Our skills & services

We are a strategic design company, and most of the diverse group of people at Fjord come from a background in design. Some are specialised and have very deep knowledge of their subject area; others work across several traditional strategy and design disciplines.

It is the teamwork and the learning at Fjord that guarantees first class results on projects. Below is a list of Fjord skills.

Skill Focus
User research Trend research, ethnography, contextual inquiry, participatory design, concept validation, benchmarking, usability testing, quantitative research
Product and service strategy Service proposition, business and customer benefits, target audience, go-to-market strategy
Design management Design process, design team management, stakeholder management, design decision making
Technical architecture Evaluating, architecting, and planning the technical solution
Concept development The creative and functional service ideas and features
Interaction design How the experience works in the digital interfaces, documented through flow diagrams and wireframes
Information architecture The information system: how the service information is structured and how it is created or sourced
Visual design Branding, typography, storyboarding, 3D rendering, illustration, iconography
Interface design Graphical User Interface (GUI) layout and information hierarchy, GUI innovation, GUI specification
Flash Animation sequences, action scripting, prototyping for mobile and desktop
Motion graphics Creation of videos for communication or experience-simulation purposes
Copywriting Messaging and labelling

Fjord Services

We apply design techniques to solve complex business, service, and interface problems. We always adapt the project focus and output to the specific needs of our clients, and we always aim to work in close collaboration.

Our services fall into the following three broad categories:

1. Service strategy

The service strategy is the contextual foundation that the service solution is built on. If there is no clear strategy, there's a risk that the solution will not meet key needs, even if the ideas themselves are strong, and the design is good. When undertaking strategy work, our goals are:

  • The service proposition is clear and well articulated
  • User, market, and technology drivers are defined
  • Stakeholders within the client organisation are aligned with the strategy of the project
  • The project team understands the strategy, the brand, and user drivers, as well as key industry and technology trends

The key deliverable from this work is a service strategy. The format of the deliverable is usually a presentation, but the core presentation can be accompanied with a proposition poster, a movie that brings the core promise to life, a competitive benchmarking study, etc.

2. Service concept

The service concept is the tangible representation of the service. The results from concepting work are:

  • The driving ideas are well defined
  • Service interfaces (mobile, desktop, TV) and integration points are agreed
  • Usage drivers are defined for key stages of service use: discovery, trial, registration, reuse, upgrade
  • The roadmap includes key service features, prioritised for releases over time

The key deliverable from this phase is a service concept. The format of the deliverable is usually a presentation. It might be accompanied by a demo or movie of core experiences. There can also be other related deliverables.

3. Interface design

During the interface design work we use our experience and skills to make sure the solution is simple and easy to use, and looks and feels elegant. The results from undertaking the interface design work are?

  • The interaction and information flow is agreed and documented
  • The visual design of all interfaces is agreed and documented
  • End users have validated the service concept and tested the usability of the interfaces
  • The client organisation has the material to communicate the complete service solution internally to various audiences
  • The technical team has the information and assets needed to implement the solution

The key deliverable from this phase is the detailed design solution for all interfaces. The deliverable formats range from use case documentation and flow diagrams to interaction and visual specifications, graphical assets, motion guidelines, and practical collaboration with implementation teams.

To aid us in our work across the services and skills we provide we have developed a set of tools and techniques we use. Find out more about the three Fjord tools.