Visual Design

Many user-centered design firms discount the importance of visual design to usability. And therein lies a dilemma for business decision makers: you want a good interface, good architecture and good graphics, all in. But the services market doesn't make it that easy.

Often, good vendors ask clients to make informed choices between firms focused on architecture, and those focused on graphics. Only a few outfits claim, for a (high) price, to do both types of design well. Catalyst offers an alternative. We're unequivocally a usability firm. But, thanks to long experience and a desire to provide clients with more value, Catalyst has a proven ability to develop both "look and feel" as well as user architecture - at competitive prices.

VISUAL DESIGN SERVICES, USUALLY OFFERED IN CONJUNCTION WITH USER CENTERED DESIGN, CAN INCLUDE:

Design Identity Brief - This is a tool Catalyst has adapted from traditional advertising and graphic design. Both process and deliverable, the Brief isolates and prioritizes nine key elements of a brand/interface. This focuses clients on what is most important, and provides a high-level blueprint for the theme(s) that drive visual design.

Identity Templates + Style Guide - As appropriate, and based on the Brief, Catalyst can create a visual identity for an organization, including names/logos, color palettes, image/icon selection and design.

Visual Templates + Prototypes - Based on both the Brief and on associated user interface design and requirements, Catalyst can create fully-visualized graphic templates for key elements of an interface. These are usually Photoshop files, or pictures of the way the site will look. Catalyst can also, of course, create such templates in HTML as a next step to actually building a site. For an even more complete visualization of a site pre-build, we can create prototypes, or linked HTML templates that provide a sense of site dynamics as well as graphics (templates and prototypes are particularly useful for testing or proving a concept before a final build).

Fully-Designed Interface - The final rendering of a fully-functional interface, based on Brief, Templates and Prototypes.