re at it” additions. Before you know it, your project has ballooned into a bloated mess that’s missed the deadline and blown the budget.<a href="https://www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/pulse" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Research from PMI suggests</a> that organisations can avoid budget loss and project failure by investing in communication and alignment work upfront, which is exactly what discovery phases provide.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>The real cost</h3>These issues each feed into one another. Misaligned stakeholders result in woolly requirements. Woolly requirements create scope creep. Scope creep leads to technical limitations. Technical limitations force rework. Rework burns through budget. Suddenly, your project is 45% over budget. <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/tech-and-ai/our-insights/delivering-large-scale-it-projects-on-time-on-budget-and-on-value" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Research from McKinsey</a> shows this to be the average budget overrun on large-scale digital projects.While discovery phases don’t mitigate all the problems, they do help to surface them before they get expensive. And that’s the difference between a successful project and one that can barely make it across the finish line.

The invisible cost

If you’re unsure if your agency is carrying out a thorough and full discovery phase, download our free checklist to see what your agency is (or isn’t) doing right. 

Download our free discovery checklist

Agencies all work in different ways, ask different questions, and present their findings differently. So how do you know if yours is doing it properly? Let’s break it down:<h3 style='text-align: start;'>A proper workshop, not just a kick-off call</h3>A good <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover/workshops">discovery workshop</a> shouldn’t feel like a glorified briefing session. It’s where your agency digs into the detail, like your business goals, your users, your constraints, and any assumptions you have. By the end of it, they should understand your problem as well as you do. If they’re not asking uncomfortable questions, they’re simply not going deep enough.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Research that goes beyond your brief</h3>Your agency should be doing the heavy lifting you have time for. That means <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover/research">market research, competitor analysis, and most importantly, user research</a>. This is where assumptions are validated or killed. If your agency is skipping straight ahead to a solution without speaking to real users, that’s a huge red flag.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Analysis that rules things out</h3>Proper discovery doesn’t just generate ideas, it eliminates them, too. By the time your agency comes to present their findings, they should be able to confidently tell you what will and won’t work and why. If everything is still on the table, the analysis hasn’t been rigorous enough.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Evidence-backed solutions</h3>Any <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover/solutions">proposed solutions</a> should be connected to and backed by the research. Every feature, design decision, and technical choice should have a valid reason behind it. If your agency can’t explain why something’s included, it probably shouldn’t be.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Genuine alignment, not just sign-off</h3>Discovery works if everyone’s genuinely on the same page, not just nodding along. This is the time to discuss disagreements, clarify priorities, and make sure leadership, and stakeholders, project managers, and delivery teams share the same vision. Skipping this step is how you end up with arguments three months in.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Measurable success metrics</h3>Success needs to be measurable. Not vague goals like “better user experience”, but real numbers. Conversion rates, task completion times, order values, support ticket reductions. If you can’t measure it, you can’t prove the project worked.That&#39;s the theory. Here&#39;s what it looks like in practice.

What good discovery looks like

Let’s <a href="https://www.wightlink.co.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">look at Wightlink</a>, an award-winning ferry service connecting over 4.3 million passengers a year between the Isle of Wight and Hampshire.Their website is enormous. It features complex booking functionality, multiple user types, time-sensitive travel decisions, and a user base with varied needs. From daily commuters to holidaymakers. A project of this scale can’t afford assumptions.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>So, we didn’t assume anything</h3>Before we even opened Figma or started writing a single line of code, we ran an in-depth <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover">discovery phase</a> with the team at Wightlink. We also ran <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover/workshops">workshops during actual ferry crossings</a> to understand how their customers interacted with the service. We asked what we thought were obvious questions: does this page layout work? Is the price displayed clearly? Are booking tools prominent enough? Turns out the answers weren’t so obvious after all.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>What we discovered was invaluable</h3>We discovered different user groups had very different needs. Daily commuters needed speed. Holidaymakers needed reassurance and detail. Staff needed CMS functionality that streamlined their workflow. None of this was insight we could have guessed. It came from asking and listening.Our research directly informed both our <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/design/digital-design">UX decisions</a> and technical architecture. We validated every feature to ensure it was there for a reason, not because we thought it was needed. Every design decision connected back to real user insight and behaviour, not our own assumptions. The outcome is a website that actually serves users properly because we knew what their users needed before we started design and build.

Discovering Wightlink

It’s easy to say in hindsight, but we know if we’d skipped the discovery phase and gone straight into design, we would have built a website that wasn’t what users wanted or needed. And the project would have become another expensive statistic.Instead, it’s a case study in what happens when you invest in discovery upfront.You can read more about <a href="https://sidigital.co/work/wightlink">how we helped Wightlink</a>.

Ensuring discovery phases happen, and happen properly, can be a bit daunting. It’s often difficult to justify the expenditure, so here are some tips for getting it across the line:<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Pitching discovery to leadership</h3>Most projects run aground here. Key stakeholders and decision-makers see discovery phases as a delay, not an investment. To make it smoother:<ul class="list-bullet"><li value=1>Make sure you position the discovery phase as risk mitigation, not just research. Leadership tends to understand the value of insurance.</li><li value=2>Throw stats their way. Tell them fixing the problems post-launch could cost up to 100x more than catching them during discovery. And use case studies like Quibi and Panels to demonstrate the value of user research and insight.</li></ul><h3 style='text-align: start;'>When budgets are tight</h3>The luxury of a discovery phase isn’t an option for everyone, especially when it comes to project budgets. If you’re worried about budget:<ul class="list-bullet"><li value=1>Opt for a minimum viable discovery. This should cover a stakeholder alignment workshop and at least one round of user validation. This helps to reduce the risk when budgets don’t allow for a full-blown discovery phase.</li><li value=2>Prioritise the riskiest assumptions first. If you know you’re assuming key features, validate those before anything else. You can shut down unfounded ideas before they get too set in.</li><li value=3>Approach discovery proportionately. Cut your cloth to suit, and carry out a discovery phase that both fits your budget and your project needs.</li></ul><h3 style='text-align: start;'>Red flags to watch out for</h3>Keep an eye on any red flags as you work through the project. Self-diagnose as your project progresses if you start to see:<ul class="list-bullet"><li value=1>Disagreements between stakeholders relating to priorities three months in.</li><li value=2>Knee-jerk requests, and “while we’re at it” asks becoming constant.</li><li value=3>Unanticipated technical blockers, like platforms that don’t support what your users need.</li><li value=4>Features built on opinion rather than evidence.</li></ul><h3 style='text-align: start;'>Get outside help</h3>If you find your project going off the rails, it’s time to get external help. This is key when:<ul class="list-bullet"><li value=1>Internal teams are too close to the problem to be able to work out a solution.</li><li value=2>You need specialist skills and insight that you don’t have in-house.</li><li value=3>An external perspective on the problem can challenge assumptions that internal politics won’t allow.</li></ul>

Make it happen

Settling into basecamp before starting the climb is key to a project’s success. Putting the time, effort, and investment into the discovery phase is insurance. You, your team, and your stakeholders can work through your project knowing you’re creating a product that’s going to meet your users’ needs, as well as the business’s own goals and KPIs.Discovery isn’t a nice-to-have or a box-ticking exercise. It’s the difference between a project that gets stuck halfway up the mountain and a project that reaches the summit. So, before you get stuck into your next big build, take a step back. Make sure the groundwork has been done properly. No corner cutting, no holding back. And if you’re unsure whether your agency is carrying out a thorough discovery phase, download our free checklist to see what they are or aren&#39;t doing right.

It’s time to change your mindset

Lead Designer

Sam Leonard-Rendell

There’s a lot to organise and the pressure’s on to get things right. With all this to contend with, it’s important to accurately identify the key insights. This improves efficiency and provides value to your clients with clear feedback.We have tried many different ways of recording feedback with participants. Each method became convoluted, making it harder to analyse data at the end of a test. So, we began looking for ways to improve our process.

User tests can be full-on

We have recently been looking at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AKWYH1EzJI" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Design Sprints and how user testing is compressed into one day</a>. This technique is simple in its approach and has been successful for us. It removes the bloat and keeps the work focussed. Today, we want to share and break down this way of working.

Stay simple and don’t over complicate

Before starting a user test, you will need:<ul class="list-bullet"><li value=1>Whiteboard / whiteboard wall</li><li value=2>Whiteboard markers</li><li value=3>Sharpies</li><li value=4>A pad of blue Post-its</li><li value=5>A pad of pink Post-its</li></ul>Now that you have your equipment, you can begin to record your user feedback. We usually test with 5 participants as this tends to be the sweet spot of not too many or too few. <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">What Nielsen Norman Group wrote about testing with 5 users still holds true</a>. You can find up to 85% of usability issues with 5 participants. ‘Add more and more users, you learn less and less’.Before the first person arrives, you will need to divide up your whiteboard. Using a whiteboard marker, split the board into 5 columns. Add the names of your participants across the top. Down the left-hand side, add rows and label each according to the task or page you are looking to test.

Preparing for user testing feedback

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As you do your user tests, it is important to make quick notes as you go. We tend to analyse our user tests in pairs to prevent any misinterpretation of comments. This is where we use our post-its to record different types of feedback. However, make quick, rough notes before transferring them to post-its at the end. We use blue post-its for positive comments and pink post-its for negative. A negative comment could mean a participant struggles or has to think about what to do next. Or they might communicate their problem out loud. Write these down as they are super important.Once you have your feedback, stick the post-its into the relevant row for that participant. As you do this, discuss and compare the feedback received and see where there is overlap.

Recording user testing feedback

Repeat this process for each of your user testing participants. Making notes as you go, then writing down the feedback on the relevant post-its at the end of each test. Once you have all five up on the board, you’re ready to begin looking for patterns. They should really jump out at you!If you take a step back from the board, it should become quite clear where the problem areas are. Look closer and you should be able to group specific insights. This will help you to build a picture of where the most common issues are.

Repeat for each user test

This is a simple and quick technique to record user testing feedback that a group of you can do together. It helps improve collaboration and the process of gathering insights.

That’s it

Have a read of some of our other articles

A simple way to record your user testing feedback

In an ever-changing digital world, the last thing you want to do is stand still if you&#39;re looking to stand out. Your website might be the first impression for visitors to learn about what it is your business does and we know how much weight negative experiences hold, whether it&#39;s an accurate representation of your services or not. That&#39;s why making UX and UI improvements to refine your website, rather than simply launching it and moving on, is an invaluable practice.Take the opportunity to show users that you care about their experience as much as you care about presenting yourself in the best light. A killer way to do that is through iterative design.

It might seem counterintuitive, but there&#39;s a crucial difference between improving your website and fixing it: the latter meaning you’re making it better without it first being broken. You&#39;re ahead of your game rather than trying to catch up. In other words, you&#39;re in control of what you&#39;re changing, why you&#39;re changing it, and how you&#39;re going to do it – and that is an exciting place to be.With digital environments constantly shifting, adaption shouldn&#39;t be a knee-jerk reaction. Using iterative UX and UI improvements, it becomes a steady evolution over time based on user testing, feedback and research from platforms like Hotjar, Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity. This means that you&#39;re not just addressing changes as and when your business grows, but focusing heavily on what users want most from your site and responding to it in good time.Our work with Wightlink is a fantastic example of how iteratively updating websites based on user feedback improves performance and overall experience for visitors in the same breath. First, we successfully redesigned a user-centric website built around how ferry passengers actually plan and travel. Where holidaymakers look for reassurance and clarity, regular commuters need speed and efficiency, so it was important to consider the individual requirements from each group as well.

Improve, don't fix

Then, by working closely with Wightlink, we uncovered persisting pain points and the solutions needed to fix them, resulting in the addition of Best Fare Finder and Wightlink Explorer post-launch. <a href="https://sidigital.co/work/wightlink">Read the full case study here to learn how our research shaped three core design principles that made all the difference</a>.

On top of overall user experience, iteratively updating your website means you can also make processes more efficient. When we rebuilt leading connector company Harwin&#39;s website from the ground up, we brought together their Salesforce system for product data with Bynder for digital assets, supported by a Payload CMS for content management, all through our secure <a href="https://sidigital.co/faraday">Faraday middleware</a>. It&#39;s not only made operations smoother, but more adaptable too. For example, switching out different tools based on changing business needs, and automatic syncing of new products to ensure everything is always up to date on the site.We also continue to launch new updates as and when they&#39;re needed for Harwin, including the helpful Cable Configurator – a user-focused experience for specifying bespoke products for customers’ projects. Plus, by using Microsoft Clarity session recordings, we&#39;ve made significant UX improvements to a whole host of features, such as a clearer navigation bar, better drop-down menus, improved type hierarchy, a more user-friendly contact page, a clearer layout for complex data on product pages, and plenty more.<a href="https://sidigital.co/work/harwin">And see how we slashed website load times by 90% for Harwin here</a>.

A streamlined evolution

Cohesion is key when it comes to having a recognisable business. As it grows, it&#39;s inevitable that your brand look and feel might change with it, so clear alignment is crucial to instill both trust and confidence in your customers. Plus, by updating iteratively in-step with competitors&#39; sites and user feedback, it doesn’t have to be a huge overhaul – small changes are just as effective as the big ones.We mentioned at the start of this article that the last thing you should do is stand still as the digital world continues to move forward – that applies to us as well. Besides regularly improving our own site, we have a proactive approach when it comes to our clients&#39; needs. Rather than waiting for them to discover a pain point or issue that needs addressing, we&#39;re already thinking about what solutions would work best for them next.As long-term partners, our clients know we have their interests in mind and trust that we&#39;ll bring something to the table that doesn&#39;t just solve a problem, it&#39;s already part of a larger iterative approach strategised to improve their product.

Always looking ahead

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Why UX and UI iteration are crucial practices for stand-out websites and apps

Let's stop pretending we can skip project discovery phases

Back in 2019, we created something that resonated with designers everywhere: a series of posters bringing Jakob Nielsen&#39;s usability heuristics to life. These principles, <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/">originally outlined in his 1994 article for The Nielsen Norman Group</a>, struck a chord with so many people that we&#39;ve given them a fresh look and a new lease of life.Here&#39;s the thing about usability heuristics, they&#39;re not rigid rules you have to follow to the letter. Think of them more as guiding principles that form the bedrock of solid usability practices. We&#39;ve leaned on these time and again <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/design/digital-design">when designing interfaces</a> or digging into usability test results. They give us a clear framework to work within and align our thinking.

Download our 10 Usability Heuristics Posters

Here at the Si digital studio, we wanted our walls to reflect the work we do, so Jakob Nielsen&#39;s original article got us thinking, why not turn these &quot;10 Usability Heuristics&quot; into something visual and inspiring?Fast forward to today, and these posters are printed, framed, and hanging in our studio. They&#39;ve become such a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/design/digital-design">valuable part of our daily work</a> that we wanted to share them in their new form with the wider design community.This Lab Note showcases a couple of our 10 posters, and we&#39;re making them available as free downloads in PDF, PNG, and JPG formats. We hope they inspire your work as much as they&#39;ve inspired ours. Feel free to share them with your team.

Bringing heuristics to life in our studio

It’s estimated that around 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women have some form of colour blindness. In the UK, this means that there are approximately 2.7 million people affected, a considerable amount of the population, but they are often forgotten when it comes to designing websites and user interfaces.Here at Si digital we consider user experience and accessibility throughout every project. We use a variety of tools and techniques to help us understand visual impairments and use this knowledge to make our websites more usable and less frustrating for people who are colour blind.

Who is affected?

There are many types of colour blindness with different degrees of severity. It’s a common myth that people with colour blindness only see in black and white. Although this can be true, monochromacy – also known as total colour blindness – is extremely rare, with an estimated 1 in 33,000 people affected. This severe visual impairment only allows an individual to see in greyscale.An important factor to remember is that for most people with colour blindness, distinguishing between different colours is not too difficult; it’s telling the difference between shades and brightness levels of similar colours which causes issues.The more common condition is red-green colour blindness, which is split into two groups. A person with protanomaly has reduced sensitivity to red light. Red, orange, and yellow hues tend to shift towards green and appear less saturated. A person with deuteranomaly has reduced sensitivity to green light and will have difficulty distinguishing between blue, yellow, violet, reds, blues, and greens.

What is colour blindness?

For a long time, the difficulties that arise from colour blindness have been ignored, not only in website design, but also television, movies, and especially video games. There are many cases of users not being able to play a game or being unable to progress because of essential UI elements being indistinguishable to somebody who suffers from colour blindness.Take this example from The Witcher 3...

Colour in the wild

See how the red markers on the floor become near invisible when switching to red-green colour blindness.The game features an ability to use heightened senses to follow scents, track footprints, and find clues. However, the game developers chose a deep red colour as a marker, so there have been many users complaining that they couldn’t see these markers very well (or at all). A simple colour change or the option to change colours would have made this game more accessible.Colour blindness is a matter which needs to be taken seriously due to the high percentage of the population with vision impairments. If your website or application is particularly unoptimised, you could be losing a large amount of customers. For example, if a user can’t differentiate between a series of icons because of clashing colours and lack of contrast, that user could get frustrated and find an alternate service. If that is the experience of every potential customer who suffered from colour blindness, you’re losing over 8% of potential sales – for a business with £10,000,000 in revenue, that company could potentially lose a huge £800,000 in sales.

Although colour blindness can cause huge problems for users, it’s actually quite simple to combat. If you’re aware of the issues, then you’re already halfway there.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>1. Use contrasting colours</h3>Even people who have monochromacy still have a sense of contrast – the scaled difference between light and dark. To ensure your website is readable for people with visual impairments, you must make sure your content contrasts well with your background. For example, black text on a white background will have a high level of contrast and readability. Whereas yellow text on a white background has a low level of contrast and will be barely readable, even for people with full vision!

Designing with colour blindness in mind

<h3 style='text-align: start;'>2. Use different shades rather than multiple colours</h3>A monochromatic colour scheme — not to be confused with full colour blindness, monochromacy – makes use of multiple shades of one colour, rather than using various different colours. This will effectively minimise colour-related frustration, and is a great way to include contrast in your designs. A monochromatic colour scheme doesn’t have to be black and white; using multiple shades of blue, we can create a visually pleasing design with complete readability.

<h3 style='text-align: start;'>3. Experience colour blindness yourself while designing</h3><h4 style='text-align: start;'>Colour blindness simulation in Adobe Photoshop</h4>There are many free tools available that can mimic the effects of colour blindness, allowing you to understand how a colour blind person would see to ensure that your user interfaces work just as you intended them to. Photoshop has its own — slightly hidden away — proof setup feature; simply go to View &gt; Proof Setup, and then you can choose between protanopia and deuteranopia. When you’re done testing, simply switch back to monitor RGB.<h4 style='text-align: start;'>Colour blindness simulation in Figma</h4>Unfortunately, there is no native support for Figma colour testing; however, there are various plugins that allow you to do the exact same thing. We recommend <a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1115550442410459794/color-blind" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Color Blind</a>, a free plugin that shows you in real time what people with common colour vision impairments will see.<h4 style='text-align: start;'>Colour blindness simulation in Browser</h4>We use a Google Chrome add-on called <a href="https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/colorblindly/floniaahmccleoclneebhhmnjgdfijgg?pli=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Colorblindly</a> that lets you simulate colour blindness on live websites or in a testing environment. This is a handy tool for colour and contrast testing as it offers multiple viewing modes, including full monochromacy.

<h3 style='text-align: start;'>4. Choose colour combinations carefully</h3>Unfortunately, as designers, we don’t always get to choose the colours that we use in our designs; sometimes, we’re limited by brand guidelines. But where possible, it’s wise to choose and test your primary and secondary colours before you establish a brand. Below is a chart of colour combinations that you should avoid using.If in doubt, avoid colour altogether and go for a simple black/white, high-contrast colour scheme!

<h3 style='text-align: start;'>5. Use texture in place of colour</h3>When designing things like graphs and infographics, consider making use of texture or visual patterns to help differentiate between two colours. For example, take the pie chart below. A user with protanopia would find it hard to differentiate between the different slices due to the colours being too similar. However, if we simply add some texture or patterns, the graph is 100% more readable.

<h3 style='text-align: start;'>6. Avoid using colour alone as an indicator</h3>When designing elements like forms and complicated interfaces, you shouldn’t use colour alone as an indicator. Take the forms below as an example. The one on the left only uses colour as an indicator that something went wrong. A person with normal vision will be able to see that the email field has turned red, indicating there has been some kind of error. However, to a person with deuteranomaly, the green of the success field is indistinguishable from the red of the error field. The best way to combat this issue is to use some kind of icon, symbol, or label to indicate that an error has occurred, as seen on the right.

The most important lesson to learn here is that unless you’re absolutely certain that somebody with colour blindness can differentiate between the colours you have chosen, then you should never use colour alone to indicate something important. Where possible, use icons, text, shapes, textures, or other visual cues as well as colour when communicating information to users.There are many ways to test for accessibility; however, these tools aren’t always fully accurate – ultimately, the best way to see if your design is suitable is to perform real UX audits. It’s likely that you know somebody who is colour blind; why not get them to review your design?What we see as designers and developers isn’t always what your users see; they could be colour blind, using a screen reader, or looking at your website on a 3″ smartphone from 2007. Creating websites that are accessible to everyone is essential and should be part of any good design process.If you would like to speak to us about your new project and how we ensure we always deliver the ultimate, accessible user experience, please <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">get in touch</a>.

Conclusion

How to design for colour blindness: best practices for accessibility

The 10 Usability Heuristics – updated for 2026

Your company might already have security policies in place, but a quick refresher ensures nothing slips through the cracks. For Data Privacy Day this year, we’re giving you a checklist of security policies you need to keep on top of.

Grab your free checklist. No forms, no faff.

Download our free 8-point security checklist

These are our recommendations for all our clients. Depending on the value and sensitivity of your data, you might want to adjust the frequency to suit your needs.

How to ensure your apps and websites are secure

An annual penetration test from an independent third party identifies weaknesses in your code and server configuration. We always recommend one after completing a website or app build, plus annual reviews or tests following significant code changes. If you need help finding a pentest company, <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">get in touch</a>.

1. Get a pentest – Yearly

Check who has admin access to your CMS or back office systems. Do they still need it? Could their permissions be downgraded from Admin to User level?And, every six months, have a spring clean. Review everyone with CMS or back office access. Ask if they still need it. Are their details current? When did they last change their password? If you have a Leaver Policy, add system removal to your off-boarding checklist.

2. Review CMS access – Quarterly

<a href="https://haveibeenpwned.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Have I Been Pwned</a> lets you search data breaches to see if your email or phone number has been compromised. This matters less if you use unique passwords for each account, but if you&#39;ve reused passwords, a quick check here is worth five minutes.

3. Check if you’ve been Pwned – Bi-Yearly

2 Factor Authentication (2FA) requires a randomly generated code from your phone alongside your password. Once you&#39;ve entered your credentials, you&#39;ll need your 2FA app to get the unique access code. Some of our top 2FA apps include <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/mobile-authenticator-app" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Microsoft Authenticator</a>, <a href="https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1066447?hl=en&amp;co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Authenticator</a>, and <a href="https://getaegis.app/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aegis Authenticator</a>.While you&#39;re at it, check your 2FA app and remove any old devices.

4. Use 2 Factor Authentication

We&#39;ve all reused passwords or used obvious variations like &#39;Sunsh1ne&#39;, &#39;Sunsh2ne&#39;. Password managers eliminate this risk by securely storing your passwords and auto-filling them. They&#39;re built into operating systems like macOS and browsers like Microsoft Edge. At Si digital, we use <a href="https://1password.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1Password</a>.

5. Use a password manager

Complex passwords take longer to crack. Mix upper and lowercase letters, special characters, numbers, and punctuation. With a password manager handling the heavy lifting, you won&#39;t need to remember them anyway.

6. Have a minimum password standard

Public Wi-Fi at coffee shops, hotels, or airports is convenient but risky. Hackers can intercept your data on unsecured networks. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) encrypts your connection, keeping your browsing and login credentials safe. This is particularly important when accessing your CMS or business systems remotely. Many businesses provide VPN access to their teams. If yours doesn&#39;t, ask your IT department about setting one up.

7. Use a VPN

This one&#39;s on us, and we often do it without you noticing. Keeping software, packages, and plugins current with the latest security patches is essential. Sometimes these updates happen in the background; other times they need thorough implementation and testing.

8. Carry out general updates

Data breaches happen almost daily. Even to the world&#39;s biggest and supposedly most secure companies. Just look at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/sep/20/jaguar-land-rover-hack-factories-cybersecurity-jlr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jaguar Land Rover</a> or <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93x16zkl9do" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Marks &amp; Spencer</a>. There&#39;s never been a better time to review your security setup. These steps could prevent a serious headache.Got questions or need help? <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">Get in touch</a>.

What are you waiting for?

Lead Frontend Developer

Danny Walker

Payload is a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/develop/payload">modern headless CMS</a> that uses powerful technologies like TypeScript, Node.js, and React—technologies that form the core of our frontend development stack. Its endless customisation options enable us to build tailored APIs and flexible content structures that perfectly match our clients&#39; specific requirements.

What is Payload CMS?

We’ve seen countless benefits from Payload since we’ve been using it, and they’re benefits to both us and our clients. We’ve picked out our top seven benefits below:

The benefits of Payload CMS

A lot of our clients often come to us with a website and a few third-party SaaS systems they want to speak to their website, portal, or app, like <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate/salesforce">Salesforce</a> or a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate/payment-gateways">payment gateway</a>. Payload’s headless CMS features an Application Programming Interface (API) endpoint, and when paired with our Si Middleware, we can integrate systems into websites, portals, or apps with ease. It means data can be fetched, updated, and created quickly and easily, so our clients can access their data from the CMS anywhere they like.<a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate">We integrate all sorts of third-party systems</a> into our client websites, and Payload makes the process a lot quicker and easier for both our clients and us. It’s a win-win situation.

1. Integration

Nobody wants to have to rebuild their website every year. Not only would it be costly and time-consuming, but it can be a jarring experience for your users too. Payload is a future-proofed CMS option. Using the latest TypeScript and Node technology, Payload is built to be secure and reliable. It receives regular updates as well, keeping everything running smoothly on your site.

2. Longevity

Websites can often be left in the same state for long periods of time, and this is often due to the pain of trying to get changes and code updated. Payload is built around flexible content modelling, which means it’s easier for our developers to quickly add features and fields to your website. This means websites can grow and scale at the same rate as your business, so your website never falls behind.

3. Flexibility

Security is normally our clients’ top priority. Over the last few years, cyber attacks and hack rates have rocketed, meaning there’s more focus than ever before on keeping your website’s sensitive data safe and secure.Payload is self-hosted, which means you have control and oversight of all the data that the website holds and accesses. This is a huge benefit for companies that have websites that contain sensitive user data such as personal information. Your data is fully controlled by you, not a third-party service.

4. Security

Website performance is essential for success in the world of digital. Studies have found that around <a href="https://prerender.io/blog/page-speed-tips-and-statistics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">40% of desktop users</a> will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load - and this number rises to 53% for mobile users. It’s also worth noting that search engines like Google <a href="https://www.debugbear.com/docs/page-load-time#what-is-a-good-page-load-time" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">penalise websites that take over 4 seconds to load</a>, pushing you further down the results list. The message is clear: the faster your website performs, the better chance you have of keeping visitors engaged with your content.Payload&#39;s headless CMS is optimised to load content and images quickly, especially when combined with Next.js static site generation. Users expect to find content quickly and easily—it&#39;s a fundamental UX principle that leads to higher conversion rates, and this performance boost ensures your users are getting to where they want to be quickly.But it’s not just your website’s users that can benefit from the performance boost. The backend of the CMS is lightning quick as well. Building out new pages can take a matter of minutes. Adding in blocks is instant, uploading images is rapid, and saving your page between edits is speedy, meaning clients spend less time waiting around for content and blocks loading in.

5. Performance

Quality is at the heart of everything we do here. Payload supports TypeScript, a powerful enhancement of JavaScript created by Microsoft, to ensure our code meets the highest standards. Its strict typing system helps us catch errors early and write more reliable code, resulting in robust and maintainable websites for our clients.

6. Quality

It’s important as ever to ensure your site performs well from an SEO perspective to ensure the correct users are finding your site. Improving rankings on Google and other search engines means more traffic to your site. Payload comes with a whole host of SEO tools built-in as standard, and they’re super easy to use.Its visual-led design tells you how your meta descriptions and images are performing, as well as giving you an SEO check score out of three. You can upload a custom meta image too to maximise impact. Payload will even give you a preview of how your page will look when it shows up on search listings.

7. SEO

Thanks to Payload’s flexibility, it’s a great option for many different types of websites across all sorts of industries. We’ve built massive websites with complex SaaS integrations like Harwin, to smaller brochure sites like our own. But Payload CMS is also a great option for content-rich websites and blogs, membership platforms, internal enterprise tools, and much more.

What type of site would benefit from a Payload CMS?

From flexibility to security to SEO, Payload excels at being a slick, optimised CMS for our clients that lets them reap the rewards of a fully optimised website. Moving CMS is never an easy decision, and usually involves a full website rebuild and redesign, but the benefits can be huge. Payload is an excellent example of how a CMS should be, and as a modern agency, we’ve loved every minute of our move across to Payload.If you’ve got a website you’re thinking of rebuilding and want to move across to Payload, <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">get in touch</a>.

The benefits of choosing Payload CMS for your business’s next website

Since its announcement at WWDC in June, Apple’s new Liquid Glass UI design for its 2026 (and beyond) operating systems has proved polarising. With its transparent, content-manipulating effects and reactive components, it’s a bold step away from the flat, static look we’ve grown accustomed to since Apple launched iOS 7 back in 2013, and an even bolder progression from the skeuomorphic designs we were used to before that.But what if we’ve been looking at Apple’s Liquid Glass in the wrong way? This isn’t about surface-level design trends or flashy animations. It’s about the future of technology and how we interact with it.

Apple’s Liquid Glass design language was launched yesterday with iOS 26, and as the world installs this new design system onto their phones, watches, headsets, tablets, laptops, and TVs, it’ll take time for users to adjust to this new look and way of interacting with their devices.What many people haven’t yet realised is that the way we interact with our devices is changing. With virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) becoming more prevalent, the line between the real world and the digital world is beginning to blur more and more. The <a href="https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/infographics/virtual-reality-market-101378" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">VR industry is expected to be worth $123bn</a> by 2032. To put that into context, it was only worth $16.32bn in 2024. So, the transition in UI design as we focus more on VR &amp; AR is inevitable, and likely for the good of the usability of those devices in the future.When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, we were at a similar juncture for UI and UX, but we didn&#39;t realise it at the time. We’d been using clunky phones with physical keyboards and untouchable content for decades, and suddenly we had a device where we could touch the content we were interacting with. Note-taking, calendars, compasses, and more. Getting users to understand this resulted in skeuomorphic design – a style that brought relatable, understandable, real-world context to digital applications and interactions. It was about educating users in a manageable way that didn’t feel a million miles away from using a real notepad or a real calendar.

A new era for UI design begins today

After six years of training us, Apple made the move away from skeuomorphic design across to flat design with iOS 7. That style has developed, changed, and grown into what we’ve now become familiar with in iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and visionOS 2. Liquid Glass might look like pure visual polish, but it’s doing something much more important: teaching us a new way to interact. Just as skeuomorphism helped us move away from physical buttons to touchscreens, Liquid Glass is quietly preparing us for a future that isn’t restricted to screens at all. We’re moving into a new era where digital worlds are layered over the real world, and how we interact with it depends on more than just our fingertips. This shift needs a different kind of interface. One that listens, watches, and responds. It feels alive. This is where multimodal UI design comes in.

Multimodal UI design language relies on more than just a single input, like touch. It’s built around voice, gaze, movement, and touch. It’s this that bridges the gap between what we know as an OS, and what an OS will become. Take visionOS, or Meta Horizon OS. Both are examples of multimodal interfaces. Not only is the content overlaid onto the real world, it’s controlled by the direction you’re looking, or by your voice as you ask it to perform an action or task. And, especially in vision OS, these overlaid interface elements are designed to interact and work with the world around them, rather than just sitting on top.

Liquid Glass isn’t just multimodal, it’s reactive. Built around a system of free-floating elements and components, the interface dynamically adjusts to how you use it. These elements aren’t locked to a fixed screen either; they appear when you need them and fade away when you don’t.It’s this fluidity that makes Liquid Glass the ideal UI for overlaying on the real world. Elements can subtly sink into the surroundings when idle and reappear when they’re relevant. If your environment changes, the UI responds and reveals what’s behind it by taking a step back. It’s a design system that’s as understanding and perceptive as you are.Apple’s approach is also about unifying an experience across their device ecosystem. As all these devices begin to merge into a spatial realm, consistency will be key. Liquid Glass isn’t limited to iPhones; it’s become the universal design language used across all of Apple’s devices. This is an important shift. Historically, Apple has tended to update the iPhone and iPad visual designs ahead of the Mac. For example, when Apple launched its flat design system with iOS 7, macOS Mavericks still maintained its skeuomorphic design. The fact Apple is rolling Liquid Glass out across its entire suite of operating systems sends a clear message: this is the future, and it’s starting now.

In contrast, Google has taken a <a href="https://blog.google/products/android/material-3-expressive-android-wearos-launch/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">very different approach</a> with its latest design system, Material 3. Its punchy colours, expressive typographic treatments, and bold graphic devices feel optimised for rectangular screens. Perfect for phones and tablets. But as we move into a world where interfaces begin to extend beyond the screen, this look and feel will quickly fall behind and become limiting.Material 3 is firmly rooted as a visual language for traditional devices. It’s difficult to imagine these vibrant, highly-saturated colours and decorative sticker-like layers translating to spatial environments or multimodal interfaces where the UI has to adapt to different lighting, varying depths, and real-world context.Compared to Apple’s Liquid Glass design system, Material 3 feels like it was designed solely for mobile-era aesthetics. We imagine it’ll only be a matter of time before Android follows suit.

Material 3: Beautifully screen-bound

Despite its future-focussed foundations, Liquid Glass is a polarising design language, and this is primarily for two reasons: accessibility and its association with past design trends. Stylistically, it’s been compared to Windows Vista, which launched in 2007 with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Aero" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">new design style called Aero</a>. Aero marked a dramatic move away from the blocky era of Windows XP, and just like Liquid Glass today, it divided opinion. But the intent behind Liquid Glass is very different to Windows Vista. Windows Vista was about reskinning a system users were already very familiar with to make it feel more modern. Liquid Glass is about the shift from screens to spatial, immersive experiences.Accessibility is a much bigger concern. With its glassy, translucent design, Liquid Glass definitely poses some issues with legibility and contrast, especially against high-contrast backgrounds. This is surprising coming from Apple. They’ve long been seen as leaders when it comes to inclusive design; <a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/accessibility/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">it’s one of their core values</a>.However, it’s important to remember that Apple gives users a deep level of accessibility customisation so they can hone their devices to work for them. And Apple has always made iterative improvements as time goes on. Remember when iOS 7’s animations were <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/apple-ios-literally-making-users-sick/story?id=20385379" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">making users motion sick</a>? Or when users said the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/fonts-dont-lie-thin-ios-7-os-x-flna6c10245346" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">system typefaces were too thin</a>? Apple responded by adjusting the design language.Liquid Glass is following a similar path. We’re entering uncharted territory with spatial, multimodal user interfaces. There will be missteps. But just as with past transitions, refinement will come with time, and with real-world feedback from users pushing the boundaries of how we interact beyond screens.

Growing pains

While <a href="https://www.techtimes.com/articles/309937/20250409/apple-vision-pros-sales-flop-theyre-rushing-out-new-one-m5-chip-before-2025-ends.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple Vision Pro has been a slow burner</a>, it’s still early days for spatial and multimodal UI design, but one thing is clear – the UI of tomorrow won’t live on screen. We’re moving into a new era where interfaces live around us, watching, listening, and responding as we interact with them and the world around us. And design systems won’t just be about aesthetics or branding; they’ll need to feel native and reactive to real-world environments, natural movement, and human behaviour.Liquid Glass is the start of a much bigger shift in design and how we interact with our devices. By introducing translucency, depth, and movement into today’s rectangular screen boundaries, it’s preparing us all for a world where interfaces are responsive and immersive, and not restricted to a glass rectangle.Brands that embrace multimodal, spatial design languages now will be the ones who lead in the years ahead as our digital and physical worlds blend together. And users will expect that to feel natural. As for designers and developers, those of us who understand this early and adopt this design ethos will define what’s coming next.

Lab Notes