EffectiveUI

Company: EffectiveUI, Denver, CO
Company Description: EffectiveUI is an award-winning full service user experience agency based in Denver, specializing in the custom design and development of Web, mobile and desktop applications. The company is passionate about creating meaningful interactions with technology and brands, and live by the belief that people deserve better – better software, better design and better experiences.
Nomination Category: Creative Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Advertising, Editorial, or Design Agency of the Year

Nomination Title: EffectiveUI – People Deserve Better

1. Tell the story about what this nominated agency achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

EffectiveUI is a full service user experience agency based in Denver with
offices in New York and Vancouver, specializing in the custom design and
development of Web, mobile and desktop applications.

EffectiveUI is passionate about creating meaningful interactions with
technology and brands, and live by the belief that people deserve better –
better software, better design and better experiences. Companies come to
EffectiveUI when they want to deliver valuable, useful and consistent brand
experiences – regardless of the channel or device their customers are using.

What sets EffectiveUI apart from other design agencies is our highly
specialized team of user experience (UX) research, design and technology
service professionals. We focus on understanding users from an experiential
perspective: what motivates our clients’ customers, their obstacles, behaviors
and desires when they interact with our clients’ brands, as well as how their
environment impacts their ability to use a company’s products or services.

Many companies end up spending time and money correcting usability issues or
flaws with their applications post-launch – costs that could have been reduced
or negated altogether by incorporating user research, testing and validation
into the design and development process. This is standard practice at
EffectiveUI – we are committed to communicating our direction and progress
along the way to ensure we are meeting both users’ and clients’ goals. We use
visual deliverables, rapid prototyping and user validation and testing to save
our clients time and money in the long run.

A few examples of EffectiveUI’s innovative work in 2009 include:

The Complete National Geographic: National Geographic wanted to create a rich,
seamless application to compile every page of every issue of its magazine from
October 1888 through December 2008. With the help of EffectiveUI, a user-
centered design and development agency, the company released “The Complete
National Geographic,” featuring 120 years of the magazine’s articles,
advertisements and award-winning photos.

The application uses digitally scanned images of each printed page and allows
users to easily search by keyword, year and topic. Users can also leaf through
electronic pages, zoom, scroll and print them at a high resolution, capturing
the clarity and quality of the original publication.

Qwest Small Business: Qwest Communications partnered with EffectiveUI to
create a more user-friendly, robust Web platform for business customers and
employees to scale and manage their Qwest services, accounts and networks while
monitoring their network from a convenient online hub.

Through ethnographic and technographic user research – observing customers in
their own environment – the team gained important insight into what behaviors
and tools customers would adopt and how to best address their needs and goals.

Qwest’s previous online tools for business services required users to log into
12-14 different Web portals. The new site pulls data from 42 different
applications, tapping into 100-plus legacy systems, into one online application
that allows users to control how they view their account information. Using
best practices in UX research and testing, Qwest and EffectiveUI implemented an
innovative solution that has seen high customer adoption rates and doubled
Qwest’s sales leads from Web traffic.

2. List hyperlinks to any work samples, online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.effectiveui.com
http://www.effectiveui.com/news-events/10-02-2009.php (CNG press release)
http://www.qwest.com/business

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this agency:

Rebecca Flavin
Chief Executive Officer

A digital marketing and technology professional with 18 years of experience,
Rebecca Flavin is chief executive officer at Effec¬tiveUI, where she reinforces
the company’s overall vision, user experience innovation, core values and
strategic direction.

In addition to building and strengthening brand awareness and position in the
marketplace Rebecca communicates the importance of exceptional user experiences
in driving business value.

Rebecca joined EffectiveUI in 2006 as its chief marketing officer, a role in
which she was responsible for elevating the company’s position within the Web
2.0 community as a premier user experience design and develop¬ment agency.