Following an amazing night at the UXUK Awards, held at Sapient Nitro with Bunnyfoot once again the premier sponsor, there is much to celebrate!

Firstly, it was great to see some fantastic examples showcased from companies who had invested time into putting their users at the centre of their design process. Secondly, we were very proud to see two of our projects in the spotlight: CITB and The Financial Conduct Authority were both shortlisted and attended on the night.

Once again, our CEO Dr Jon Dodd was not only the head moderator for the judging process, he was also the MC for the evening.

Best Overall User Experience 2015: FutureLearn

Following the awards we spoke to the judges about the winners of each category:

Best Education of Learning Experience & Best User Experience

Future Learn

A clean and well-designed site delivering a free and valuable resource. Simple registration process and a good non-modal confirmation meaning they only ask for email and password in order to get you started. Video play defaults to subtitles, permits increasing speed etc. all you want really.
Presentation of lectures, articles, lessons kept simple. Program suggested in order to create social learning through discussion – these seem well attended and enthusiastic exchanges occur. Particularly liked their approach – all members of the team have to interview users and write about them – they also produce a publicly available pattern library – we loved the openness and promotion of good practice. A team obviously committed to UX and developing the experience still further.

Best Transactional Experience

NatWest Touch ID

NatWest Touch ID upgrades a pivotal part of the transactional experience. Also they were the first in UK banking to launch it. Natwest Touch ID adopts a technology and allows you to do what you want to do with ease. Their research and user guide make this an example of a small thing with big impact, solving a pain point for a lot of people.

Best Effect on Business Goals

HSBC Expat Explorer

They have done what banks are not often known for doing, engaging customers and providing an informative service. 34 fully responsive country guides which function across platforms. This has been used by over 750,000 people in 214 countries, increased social engagement fivefold, ongoing incremental value increased by £7,850 per week. What is most notable about this entry is that they entered our first UXUK Awards and the improvement to their UX research and end redesigned website is huge.

Best Innovation

hub by Premier Inn

A boutique hotel experience – they created a “Hotel Operating System” which they have used as a common design language across the design of the room itself. They’re using a lot of control features for their room – it’s very innovative. You can literally turn the hotel light off with the app. An innovative and new experience.

Best Information Experience

easyJet Mobile Host

This app really helps with the airport experience, navigates pain points, pushes gate numbers and informs you of any delays. The app is very intuitive, customer centric, it’s there as added value. This is a budget brand who don’t have to provide this, they’re working towards helping their users and this achieves this in a very competitive category.

Best Not-For-Profit

Amnesty International

Very well researched UX process. The visual design is exceptionally good, beautiful space and typography. It leads with stories and gives the message through people’s lives. It is easy to access and follow and feels very modern and current. The results are outstanding. Their engagements and session duration has gone up. A/B testing was mentioned as being important in their final design decision. For being international they have great translation and language support. Importantly very accessible, high contrast elements.

Best Student Project

London Bus Stop Flag & Post Redesign by James Whittaker + team

This student team project followed a thorough research process, including observational and user testing and adjustment following results of the UX process. Their prototype had accessibility at its heart, with much time dedicated to the needs of all users. A well rounded and true representation of user experience.