What happens when your website stops working for you and starts working against you? Whether it’s a reduction in time spent on the website, low conversions, or you’ve simply moved on in your business’s wants and needs, it’s best not to bury your head in the sand. Have a look for these 8 signs it’s time for a website redesign.

01. People visit but they don’t stay

As much as we’d like to think people can look past it, first impressions of your website absolutely matter. If you find your bounce rates are higher than you’d like — and you’re sure it’s not because visitors found what they needed in record time — it’s worth investigating why. Elements like trustworthiness, confusing layouts and buried information can make all the difference between users clicking through to the next page or tapping out altogether. Time is precious, especially in the eyes of customers.

02. Your sales team is doing the heavy lifting for your site

If you’ve built a website and customers or potential clients still have little or no idea what your business does, it’s not only a big problem but a missed opportunity. Rather than having at least basic understanding on first contact, your sales team has to pitch and explain the ‘why’ instead of following up with the ‘wow’. As 78% of small business owners in the UK have a website for their business, with 83.5% of those saying it plays a big part in their business, websites should qualify leads and build confidence. All while providing a reliable point of reference for further reading, ideally before anyone picks up the phone.

03. Your website doesn’t say what you do

Following that point, making users hunt for information is tedious, frustrating, and a surefire way to have them backing out before they find what they need. Likewise, outdated information leaves them with an untrustworthy impression of your business and the experience they can expect by engaging. As you change products or services, update details, and find new ways to improve the user experience, the best thing to do is keep your website up to date. For more information on why UX and UI iteration is so important, have a quick read here.

04. It’s not made for mobile

If you’re going through the effort of making an up-to-date site that looks great on a large screen, it’s vital you’ve also considered your mobile users. As reported in the second quarter of 2025, mobile phones were the preferred device among online shoppers in the United Kingdom. So if you’re not considering all audiences, especially those used to a smooth mobile experience, an outdated, pinch-to-zoom design that’s a pain to navigate and tough to read will likely turn people away. Your mobile site should be optimised to fit the format, allowing potential customers to focus on what they’re reading rather than trying their patience with inaccurate hit targets and microscopic text.

05. It’s slow and not subtle about it

If there’s one unignorable death rattle for websites, it’s wheezing loading times. In the current technological age we’re living in, users just want things to work — and when they don’t, they’ll find something else that will. As Google notes, 53% of visits are likely abandoned if pages take longer than three seconds to load, so if your team notices your site is slow, visitors will too. And their first instinct won’t be to give it a moment, it’ll be to leave. A few seconds of loading time might not sound like a lot, but it’s enough for people to get an impression of your brand, and that’s not fair to you or them. Google’s also not a fan and will penalise websites as a result, favouring sites that perform better.

06. Your website and business are out of sync

Though we’ve already covered why it’s important to keep your website up to date, in this case it’s about keeping up with your competitors as well. You might be updating information or considering your brand position in the market, but if you’re still working with a website that looks like it belongs in a different age you’ll stand out for the wrong reasons. Regardless of how strong your information is, your site design is what users will initially focus on, even if they’re not aware they’re doing it. A site that doesn’t keep pace may get left behind altogether.

07. You’re embarrassed to send people to it

Nothing shouts “you might need a website redesign” quite like cringing when it’s shared with current or prospective clients. If sales conversations are bracketed with apologies, URLs are shared with caveats, or you’re just linking users to the information they need rather than the homepage for a browse, you don’t need a diagnosis — you need a plan. On the sunny side, this means you can spend your time thinking about what you want your new site to look like instead of debating whether you need a website refresh at all. And that’s the fun part.

08. You’ve had a security scare

With cyber attacks more active than ever, cyber security is a justifiable concern for businesses internet-wide. Approximately 283,000 businesses have been a victim of at least one cyber crime in the last 12 months, with phishing as the most common type (93% of affected businesses). From spam emails and untrustworthy links to database breaches, it’s in your interest to keep your business, customers and users safe online. That means even after considering and implementing the right cyber security for your needs, anything you have in place should always run in its latest version. Elements like outdated plugins and software provide an easy entry point for cybercriminals, opening your operation up to compliance risks, financial loss, malware, and more.

FAQs

How do you know when your website needs a redesign?

If it’s been a few years since you reviewed your website, it’s a good idea to evaluate performance, UX and UI to improve outdated design. Think about your business needs and whether they’re being met.

What is the three-second rule for websites?

A well-known principle, the three-second rule for website design reflects how long you’ve got until users hit the back button and continue on their way. Three seconds. If your website doesn’t make a good first impression, it probably won’t get the chance to make a second one.

What are the main signs of an outdated website?

Besides telltale visual elements that date websites like a time capsule, outdated information and poor responsiveness and loading speeds are your biggest red flags.

Should I redesign or rebuild my website?

Be honest, you’d be creeped out if we said yes and how. The best thing to do if you’re asking this question is to evaluate your site performance from a technical, visual and experiential level. Are there just a couple of areas that you can improve on or do you need to start from scratch?

Originally published on the Si digital website.

If you’ve asked yourself “What is middleware?” recently, you’re in good company. It might feel confusing since it can serve different purposes in different contexts, but boiled down it is simpler than you think.

Middleware is the software that acts as a bridge between systems, applications and services, helping play a critical part in how digital ecosystems work. Or, in even simpler terms, it’s the translator that helps different processes, systems, components and applications talk to each other.

Think of it like a computer hub connecting your mouse and keyboard to your laptop, helping all the different components talk to each other so you can enjoy a smoother experience.

Why use middleware?

Let’s first ask another question: “Can operating systems, IT, software and apps run without middleware?” The answer is yes. But without middleware, developers need to find a way to connect their systems together, usually by bespoke connectors. That doesn’t sound too bad for one or two implementations, but it can end up feeling overwhelming and chaotic to run in no time.

Rather than having to navigate the mess to find the connection between your start and end point, middleware provides the common layer that understands what either end needs. It ensures that systems can interact without having to know each other’s complexities, making development simpler, more flexible and scalable.

An unseen hero

As digital worlds develop and customer expectations rise, the days of simply-connected websites are long gone. Now with various different platforms and SaaS tools, every change could mean a costly redevelopment. But middleware unifies these services to all users. Meaning that when changes happen, such as moving your website from HubSpot to Salesforce or upgrading your warehouse management system, your customers won’t even notice. Done and dusted.

Middleware integration improves communication and acts differently depending on what job you need it to do. Enterprise middleware, for example, is designed to connect various business systems and business software integration like CRM, inventory, and accounting. Helping data flow seamlessly between them so that when a sale happens, inventories update and finances adjust — all without manual input.

From message-oriented middleware (MOM) and games engines, to transaction processing (TP) and portals, middleware is the ultimate solution to modern digital challenges. Regardless of whether you’re running a legacy system or starting from scratch and whether your business is large, medium or small.

Another important category is application programming interface (API) middleware, which is commonly used in modern applications. Where API gateways act as an entry point to access backend services, middleware often manages these interactions and checks for anything out of the ordinary. Making sure communications stay secure, efficient and consistent.

The benefits of middleware

Where middleware is designed to sit in the background, you might not realise how or where it helps in the day-to-day running of your business. From mitigating complexity to reducing development time, it does more than simply streamline operations.

Consistent, accurate data

Having a centralised system means you don’t have to hunt for up-to-date data through multiple streams, reducing admin time for manual entry. Your data will be correct in real-time, everywhere you need it to be. For example, if you update your address on your website, that is then synced across the CRM, accounts platform, warehouse platforms, and more. And like most great things in life, consistency is key for better processes and fewer headaches.

Flexible and adaptable

A unified system means changes and updates are no longer a pain to deal with. Your business can switch platforms with ease as you grow and your needs change, such as moving from a digital asset management (DAM) system like Frontify to Bynder. This flexibility gives you more freedom to move to what works best for your business without having to worry about being locked in, scaling with you as and when your business grows.

Cost efficiency

Fewer services to manage means you can reduce unnecessary spending. In establishing middleware, sometimes it turns out that some SaaS systems your business has in place overlap. In these cases, middleware can help you trim the fat. Likewise, with fewer specialised processes and customer applications needed, it may reduce project costs and be less expensive to maintain overall.

Making the complex, clear

Reducing operational chaos means fewer tangles and less overall confusion when it comes to processes and data. For your business, that might look like using standardised tools and templates, simplifying messaging, and helping your teams know that they can trust that the data they’re seeing is accurate.

Connecting bespoke products

Middleware also provides the ideal option for getting more tailored products to work with the rest of your infrastructure. Steering you away from being blocked in by a one-size-fits-all solution and allowing more personalised integration. In fact, we used middleware to help BMW connect their app to an API for a telematics tracking product that people fit in their cars. Allowing us to surface information like car vitals, speed data, cornering data and more directly into an app for users. Read the full case study here.

Future-proofing digital presence

A fantastic example of this is when we used our own secure Faraday middleware to help one of our clients — leading connector manufacturer Harwin — refresh their online presence, modernise their platform and fix technical issues that had built up over time. And with 4,000+ products to sort through, they needed a website that would make finding the right product clear for customers, too.

Now Harwin’s website syncs website data with their Salesforce database, always keeping details up to date. Whenever the team updates a product, those changes appear almost instantly, and with Salesforce in the loop all data is easy to find.

Critical security

It’s only natural that, since middleware bridges communication, it also shines when it comes to improving security. As it sits between systems, it’s in the perfect position to implement security policies and protect against threats. From authenticating users to authorising access, encrypting data and verifying credentials, requests reach this digital checkpoint before they can pass on to the juicy, more valuable areas.

Another concern with having various different systems and SaaS tools is dealing with dozens of access points connected directly to your website. That’s a lot of potential vulnerabilities. This is also where Faraday works in our clients’ favour, centralising those connections. A single, middleware layer means fewer entry points and total control over how your data flows and what each system can access. Keeping things visible and secure.

Got a project in mind that could use some middleware intervention? Drop us a line. We’re always keen to chat.

Originally published on the Si digital website.

Plenty of articles online tell you your brand should be consistent. Use the same colours, same fonts, same logo. All the time. Everywhere. And it’s not bad advice. But it’s not the whole picture.

71% of consumers say inconsistent branding causes confusion, but the real culprit isn’t inconsistency. It’s the lack of a clear identity to be consistent with. The confusion isn’t caused by inconsistency alone. It’s caused by a brand that doesn’t know what it stands for. And that’s a cohesion problem, not a consistency problem.

Consistency is about rigid rules and unbreakable brand boundaries. Cohesion is identity. One tells your design team what to do, while the other shows your audience who you are.

Consistency vs cohesion, what’s the difference?

Consistency is all about being the same across every touchpoint. The logo is always the same size. The hex code value never changes. Every email uses the same sign-off.

Cohesion is about pulling everything in the same direction, even when it looks or sounds different. Your social post doesn’t read the same as your website, because it shouldn’t. But both should feel unmistakably like you.

Think about how you speak. You don’t talk to a prospective client in the same way you talk to a colleague you’ve worked with for six years. But you’re still recognisably the same person in both conversations. That’s cohesion.

A consistent brand follows its rules. A cohesive brand doesn’t need to.

So why do so many brands get it wrong?

In our experience, more brands accumulate rather than build. A logo gets designed first. A tagline gets added later. The website content is written by someone different from the social content. The tone changes depending on who’s writing. And over time, the brand becomes a patchwork. Technically consistent in places, but fundamentally incoherent.

68% of companies report brand consistency contributed to revenue growth of 10% or more. What they’re actually describing is the commercial value of a brand that knows what it is, not from enforcing a style guide.

It’s a trap that’s easy to fall into, and it’s not always a quick fix. But recognising it is the first step, and knowing what to look for makes it a lot easier.

The real signs your brand needs attention

What are the giveaways that your brand is lacking cohesion?

1. Your brand looks different depending on where people find you

This isn’t just about visuals; we’re talking tone too. Your website sounds corporate. Socials sound casual. Sales decks sound like they’re written by a totally different company. That’s not a consistency problem; it’s a cohesion problem. Brands that maintain cohesive presentation across all their platforms see up to 23% more revenue. And they’re 2.4x more likely to outgrow competing brands.

2. You’ve evolved, but your brand is still where you were three years ago

When businesses evolve, it’s easy to forget to evolve your brand, too. Introducing new services, new clients, and new ambitions means your brand and positioning can quickly feel irrelevant. 74% of S&P 100 companies rebrand within their first seven years of business, showing how business changes impact brand direction. Fostering business growth demands that your brand keeps pace too.

3. You’re attracting the wrong clients, or not attracting the right ones

If your visual identity and tone of voice don’t clearly communicate and reflect who you are and what you stand for, you’ll end up either attracting everyone or attracting nobody. Both of these can waste valuable time and resources internally. 64% of consumers form loyalty to a brand based on shared values. If your values aren’t visible, you’re invisible to the people you actually want.

4. You feel uncomfortable sharing your own materials

If you’ve found yourself apologising for your website, or reluctantly sending out marketing materials because they don’t feel good enough, that’s the clearest sign your brand isn’t up to standard. If you’re embarrassed by your own brand identity, your customers and clients are probably questioning it too.

5. Your competitors have moved and you haven’t

If you’ve noticed your competitors shifting in new directions and feel more credible than you, even if your work or products are better, that’s a clear brand cohesion gap that’s costing your business.

6. Internally, the team is confused about your brand

If your team is asking questions like “which logo do I use?” or “what tone should this be written in?”, you’re not noticing a training problem; you’ve spotted a brand clarity problem.

When your brand works across multiple departments, like sales, marketing, and digital, the materials they produce should look and sound like they belong to the same company. If they don’t, then you’ve got a cohesion problem.

77% of companies regularly see off-brand content coming from their business that’s been created internally. So this is a widespread problem, and one that’s a telltale sign of brand cohesion issues.

Cohesion is what a rebrand should actually deliver

A rebrand done well isn’t about starting from scratch or chasing what’s on trend. It’s about building a brand with a clear enough identity that it can flex without fragmenting.

Every rebrand starts with positioning, finding your business’s white space.

Positioning should be specific enough to mean something and be unique. Visual identity works across every context it needs to live in. Tone of voice sounds human whether it’s on your homepage or a customer email.

Full rebrands should take between 12 to 18 months from start to finish. It’s a long and highly considered process, not just a simple logo swap. It’s about spending the time getting the brand into the place it needs to be for the next decade.

Rebrand or refresh? Which do you actually need?

There’s a clear distinction between a rebrand and a brand refresh. A refresh makes sense if the foundations are solid, but the execution has drifted. Fixes could be as simple as updating visuals, tightening content and copy, or a revitalised tone of voice.

A rebrand makes sense if the foundations are the issue. An unclear position, a name or identity that doesn’t make sense, or a brand that never properly fitted in in the first place.

What does a rebrand actually involve?

Strategy

The foundational stage that everything else is built on. This is a vital stage, and comes before anything visual or verbal is explored. Rebrands need to start with the honest questions, like “where is the business now?” and “where does it need to be?” and “what’s stopping the brand from getting it there?”. This stage is pivotal to the success of any rebrand, and starts with a comprehensive discovery phase, which dives into the competitor landscape, industry insights and clearly defining what a successful brand looks like for the business. Without this stage, everything else is complete guesswork.

Positioning

Once you establish the groundwork, you need to position your brand. This is about finding and owning the white space in your market, who you’re for, who you’re not for, what you stand for, and why customers should choose you over your competitors.

Positioning can often feel like an uncomfortable process because you have to work at a level of specificity that most businesses find awkward. But it’s important to specify at this stage. Trying to appeal to everyone and everything is the quickest route to a brand that resonates with nobody. And this is where a lot of brands stall, because committing to a clear position means accepting that it won’t be for everyone.

Visual identity

This is probably the most exciting stage of a rebrand — bringing the foundational work to life with a logo, colour palette, typography, graphic devices, and so much more. The visual identity phase should reflect the strategy work that took place before it, not precede it. This is another stage where businesses can often stumble. They start with the visual identity and work backwards, leaving them with a finished brand that looks stunning but feels hollow and fails to resonate with the customers they want.

Tone of voice

Beyond how your brand visually looks, tone of voice is where brand cohesion lives or dies. Tone of voice defines how your brand sounds across everything from your website, social media, proposals, emails, and even down to error messages on a digital product.

A visual identity can be consistent while the tone is all over the place. And it’s that disconnect that people immediately feel, even if they can’t articulate it.

Guidelines

Some agencies create guidelines that are taken as a set of rules, and there are always hardline rules in guidelines. But in reality, guidelines should be a reference point, rather than a hard and fast rule book. Your guidelines should give readers enough clarity to make considered and good decisions independently. They shouldn’t be a list of restrictions that require sign-off on every bit of output. If the guidelines are so complex that nobody is reading them, they’re not working.

Rollout

One of the most underestimated phases of a rebrand is rollout. Rolling out a new brand is a complex task and requires a deep understanding of the identity. So a rebrand that launches inconsistently immediately undermines all the work.

Rollout needs a clear plan to cover every touchpoint and clear internal communication to ensure the team is on the same page as you. You’ll need a realistic timeline too. A full rebrand should take between 12 and 18 months, and a considered rollout should be a methodical part of that timeline, not a single launch moment.

Ready to build something that actually feels like you?

Brands that endure aren’t the ones with the strictest guidelines. They’re the ones with the clearest sense of who they are. And they’ve got the confidence to express that across every touchpoint, every time.

If your brand no longer feels like you, it’s worth having a conversation about it. We help businesses figure out what’s working, what isn’t, and what to do next.

Originally published on the Si digital website.

Stop chasing brand consistency, and start building brand cohesion was originally published in NYC Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Say hello to Faraday, our custom middleware solution to connect your SaaS systems with your website or app. In a world full of software, subscription services, and SaaS products, it’s easy to watch your business’s infrastructure go from zero to 100 overnight. You might use one CRM service here, an ERP there, a stock management system elsewhere, an accounting package somewhere else. Each platform selected carefully to fit the business’s needs. But it can feel like it’s all held together with string.

Data duplication across systems, manual re-entry that nobody wants to do. A website that knows less about your customers than your CRM does. Why? Because nobody’s figured out how to connect them all properly.

Most businesses accept this kind of friction as ‘normal’. It’s not seen as a solvable problem. The SaaS integration issue isn’t line one on the budget; it’s buried in development hours, support tickets, and the quiet decision not to upgrade a platform because it’ll break the website.

This is where Faraday fits in. A custom middleware hub that connects your SaaS systems with your website or app for smooth data transfer. No more duplicated data, no more manual re-entry.

The origins of Faraday

It’s a pattern we’ve seen time and time again across all sorts of different client projects. SaaS tools that power the business, but they’re stuck in data silos. Or websites hardwired to a single system that held the business back when it was time to evolve and grow.

The real cost of those problems goes beyond just development and build time. It’s lost agility, data inconsistencies, and businesses making platform decisions based on what their website or app could handle, rather than what the business actually needs.

When clients came to us with problems like this, we used to go away and look at off-the-shelf solutions like Zapier or native API connections, but it always became obvious quickly that these just weren’t up to the job. They’re designed for simple point-to-point integration. They can’t handle the complex, bespoke digital products we were going to connect them to.

So, we built our own, totally bespoke solution to this problem. A custom middleware integration that acts like a data hub, connecting all these disparate SaaS products with a website, or app, or portal for seamless, reliable data flow and workflow automation.

It’s this that separates Faraday from off-the-shelf options like Zapier. Built bespoke to connect your digital world completely.

This is Faraday.

How custom middleware works

It all starts with discovery and asking the questions that matter. “When did you last audit your tech stack?”, “how many places does your team manually re-enter data that already exists somewhere else?”, “how many third-party systems have direct access to your website’s database, and could you list them all right now?”.

It’s these questions that tease out the real pain points. And they might be difficult to answer, but it all plays into a comprehensive solution.

Once we’ve got a solution everyone is happy with, we begin working out how the data is mapped across different systems and platforms. Customer emails input into the website need mapping across to your CRM, but also your accounting portal. Order numbers need adding to your stock management system and your ERP, but it needs formatting differently. It’s this step that reduces the need for manual re-entry of data across platforms.

Then, we begin making the connections. We bring the data through Faraday and out into the respective website, CRM, DAM or ERP in the correct formats and in a way that individual platforms need it. No compromises on data integrity or quality. It just works.

Faraday sits between your systems, just like a hub for your computer. It stops systems talking directly to one another and acts as a central dock to control data flows and ensure they go to the correct places every time. It allows all your data points to flow into a central place and back out, keeping your data clean, secure, and up-to-date.

And it all works in real-time. No delays. A customer updates their address on your website? That goes straight to your warehouse management system ahead of shipping their order, and to your accounting platform for invoicing.

Security at the core

A lot of our client websites handle sensitive user data, and it can be worrying to let a third-party system manage that data. But even though Faraday is handling the data, it’s working using a centralised connection model. Instead of having dozens of direct API connections, each of which is a potential security vulnerability, Faraday creates a single, GDPR-compliant middleware layer. Fewer entry points mean tighter data control, giving you a secure SaaS integration.

Then there’s data access permissions. Faraday is built around your business and your systems, so we work with you and your team to define precisely what each system can see and do with the data. No system gets more access than it needs, helping reduce the risk of data leaks or information being shown to people it shouldn’t be.

And if your business is compliance-conscious, Faraday gives you visibility over what data moved where and when, giving you a complete audit trail to work against.

For the security-conscious, direct integrations can be a headache. If a data breach occurs in one system, it can quickly cascade across everything connected to it. Your website, your app, your CRM. Everything. So custom middleware can help alleviate those headaches from the get-go.

Harwin, powered by Faraday

We’ve been working with Harwin, a global connector manufacturer, to connect their complex Salesforce CRM system with their website. But we didn’t stop there. We also integrated their Bynder DAM to pull through product imagery, TraceParts to display 3D product models, SamacSys for CAD drawings, and a whole host more. And we connected it all together using Faraday.

Faraday is ultimately the reason Harwin has seen a 97% increase in filter interaction time. It allows products to pull through faster and more accurately from Salesforce and Bynder, giving users what they want, when they want it.

If you’ve got a SaaS set up similar to Harwin and want to connect it with your website or app, get in touch.

FAQs

What is custom middleware?

Custom middleware is a layer that sits between two or more systems, allowing them to share data and communicate quickly and easily. Think of it like a translator.

How is custom middleware different from Zapier or Make?

Off-the-shelf Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) systems like Zapier and Make are built for simple point-to-point integrations and often don’t extend beyond that. Custom middleware is built around your business’s tech stack, handling complex logic, proprietary APIs, and multi-system environments to seamlessly flow data between various SaaS platforms and end points like your website.

How long does it take to build a middleware integration?

This depends on the complexity of the build and tech stack. But we run a rigorous discovery process to get a full understanding of how your business’s systems are built and work before we write a single line of code. This ensures the architecture is correct from the start.

How much does it cost to build a custom integration?

Again, this depends on the complexity of the build. As it’s completely custom and bespoke to your business, SaaS integrations using Faraday aren’t a one-cost-fits-all scenario.

If you want to discuss your project in more detail, get in touch with us.

Is my data secure when using middleware?

Yes. Custom middleware is built with security as a core requirement. Data passing through the integration layer is encrypted, access is controlled through authentication protocols, and audit logging provides visibility over every transaction. With Faraday, that also means GDPR compliance is considered by design. So, sensitive data moves between your systems safely and accountably.

If your SaaS systems won’t talk to your website or app, we should talk. Get in touch.

Originally published on the Si digital website.

We’ve seen it happen too many times

We’ve seen it happen too many times. You’ve invested in a new app or website for your business. 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 discovery phases as a nice-to-have and started treating it like an insurance our clients had to have.

Around 70% of digital products fail to hit their desired targets 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.

An industry avalanche

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 Marques Brownlee. 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.

So why does this keep happening?

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?

Pressure to move quickly

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.

Discovery gets mistaken for delay

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.

Activity gets confused with progress

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.

The invisible cost

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’t show up until you’re deep in development. And by then, they’ve already compounded.

Stakeholder misalignment

Everyone thinks they’re on the same page. They’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.

Research backs this. 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.

Technical surprises

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 bespoke middleware 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 cost up to six times more than catching them during a discovery phase. 15 times more during that testing phase. And post-launch? Up to 100 times the cost.

Unvalidated users need

Around 80% of software features are rarely or never used. 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 CB Insights’ report, which analyses nearly 4,000 failed startups. Teams assume, users needs aren’t met, and money gets wasted.

Scope creep

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.

Research from PMI suggests that organisations can avoid budget loss and project failure by investing in communication and alignment work upfront, which is exactly what discovery phases provide.

The real cost

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. Research from McKinsey 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.

What good discovery looks like

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:

A proper workshop, not just a kick-off call

A good discovery workshop 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.

Research that goes beyond your brief

Your agency should be doing the heavy lifting you have time for. That means market research, competitor analysis, and most importantly, user research. 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.

Analysis that rules things out

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.

Evidence-backed solutions

Any proposed solutions 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.

Genuine alignment, not just sign-off

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.

Measurable success metrics

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’s the theory. Here’s what it looks like in practice.

Discovering Wightlink

Let’s look at Wightlink, 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.

So, we didn’t assume anything

Before we even opened Figma or started writing a single line of code, we ran an in-depth discovery phase with the team at Wightlink. We also ran workshops during actual ferry crossings 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.

What we discovered was invaluable

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 UX decisions 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.

At Wightlink we endeavour to provide the best possible user experience for prospective and returning customers to our website. I am thrilled with the new website’s performance and handling of traffic flow. Moving forward, Wightlink expects to handle the growing traffic levels with maximum efficiency, making it easier than ever for visitors to be transported to the Isle of Wight on our ferries.
Keith Greenfield — Chief Executive — 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 how we helped Wightlink.

Make it happen

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:

Pitching discovery to leadership

Most projects run aground here. Key stakeholders and decision-makers see discovery phases as a delay, not an investment. To make it smoother:

• Make sure you position the discovery phase as risk mitigation, not just research. Leadership tends to understand the value of insurance.
• 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.

When budgets are tight

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:

• 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.
• 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.
• Approach discovery proportionately. Cut your cloth to suit, and carry out a discovery phase that both fits your budget and your project needs.

Red flags to watch out for

Keep an eye on any red flags as you work through the project. Self-diagnose as your project progresses if you start to see:

• Disagreements between stakeholders relating to priorities three months in.
• Knee-jerk requests, and “while we’re at it” asks becoming constant.
• Unanticipated technical blockers, like platforms that don’t support what your users need.
• Features built on opinion rather than evidence.

Get outside help

If you find your project going off the rails, it’s time to get external help. This is key when:

• Internal teams are too close to the problem to be able to work out a solution.
• You need specialist skills and insight that you don’t have in-house.
• An external perspective on the problem can challenge assumptions that internal politics won’t allow.

It’s time to change your mindset

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’t doing right.

Download our free discovery checklist

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 it here.

Originally published on the Si digital website.

Let’s stop pretending we can skip project discovery phases was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

These updates offer more than just a pretty face. If businesses aren’t iteratively updating their websites with UX and UI improvements, they’re missing out on a major opportunity to keep users invested, engaged, and happy.

In an ever-changing digital world, the last thing you want to do is stand still if you’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’s an accurate representation of your services or not. That’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.

Improve, don’t fix

It might seem counterintuitive, but there’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’re ahead of your game rather than trying to catch up. In other words, you’re in control of what you’re changing, why you’re changing it, and how you’re going to do it — and that is an exciting place to be.

With digital environments constantly shifting, adaption shouldn’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’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.

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. Read the full case study here to learn how our research shaped three core design principles that made all the difference.

“Our research into Wightlink and their user groups gave us exactly what we needed to make informed decisions around what the user needed most.”
Andy Mardell — Technical Account Manager

A streamlined evolution

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’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 Faraday middleware. It’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’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’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.

And see how we slashed website load times by 90% for Harwin here.

Always looking ahead

Cohesion is key when it comes to having a recognisable business. As it grows, it’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’ 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’ needs. Rather than waiting for them to discover a pain point or issue that needs addressing, we’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’ll bring something to the table that doesn’t just solve a problem, it’s already part of a larger iterative approach strategised to improve their product.

Looking for someone to help tackle your problems with creative solutions? Drop us a line. We’re always keen to chat.

Originally published on the Si digital website.

Back in 2019, we created something that resonated with designers everywhere: a series of posters bringing Jakob Nielsen’s usability heuristics to life. These principles, originally outlined in his 1994 article for The Nielsen Norman Group, struck a chord with so many people that we’ve given them a fresh look and a new lease of life.

Here’s the thing about usability heuristics, they’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’ve leaned on these time and again when designing interfaces or digging into usability test results. They give us a clear framework to work within and align our thinking.

Bringing heuristics to life in our studio

Here at the Si digital studio, we wanted our walls to reflect the work we do, so Jakob Nielsen’s original article got us thinking, why not turn these “10 Usability Heuristics” into something visual and inspiring?

Fast forward to today, and these posters are printed, framed, and hanging in our studio. They’ve become such a valuable part of our daily work that we wanted to share them in their new form with the wider design community.

This article showcases a couple of our 10 posters, and we’re making them available as free downloads in PDF, PNG, and JPG formats. We hope they inspire your work as much as they’ve inspired ours. Feel free to share them with your team.

Download them here.

Originally published on the Si digital website.

The 10 Usability Heuristics — updated for 2026 was originally published in NYC Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When it comes to website rebuilds and CMS options, it can be a confusing and difficult decision to make. Here at Si digital, we’ve made the move over to Payload as our CMS option of choice. This article takes a deep dive into how Payload has revolutionised our websites and workflows for both us and our clients.

What is Payload CMS?

Payload is a modern headless CMS 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’ specific requirements.

The benefits of 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:

1. Integration

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 Salesforce or a payment gateway. 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.

We integrate all sorts of third-party systems 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.

2. Longevity

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.

3. Flexibility

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.

4. Security

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.

5. Performance

Website performance is essential for success in the world of digital. Studies have found that around 40% of desktop userswill 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 penalise websites that take over 4 seconds to load, 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’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’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.

6. Quality

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.

The output quality of the code is so much better thanks to TypeScript. It means we have confidence that the code is going to last longer and need less maintenance.
Danny — Lead Frontend Developer — Si digital

7. SEO

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.

What type of site would benefit from a Payload CMS?

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.

Conclusion

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, get in touch.

Originally published on the Si digital 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.

A new era for UI design begins today

Apple’s Liquid Glass design language was launched last month 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 VR industry is expected to be worth $123bn 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 & 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’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.

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.

“Liquid Glass is preparing us for a new era in UI design. It’s our first look at multimodal, spatial interfaces.”
Sam — Lead Designer — Si digital

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.

Material 3: Beautifully screen-bound

In contrast, Google has taken a very different approach 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.

Growing pains

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 new design style called Aero. 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; it’s one of their core values.

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 making users motion sick? Or when users said the system typefaces were too thin? 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.

The UI of tomorrow won’t live on screen

While Apple Vision Pro has been a slow burner, 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.

Originally published on the Si digital website.

Why you’re looking at Apple’s Liquid Glass UI the wrong way was originally published in NYC Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Over the last few years artificial intelligence (AI) has graduated from being on the periphery of commercial activity to becoming the foundation of business strategies across every industry imaginable. From healthcare and retail to energy and manufacturing, AI has most certainly broken into the mainstream.

The possibilities of AI are limited only by imagination, although regardless of how it is applied, in almost every case it is used to automate processes, improve efficiency and reduce costs. This has left many people wondering how it will affect them and has triggered concern over job security.

With no industry left untapped it’s not only administrative, process-based and repetitive roles that are being transformed by artificial intelligence. So, at Si digital we ask, how will it affect UX design?

UX Designers won’t be replaced by robots

Despite uncertainty of what the future holds, there’s one thing we know for sure; we’re not giving Tom, Oliver or any of our Digital Chemists the elbow in favour of Sid the office robot any time soon, or ever! (Although, we’re still very fond of Sid).

The role of a UX Designer will not become obsolete at the hands of advanced technology. AI presents immense opportunity, not a threat. However, it could be argued that artificial intelligence will replace the designers of today and change the role as we know it. If that’s the case, what will the designers of tomorrow look like?

How the role of UX designers has and will change

Before the role of user experience design first came about in the early 90s, designers had specialized and clearly defined roles such as Graphic Designer, Web Designer and Industrial Designer. Since then, the lines have blurred and we now have multi-skilled designers with a breadth of experience in product strategy, UX and UI; designing with interaction, experience and the end user in mind.

In the not too distant future, it is predicted that UX Designers will become ‘Systems Designers’ or ‘Behaviour Designers’ and will feed information, data and instructions to AI algorithms through a set of parameters, constraints and goals to determine the behaviour of automated systems.

Will AI really change the role of UX designers that much? Are we at risk of losing raw skill and talent to technology and automation?

How artificial intelligence will assist UX designers

A study by Pfeiffer revealed that 62% of design professionals believe artificial intelligence and machine learning will be very important to their creative roles. What’s more, 76% of survey respondents agree that their creative possibilities have increased over the past few years.

In many ways, AI and user experience design go hand in hand. For example, artificial intelligence is dependent on continuous learning by leveraging data, the same can be said for UX design; it’s a continual process of testing and optimizing based on user feedback.

When applied to UX design, AI can implement the optimisation process. The technology is capable of collecting and analyzing large amounts of data very quickly, far quicker than a human. It can use that information to run A/B tests automatically, understand the results of the test and update the product or design accordingly. It can then restart the process by testing other elements of the design.

It may sound like artificial intelligence is doing all the work; however, it still requires input from the designer. AI systems and designers will essentially work side by side. Designers will be the decision-makers and will feed information, rules and conditions to the algorithms that will then conduct the tasks.

With this example in mind, there are several ways that AI can enhance designers’ capabilities including:

• Reduce manual labour by removing repetitive and mundane tasks, thus increasing productivity
• Empower designers to make better informed design choices based on numerous data points
• Enhance capabilities of data analysis and optimization
• Make design systems more robust

And for their clients and the end users:

• Facilitate a more personalized user experience
• Increase conversion rates due to hyper-personalisation and relevance to individual users

So, what does this look like in practice?

AI tools that assist UX designers

You may already be using artificial intelligence for your design work without realizing. For example, if you use Adobe products, you’re likely to have used Adobe Sensei — a layer of intelligence that powers features using AI and machine learning to enhance the customer experience.

Some of Adobe’s AI-powered features include:

• Deep learning to help you find the most suitable assets for your project more quickly
• Machine learning to help you understand how customers behave and anticipate what they need

Uizard is another example of a tool that uses AI to accelerate the design process. It automatically converts hand-drawn wireframes into digital designs, Sketch files and front-end code, saving UX Designers bundles of time.

Figma has recently launched more than 40 plugins, some of which use machine learning to automate repetitive tasks. For example, Similayer allows you to select multiple layers at once that share the same properties or components. This enables designers to change text, colours and other design elements more efficiently.

However, the use of AI to accelerate or automate UX design does not always have the desired outcome. Take The Grid for example; a web design company that attempted to use artificial intelligence and a bot called Molly to ‘make websites build themselves’. After years in the making and millions of dollars’ worth of investment, The Grid failed to deliver on its promise. Here’s why…

To enable The Grid, or Molly, to build a website, users were asked to choose a colour palette, a font, and a layout style. They would then add some content and, with these very limited design preferences, The Grid would build a website.

However, if users are unhappy with the outcome there is nothing they can do to change Molly’s artificial mind and they’re unable to edit the design themselves. The designs were unimaginative and all very similar. Ultimately, the lack of choice and control left users unimpressed.

The verdict

Given the examples of how artificial intelligence is used in design, it is clear to see that it will assist designers and not take their jobs, contrary to the inevitable scaremongering.

Business has and will continue to evolve as a result of innovative and advanced technologies and we have to adapt with the world around us to remain competitive.

Society is already incredibly reliant on technology and it seems that reliance is only going to accelerate. So, who is the robot really? We may believe we’re in control of AI, however, is it our puppet strings that are being pulled by technology?

Originally published at https://sidigital.co.