We seek to understand the context before the design starts. Understanding comes from site visits, spending time in the field, interviewing people, and listening to our customers. Building empathy for the people who will use our products is central to our design process.

At the same time, we research the operating characteristics and parameters of the applicable technology – its offerings, limitations and the factors influencing its performance.

Accurately defining the problem is arguably the most critical stage of a project. Clarity and insight are essential to ensure the project team solves the right problem. Focused well-defined problems lead to a greater quantity and higher quality of prospective solutions.

Hand in hand with design is risk, which brings both challenges and opportunities. From the outset, we proactively identify risks and implement mitigation strategies.

Prototypes are where learning happens and risk is reduced. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but a model is worth a million.

Whether we are building a quick cardboard mockup, or a high-fidelity fully functional prototype, we always have specific learning objectives in mind. For us, prototyping is about exposing an idea to users, workshopping scenarios in the field, putting test units though their paces (at times literally amongst the crocodiles), all while iterating, adjusting and fine-tuning.

We understand the commercial importance of obtaining maximum benefit from available development funds. Very rarely does every aspect of a project need to be engineered from the ground up. If a project requires something new, we invent it, but equally, we always look to leverage proven building blocks. By standing on the shoulders of established design elements we minimise project risks, timeline, and costs.