# Thoughtful design backed by research and data Every design decision starts with how the product is used and what the data shows. AI accelerates exploration and production; judgment sets direction [Contact us](/contact) ![](/sites/default/files/clone-images/69eee6366d6ecb3ea43495e9_mockup_09-p-500_c3671079.avif) ![](/sites/default/files/clone-images/69eb0bd0b7a053b497758564_media_cc184e46.avif) ![](/sites/default/files/clone-images/69eb0a7d40e842140b76f5cc_img-2_8f953be8.avif) ![](/sites/default/files/clone-images/69eb0a7d9e23aa139024a6d8_img-3_e37eb838.avif) Design is mostly a thinking sport. Practised with clean execution and an eye for detail. Which some people call taste ## Work [All work](/work) [ ![How Banyan Living built a digital guest experience as premium as their properties](/sites/default/files/clone-images/69e9b68a05613d28f0041fb6_banyan_a9fc3f6e.webp) HospitalityBanyan Living built a branded direct-booking platform. Free from OTA commission. Through UX strategy, guest journey mapping, and UX designed to convert. ![](/sites/default/files/clone-images/68c2745252347a5ce6552e52_Banyan_Living_Logo_Black_0136b664.png)### How Banyan Living built a digital guest experience as premium as their properties ](/work/banyan-living-building-the-digital-platform-behind-a-modern-stay) [ ![Rebuilding Diabetes Food Hub as one connected nutrition planning experience](/sites/default/files/clone-images/69e9b801c690e8cb4a01ad59_foodhub_3c3a219f.webp) Non-ProfitDiabetes Food Hub became a single, connected nutrition planning experience for 263K users, a redesigned meal planning interface and a full Drupal build. ![](/sites/default/files/clone-images/69a5692e5c94bc9ef87089ce_ada-p-500_245f39e4.png)### Rebuilding Diabetes Food Hub as one connected nutrition planning experience ](/work/migration-and-rebuild-adas-food-hub-into-a-drupal-multisite-platform) [ ![Creating a safe digital space for women and girls facing gender based violence](/sites/default/files/clone-images/684febac7d59ed535a5f122d_cover_4_-p-1600_af1799e9.avif) Non-ProfitLaaha became a safe space for girls in 12 countries, through privacy-first design, anonymous access, and an interface built for first-time internet users. ![](/sites/default/files/clone-images/69e9b6ca9b548693d0b1fa0b_laahalogo_cc4774bf.avif)### Creating a safe digital space for women and girls facing gender based violence ](/work/creating-a-safe-digital-space-for-women-and-girls-facing-gender-based-violence) ## Design Services ![Icon wrapper](/sites/default/files/clone-images/68b9695fe2b340d734da246f_icon-wrapper_8_9f8810a3.svg)### User Experience Design When your platform needs movement to feel natural across tasks, decisions, and shifting user expectations, we start by looking closely. Where does attention split, sequence slow someone down, and users end up doing work the design should be doing for them? This understanding informs the journeys, flows, and design choices that reduce friction. ![Icon wrapper](/sites/default/files/clone-images/68b969c8438a26acd0798f72_icon-wrapper_9_534318c3.svg)### User Interface Design Interfaces shape how users understand a product before they've read a word. Hierarchy, spacing, and response determine how information is absorbed, how attention moves, and how confidence builds from one screen to the next. We design interfaces that hold visual discipline while ensuring each screen communicates clearly and moves users forward. ![Product design](/sites/default/files/clone-images/69e1f442d67df4f191eee7e7_Product_design_ea3aca80.avif)### Product Design Products drift as they grow. New features get added, requirements shift, and what started with clear direction slowly loses it. We take responsibility for design direction and build. Make sure new work fits what's already there. Whether we're coming in at the start or stepping into something already in use, the approach is the same: protect what works, improve what doesn't, and keep the product moving forward. ![Icon wrapper](/sites/default/files/clone-images/68b96a142f6c961689d8dc67_icon-wrapper_11_00efc2c7.svg)### Branding Brand decisions become more visible as products extend across interfaces, content, and repeated moments of use. The work focuses on tone, visual direction, and product expression so recognition does not depend on fixed assets alone. What matters is how that recognition holds once the product is in regular use. ![Icon wrapper](/sites/default/files/clone-images/68b969efcc9d1056524a1c56_icon-wrapper_10_19671868.svg)### Design Systems Consistency breaks quietly when growth, speed, and multiple contributors begin shaping the same product. The work focuses on components, behaviour, and reusable rules so design decisions stay stable across releases and product surfaces. AI can accelerate documentation, token preparation, and state generation, but the system still depends on deliberate choices. ## A useful starting point is knowing where design needs stronger foundations before AI shapes more of the workflow [ Start Consultation ](/contact) ## Process shaped by context, use, and evidence Week 1 - 2 ### Context & Framing It starts with data reading, user research, stakeholder’s input. Findings are synthesised into a direction that the rest of the work tests against. Includes: - Stakeholder conversations - User research and behaviour review - Product and interface audit - Brand and content review - Research synthesis Week 3- 5 ### Structure & Direction Flows, feature relationships, content logic, and early visual direction take shape. With AI used to widen the range of options before decisions are made. Includes: - Wireframing - Brand exploration - Content and interaction models - Visual and verbal directions - AI-assisted variation Week 6 - 9 ### Design & Definition Direction turns into interface decisions, brand behaviour, components, states, and language. With AI handling repetitive detail. Includes: - Prototype - Application across screens - Interaction and motion patterns - Design systems and logic - Design documentation Week 10 - 12 ### Review & Continuity Work is tested against use and refined where needed. Findings from this stage feed back into the next cycle and growth over time. Includes: - Implementation support and team reviews - QA and refinement - DesignOps setup - System documentation - Async support {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://qed42.com/services/design#faq","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://qed42.com/services/design#webpage"},"mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Can AI replace design work?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"AI does help with some part of the execution: asset production, layout generation, variation, early research. That part is already happening. What it cannot do is the thinking that happens when options exist but a direction still needs to be chosen. Judgment, context, and knowing what fits the experience, users needs and business priorities rather than what can simply be produced, that is still human work, and right now it is more in demand than ever."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do you use data without over-relying on it?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Data helps identify where behaviour changes, where attention drops, and where patterns begin repeating. It rarely explains intent on its own. Design decisions become stronger when data is read alongside context, product goals, and what users are trying to complete but do not say directly."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do you do user research when there is less time?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Research no longer has to begin as a long phase to remain useful. Existing signals, behavioural patterns, stakeholder understanding, and focused validation often provide enough direction to begin. The difference is that research now has to reach relevance earlier, because products are already moving while questions are still being answered."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do you keep design quality high when moving fast?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Speed is useful when it shortens repetition, not when it shortens thinking. We discuss direction with stakeholders upfront, before output begins, so the team knows what it is working toward. AI sits inside that process, not above it. Faster output means more possibilities, but also more decisions. The work is knowing which possibilities deserve refinement and which ones to leave behind. That judgment about what the right direction is builds over time, and every project adds to it."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What is taste in design?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Taste becomes visible when someone can move through multiple options and, depending on what the work needs to do, reduce, choose, and iterate with clear rationale. It is not aesthetics. It shows in what is removed, what is left unresolved, and what receives emphasis without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. Research and data can indicate where something is working or failing, but taste is what shapes how decisions hold together once those signals are understood."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why does branding still matter when everything keeps changing?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Branding matters because products are often experienced in fragments. Recognition depends on whether visual signals remain coherent even when features, content, and interfaces continue changing. When products change this fast, branding is what holds the relationship with users steady. People should know how they feel about you regardless of what the product looks like today."}}]} ## Someone asked our designers ### Can AI replace design work? AI does help with some part of the execution: asset production, layout generation, variation, early research. That part is already happening. What it cannot do is the thinking that happens when options exist but a direction still needs to be chosen. Judgment, context, and knowing what fits the experience, users needs and business priorities rather than what can simply be produced, that is still human work, and right now it is more in demand than ever. ### How do you use data without over-relying on it? Data helps identify where behaviour changes, where attention drops, and where patterns begin repeating. It rarely explains intent on its own. Design decisions become stronger when data is read alongside context, product goals, and what users are trying to complete but do not say directly. ### How do you do user research when there is less time? Research no longer has to begin as a long phase to remain useful. Existing signals, behavioural patterns, stakeholder understanding, and focused validation often provide enough direction to begin. The difference is that research now has to reach relevance earlier, because products are already moving while questions are still being answered. ### How do you keep design quality high when moving fast? Speed is useful when it shortens repetition, not when it shortens thinking. We discuss direction with stakeholders upfront, before output begins, so the team knows what it is working toward. AI sits inside that process, not above it. Faster output means more possibilities, but also more decisions. The work is knowing which possibilities deserve refinement and which ones to leave behind. That judgment about what the right direction is builds over time, and every project adds to it. ### What is taste in design? Taste becomes visible when someone can move through multiple options and, depending on what the work needs to do, reduce, choose, and iterate with clear rationale. It is not aesthetics. It shows in what is removed, what is left unresolved, and what receives emphasis without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. Research and data can indicate where something is working or failing, but taste is what shapes how decisions hold together once those signals are understood. ### Why does branding still matter when everything keeps changing? Branding matters because products are often experienced in fragments. Recognition depends on whether visual signals remain coherent even when features, content, and interfaces continue changing. When products change this fast, branding is what holds the relationship with users steady. People should know how they feel about you regardless of what the product looks like today. ## A clearer design direction usually helps before more decisions begin accumulating [ Start Consultation ](/contact) ## Design × Thinking ### Design asks questions A brief is a starting point, as is a research finding, and the direction the team agreed on last quarter. The work gets better when we reopen them and ask difficult questions clearly. ### The screen is not the problem The screen shows the symptom. The cause sits earlier, in a data analysis, a content model, a priority that blocked attention to detail, a decision someone made months back. ### Design knows when to stop Reopening a decision is part of the work. So is closing it. The team decides when a direction is strong enough to commit to and moves. Creativity needs a deadline. Work that commits at the right moment holds up. ### Speed is part of the work Speed is part of the work, not the whole of it. Creativity and brand have to hold up over time. We explore more directions now; iterations take less time, but human judgment decides what stays. Choosing well matters most. ## From the team ## Related Blogs [ ![AI in design: Is the hype real? Trends, tools, and future impact](/sites/default/files/clone-images/6891c0520e00f2fd7f5d42ae_AI_in_design_is_the_hype_real_thumbnail-p-800_e76552ec.webp) ](/insights/ai-in-design-is-the-hype-real) Design Process AI ### [AI in design: Is the hype real? Trends, tools, and future impact](/insights/ai-in-design-is-the-hype-real) [ ![Inside the workshop room — a story about Laaha, trust, and the work that matters](/sites/default/files/clone-images/67b345ebb91579e9816f7fdb_Geneva_Blog_cover-p-800_68072218.avif) ](/insights/inside-the-workshop-room-a-story-about-laaha-trust-and-the-work-that-matters) Design Process ### [Inside the workshop room — a story about Laaha, trust, and the work that matters](/insights/inside-the-workshop-room-a-story-about-laaha-trust-and-the-work-that-matters) [ ![Building an AI DXP: mapping thoughtful user journeys](/sites/default/files/clone-images/676a8275f2ec4e7461ed52a7_Designing_for_AI_Products-p-800_16b503a5.avif) ](/insights/making-of-an-ai-dxp-mapping-thoughtful-user-journeys-for-ai-products-part-1) Design Process AI ### [Building an AI DXP: mapping thoughtful user journeys](/insights/making-of-an-ai-dxp-mapping-thoughtful-user-journeys-for-ai-products-part-1) [View all](/insights)