User Experience Design

“How can I help my users kick ass?”

Kathy Sierra

Creating Passionate Users

That’s really the central question for user experience design. Ignore it and get lost in the crowd. Answer it well and execute, and you will engender passionate loyalty.

This is where our User Experience Design practice comes in. We focus on what the user wants to achieve, and how to make their interaction with the product seamless, and then apply user experience best practices to create products that are not only usable and efficient, but also memorable and enjoyable.

Right Skills

Creating exceptional user interfaces requires a deep knowledge of both user interface design and UI development frameworks and techniques.

We are nationally recognized in the developer community as User Interface experts. Pathfinder is frequently approached by other consulting and development firms to mentor them in the effective use of rich internet application technologies like Ajax.
Our user experience design team had many successful project both on projects where Pathfinder did development as well as with companies such as Haemonetics, GE, AMA, SPSS, Rand McNally and NORC where we teamed with in-house or 3rd party development teams.
We are thought leaders in Web 2.0 development. Our CTO, Dietrich Kappe is one of the authors of www.ajaxian.com, and contributed the performance chapter to “Realworld Ajax; Secrets of the Masters”. Dietrich, Brian Dillard and others of our staff author the widely read AgileAjax blog.
We are expert at optimizing performance and security of Web applications; optimization that starts with the application design.

Right Process

We are one of only a handful of companies in the country that has a track record of succesfully combining User Experience Design into the software development process. We understand how design and development need to work together to produce the results users expect.

Our user driven requirements process clearly identifies the personas and task flows and allows us to build priority-based user models that ensure that wherever possible linear tasks are intuitive and non-linear tasks are simplified.
Visualizing requirements, building prototypes and testing them with actual users allows us creatively explore navigation issues and customization approaches to make sure your product exceeds the competition.
Wireframe templates, style guides and design pattern libraries provide the frameworks for consistency, flexibility and easy expansion of application design
Our clients, including software vendors, love our requirements documentation and can easily develop from them – talk especially to our software vendor clients such as Haemonetics or clients such as AMA and Rand McNally.

Right Team

Combining UXD with Agile development results in quality and speed. It creates software that is easy to use, meets business objectives, enhances productivity and customer experience. The emphasis is on working software, the ability to change, and the ability to release early and gather feedback. This synergy ensures success and is critical for delivering software that is on-time, on-target and on-budget.

By having full SDLC capabilities in house, Pathfinder can field a cross-functional team that has the right skills for your project and is used to working together in an efficient process to drive requirements and evaluate technology choices.

We’re “team” based as a company. We work well in blended teams with our clients.
Our business analysts and domain experts have a deep understanding of all Web 2.0 and Rich Internet Application technologies.
Our designers know every aspect of the SDLC – they do the design, write the requirements, help manage the project, test the release, write much of the UI code, and help select the key UI technologies.
Our developers don’t just code. They develop entirely new UI interaction frameworks for designers to exploit, are renown UI and usability experts in their own right.
Our technical architects have extensive experience developing application architectures that leverage complex legacy components to produce transformative user interfaces.

Looking for results?

Give us a call at 866.882.7215 or contact us to discuss your specific situation and how we can help you.

Agile Development

Ajax and Rich Internet Applications

Flex, Flash and Air

Ruby on Rails

Vu360: PDF Takeoff and Markup

Pathfinder developed Vu360, a universal digital document viewer that enables easy viewing, takeoff and markup of .PDF and .TIFF documents for architects, engineers and contractors.
Employment Verification

Pathfinder worked with Rapid Reporting to build the first employment verification tool that captures employment information from individual employers as well as automated subscription services.
Automated Compliance Management

Rich Internet Application that allows supervisory personnel to manage contractor workforce requirements through a single, easy-to-use web-based application, developed in Ruby on Rails.
Hedge Fund Analytics

Extensible Flex-based platform for real time analysis of hedge fund performance data.
3D Flex Data Visualization

3D Visualization of flight tracking and meteorological readings, using Flex, Papervision 3D, and Yahoo and Google mapping APIs.
Touch Screen Kiosk

Touch screen kiosks with interactive mapping, video and onscreen keyboard, developed in Adobe Flex and Air.
Product Filtering

Pathfinder conceptualized and created a map and attribute based rich internet application for product browsing at DestinationBeer.com using Flex and Ruby on Rails.
Handheld Medical Interface

Pathfinder created an easy-to-use interface for a hand-held medical device that is effective for increasing the quality of care and eliminating errors.
Interactive Flash e-Commerce Site

By creating a better customer experience, Pathfinder delivers an e-commerce site that offers competitive advantage.
Rand McNally Classroom

Rand McNally enlisted Pathfinder to help create a new technology service for educators that provided a complete, interactive “one stop resource” for teaching K-12 classrooms.
optionsXpress

Pathfinder worked with optionsXpress to maximize customer adoption and help customers trade more efficiently with fewer mistakes.
Data Warehousing

Pathfinder redesigned the BEZ product to make it easier to use and navigate, unlocking the true value of the product and effectively position BEZ as a quality leader in their industry.
Scientific Research Portal

The Chicago Botanic Garden, in conjunction with 29 partners, needed to build a user-centric portal and applications in order to enable research into complex biological relationships.
Healthcare Analytics

Pathfinder designed and implemented a new platform architecture that helped a Healthcare Analytics firm grow their competitive advantage.
ColorVision Spyder3

Pathfinder improved the workflow of a leading color calibration system and brought visual pizzazz to its presentation.
Facebook Sports Application

Pathfinder worked with the Sun-Times to deliver a Facebook application, in less than three months, that reaches teens and young adults, creating a new channel and ad revenue opportunities.
Media Content Management Platform

Pathfinder worked with Sun Times News Group to design and build an extensible platform for the group's 98 publications.
Power Substation Automation

A leading energy company's devices were extolled for their reliability, yet feared for their complexity. We unified multiple substation automation applications into a single easy-to-use interface.
Medical Software

A leader in medical software development and support recently enlisted Pathfinder's services to help tame the complexity and ensure the usability of its newest product.
Arabic Education Portal

In an Arabic Gulf State, we designed and developed portals for disseminating information to teachers, students and their parents, and applications for researchers and the education ministry.
Test Tracking Logistics

To manage the logistics of a national testing program in an Arabic Gulf State, an application was needed to monitor the status and location of over a million exam and answer books.
American Medical Association

Pathfinder designed a cleaner, more user-friendly Health Information Technology site for the AMA to facilitate communication of HIT information to their audience.
Mobile Interview Application

Pathfinder provided a seamless user experience to the client across both desktops and the web by ensuring that user interactions and system behaviors were intuitive and reliable.
Supply Chain Logistics Portal

Pathfinder developed an entire supply chain, logistics and warehouse reporting portal using .net and microsoft sharepoint services.
Insurance Placement Process

Pathfinder worked with one of the world's largest insurance brokerage firms to implement a paperless process to automate the entire placement stream.
Financial Services Portal

The client, a Global 100 Investment Bank with over 22,000 employees on six continents, wanted to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations.
Field Data Collection in Arabic

In an Arabic Gulf State, as part of a national educaitonal reform effort, our client needed a multilingual application to make gathering the data easier and analyzing it more efficient.
Multimedia Flash Web Application

A pressing deadline drove the development of a rich, interactive, multimedia Flash website that was complete in just 2 days.