Our AIR ethos

AIR is our guiding ethos. It’s an approach to creating digital experiences that make a real difference.

Earlier this year, we unveiled a fresh new rebrand. The changes were made to reflect our commitment to ‘purposeful experiences’. These are websites and apps that help to deliver social or environmental good; whether that be through protecting the heritage sector, transforming career guidance in schools, or helping people in need.

We’re really quite proud of our new identity. It reflects what drives us and the types of projects we take on.

At the centre of it all is our guiding ethos: AIR. It represents both the approach we take, and the way that we measure our success.

Why AIR?

Over the years, we’ve partnered with dozens of charities, foundations, and profit-for-good organisations. Although all projects are different, we’ve found that most clients in this space share three fundamental values.

• Audience. Make intuitive, engaging experiences that put users first.
• Impact. Achieve organisational goals, and maximise visibility.
• Responsibility. Do things the right way, with inclusivity and sustainability being front-of-mind.

In this post we’ll break down each of these pillars, explain how AIR shapes our work, and show how an AIR audit can benefit your organisation.

Audience

If something isn’t giving people what they want, then they won’t use it.

Designing with user needs in mind has always been key to great product design, but encouraging true behaviour change requires going a step further. We’ve got to do the leg-work upfront to pinpoint exactly where our audience’s pain points are, and address them directly in the content, navigation and features we provide.

The products we create should be simple, enjoyable, and seamless. They should make every interaction easy and rewarding.

Achieving it

Using data, feedback and insight from within the organisation, we can build a profile of your target audience. By understanding the tasks, pain-points and opportunities surrounding your users, we can make better design decisions.

From the earliest sketches and diagrams to detailed prototypes, we reference the audience profiles at every stage. This ensures what’s being delivered lines up to what people actually want. A design approach that utilises prototypes with a ‘fail fast, iterate early’ mindset means that we test and validate ideas at every opportunity, being sure that we’ve gotten it right before touching a single line of code.

When it comes to the interface design, consistency is key. Design systems make sure the whole experience feels joined-up, with time and consideration given to the small interactions and flourishes that make a lasting impact.

By fully understanding our audience we can make more informed design decisions, and ensure the experience gives users what they need.

Measuring success

We can measure success from both a qualitative and quantitative point of view.

• Analytics data to pinpoint what’s working, and what isn’t.
• Usability testing and feedback sessions, to understand the ‘why’ of it all.
• Design review against user profiles, industry best practices, and competitor benchmarks.

Impact

Engaging your audience is essential, but if we’re not also meeting the organisation’s goals then the investment won’t pay off.

Making an impact means striking the balance between user engagement and the conversion points that matter. These could involve driving donations, encouraging participation, or simply expanding the reach and visibility of the brand.

We deliver results by being mindful of organisational outcomes, and the way they can align to user journeys.

Achieving it

We kick off every project by bringing together key stakeholders from across the organisation, through a series of workshops and interviews. This helps us spot potential ‘wins’, and understand how these can neatly fit into the user experience without causing friction.

Great content does more than grab attention. It inspires action. Careful planning helps us to pinpoint the key conversion points in the user journey, whether it be encouraging a donation, linking to a shop purchase or featuring a newsletter sign-up. It’s this kind of thinking that maximises return on investment.

Of course, making an impact goes beyond just the website. It’s important to also consider the bigger picture—how your brand is positioned and promoted. This can be through search engine optimisation, social media strategy, or paid campaigns. After all, to be successful you must stand out from the crowd.

Measuring success

To grow your impact, it’s important to stay on top of your data.

• Conversion goals should be tracked and compared month-on-month.
• Search and social impression data highlights how easily people are finding our content.
• Heatmaps and session recordings show us what’s getting people’s attention, and where the opportunities might be hiding.

Responsibility

Every purpose-driven organisation should be seen to champion sustainability and inclusivity.

In today’s digital-first world, most people will chiefly experience your brand online. It’s also where they’ll form a judgement of your values. These aren’t just nice-to-haves or ethical boxes to tick, either. They’re non-negotiable standards that we must all legally comply with.

By taking a considerate approach to design and development, we can create more responsible products that put people and planet first.

Achieving it

We use a range of tools and techniques to minimise the carbon footprint of our websites. These range from technical performance enhancements that reduce load times, to more thoughtful design choices that keep pages lean and energy-efficient. We’ve put together a set of sustainability guidelines that outlines our approach in detail.

Accessibility matters just as much. We design and build our sites so everyone can use them, no matter their ability or disability. We follow the respected Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), always aiming for AA-level compliance or better.

It isn’t a box ticking exercise. Putting these measures into our work means partnering with organisations at a strategic level to ensure conversations about our social and environmental responsibility are happening at every stage.

Measuring success

It’s fairly straightforward to measure your site’s sustainability and accessibility, and it’s important to do it often.

• Performance reviews to determine the site’s carbon footprint and energy usage.
• Accessibility evaluations to make sure we’re being inclusive and compliant.
• Regular user testing with people of all demographics and abilities.

Get an AIR audit

How does your own website measure up?

We’d be happy to conduct a review of your site, looking at a number of different performance factors within the AIR criteria.

Following this audit, we’ll give the site a tangible score that can be used as a benchmark for future improvements. The report will help stakeholders understand the strengths of their current digital offering, and pinpoint future opportunities.