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Boomworks is a design practice built around rapid invention.
We work with you to create the most engaging experiences for your customers.
Find out how we think, or jump right in.
Boomworks combines unequalled expertise in user centred design with advanced technology to deliver solutions that make a difference.
Whether it's the latest in AI and machine learning or complex interfaces with disparate systems, we've been leaders in design and delivery expertise for over 13 years... Read more

Experience intelligence

Boomworks are able to identify key journeys within complex ecosystems, design the best experience across all those touchpoints and deliver solutions utilising the latest technologies.

Would you like to learn more about us and our work?
The ubiquity of all technology shares a common component - us.
Today's digital landscape is complex. Users are annoyed by slow service and poor interaction experiences and they are immediately frustrated with brands incapable of supporting our digital habits and expectations... Read more

Understanding digital expectations

Businesses need to rapidly deliver contextual experiences across an evolving range of platforms.

How do organisations move quickly enough to respond to changes in customer behaviour? Customer experience is critical, but how does that get implemented in line with all business strategies in place to retain and grow your market?

Find out how Boomworks solve these problems.
When you have a team of gamers, coders, musicians, sculptors, cycling nuts, problem solvers, rule breakers and everything in between, exciting things are bound to happen.
We believe human connections are crucial when it comes to technology and strive to embody this belief in everything we do, from our PlayStation battles to guerrilla testing... Read more

Our team

At Boomworks we use our scale to our advantage. We have a deep playbook that informs our method but it doesn't anchor us against change. Our broad technology skills enable rapid prototyping to validate concepts in context early in the process allowing for learning and iteration.

Want to know what this great team does?
Enterprise scale innovation at start up speed.
Rapid invention is our process of accelerated design and prototyping. We understand technical systems and human experiences and know it's how digital products and services work together that determines their success... Read more

How we work

A history of being in a state of continual testing is fundamental to our process - learn and iterate. Making smaller iterations more often yields incremental insights faster.

Dedicated teams mean streamlined communication within project teams and stakeholder groups. We organize into small teams, work in sprints to quickly conceive and test multiple design ideas as functional prototypes, refine the concept and deliver the most intelligent solution.

Want to know more about the Boomworks team?
A lot has changed in the past 13 years, but our focus on user centred design has not.
From our base in Sydney we deliver solutions for clients from around the globe.
Like to learn more about our work?
These logos are of our clients, but we can't show you their faces (or the work, sorry)... View clients
Australian museum, Youth hostels Australia, University of Sydney, New South Wales department of Education and Communities, Telstra, Foxtel, ResMed, Cochlear, Sydney opera house, Zurich, Westpac, Woolworths money Australian museum, Youth hostels Australia, University of Sydney, New South Wales department of Education and Communities, Telstra, Foxtel, ResMed, Cochlear, Sydney opera house, Zurich, Westpac, Woolworths money

We've always worked with large, highly visible businesses and state and federal government departments.

While they all share the challenge of complex problems and interesting challenges, the other thing they have in common is a commitment to solve customers problems and create engaging solutions.

Like to see our work in action?
Whether it's online experience design, digital concept development, or our conversational intelligence platform - Boomworks Experience Intelligence is at the core.
Boomworks was founded as a user centred design studio over 13 years ago to bring intelligent design solutions to life.
We have a refined set of processes formed around complimentary services that enable the uncovering of behavioural insights and conceiving, iterating and creating connected experiences that can be delivered through an increasing range of devices and platforms.
Want to understand our tools of the trade?
This is where all the 'X' things happen
Our behavioural research, iterative design and prototyping process ensures we conceive great ideas and make them real.
We describe it like this:
Context and convenience define our connected experiences.
With our lives being increasingly influenced by interactions with so many devices, it can become a collection of disconnected experiences that frustrate users and fragment your business... Read more

Designing for experience

At Boomworks we believe in creating amazing digital journeys.

The digital journey can define a relationship with businesses or brands. How seamless that journey is depends entirely on the ability of the intelligence of the technology to engage and support a user from end to end.

Every stop on a customer journey will be impacted by how design and technology combine to deliver your solution.
Each digital experience should be uniquely hand crafted for your audience and engagingly easy to use... Read more

User centred solutions

Customers will interact with your business with whichever device is appropriate for the task at hand, or just happens to be closest.

They expect their interactions with these devices to be seamless, intuitive, doesn't require them to think too hard about it and won't get in the way of getting their task done.

Boomworks understands that sometimes how you do things is just as important as what you do.

Some of our experiments escaped from the lab.
Boomworks are constantly pushing ourselves. We believe there is no finish line... Read more

Visit the lab

There's no complacency with learning and finding new ways to prototype and validate ideas through testing with real users.

Whether it's AR, VR, AI or mixed reality, we understand the importance of developing products that are scalable and take advantage of where your users will be in the future.

See what's happening in the lab:
Boomworks have developed BBX, not just another off the shelf Chatbot.
It's an innovative, intelligent, conversational platform that was designed and built from the ground up to evolve with your business. We create experiences that get people talking, literally... Read more

Conversational intelligence

BBX can be tuned specifically for your needs, learning about your industry, while always delivering a great customer experience reflecting your brand and personality.

BBX is where your customers are. From a range of messaging apps to web to mobile to Alexa and Google Home - customers are interacting with businesses on a growing range of platforms and devices.

Enabling the power of natural language conversational interfaces ensures your business is ready to talk to your customers - when and where they want with conversational intelligence.

Boomworks are constantly pushing ourselves to create amazing digital relationships between businesses and their customers - even altering reality.
Mixed reality is not just the next big thing, it's the next real thing... Read more

Realities

With AR we are able to create a broad range of rich applications featuring chat and voice led interfaces for iOS using ARKit and with ARCore for Android, as well as augmented reality glasses and headsets.

These voice-led interfaces also extend to VR and give your users an amazing sense of immersion and emotional connection with your brand on a range of headsets, using Unity or Unreal.

Case study:

The Australian Museum

The Challenge:

There were 3 different considerations which our solution needed to cover:

  • The current website has over 65,000+ pages; and the client had a desire to improve the information architecture, navigation and general usability.
  • An imminent migration to a new CMS, which called for the creation of a component-based library.
  • The museum have an objective to shift public perceptions towards nature, indigenous cultures and science.

User testing

Wireframe

From sketches to finished product

What we did

UX design

  • We started by sorting and prioritisng the content types that reside in each page. This was done with key stakeholders and a dedicated content strategist.
  • Design checkins were done with key stakeholders at least once a day, plus in-team collaboration sessions.
  • We created re-useable components, and used these components as blocks to create templates from.

3 rounds of usability testing and iteration

  • An intial round of guerilla testing to focus on navigation and wayfinding. With 65,000+ pages in the website, it was critical to get this right.
  • Two rounds of usability testing, one with mid-fidelity wireframes and one with refined visuals.
  • Findings from each round were reported and used as a basis for re-iteration of components and templates.

HTML templates and functional specification

  • We used Webpack, Sass, Handlebars & TypeScript to create a component-based architecture that would enable the Australian Museum to be flexible in their implementation.
  • The project was documented using KSS notation and a heavily customised version of the SC5 styleguide generation tool to create a living component library.

Screenshot of The Australian Museum homepage on desktop

The result

28 usability testing sessions were conducted, across 8 different user types.

  • 120 unique components were created, to cater for the 65,000 pages the live site will contain. These components are responsive across all viewports.
  • 5 different navigation patterns were explored, in our quest to create an easily navigatable 5-level deep navigation system - with some levels containing over 200 pages.
  • 412 Jira tickets were completed.
  • 25 unique templates were created.
  • We created an online interactive functional (technical) documentation to support website maintenance and the CMS integration project.

We used a highly iterative approach, whereby each component began as a couple of words, and progressed in fidelity. this allowed us to simultaneously focus on page narrative and component re-use.

Case study:

University of Sydney Library

The Challenge:

With such a complex IA to rationalise, several different approaches were considered in our solution.

With an increasing amount of asset digitisation by the library, a higher focus on digital services was needed. An updated website was required with a revised messaging architecture and content re-prioritisation. The University of Sydney Library were looking to reflect their progressive transformation in the library's refreshed online presence.

User testing

Wireframe

From sketches to finished product

What we did

Persona developments and User Journey mapping

  • Boomworks' signature facilitation activities at stakeholder workshops
  • Created user journeys for current and future states of user scenarios
  • Conducted in library guerrilla testing with three rapidly built prototypes
  • Developed a consolidated and rationalised information architecture

Visual design and templating

  • Redesigned and developed fully responsive front-end templates
  • Updated brand imagery specifications
  • Joint prioritisation of library produced content over procured

Global UI design patterns & Prototype planning

  • Designed a simplified navigation structure with clear content labelling

Hi-fi prototype/user functional specification

  • High fidelity lab testing rounds at Boomworks' purpose built lab
  • Agile sprints encompassing iterations based on usability findings

From sketches to finished product

The result

  • Revealed key brand positioning and direction through workshops
  • Identified opportunities that further improved users' experience
  • Incorporated a new visual brand and moved to a responsive framework
  • Elevated useful services for all user types through new visual hierarchy
  • New users were well-guided through the interface and experienced users did not need to re-learn patterns for accessing key information

Our testing clearly revealed users preferred a familiar and easy-to-learn, discovery style interface. as a typical user relies heavily on "search" to find many types of content.

Case study:

Department of Education Customer Support Virtual Assistant (ViTA)

The Challenge:

Using the Squiz matrix CMS can be complicated and time consuming for both new and existing users. Understanding how to navigate the interface, use the CMS features and efficiently updating page content can often overwhelm users and slow down the process of content authoring.

Boomworks was engaed to build a Virtual Training Assistant (ViTA) and provide the Department of Education (DoE) staff with a method to quickly ask questions and get immediate answers within the context of content management inside the platform.

User testing

Wireframe

From sketches to finished product

What we did

Discovery

The project was kicked off by synthesising an export of DoE's Squiz Matrix knowledge base, detailing a list of common questions that users typically ask. This formed the foundation for what responses ViTA would need be able to assist users with.

Through an analysis of the type of responses that would be required, we visualised examples of conversational designs patterns (show screenshots of this) which included some intial sample dialogue flows. A workshop was also held to identify the personality of the bot, which is key to articulation of ViTA's responses.

Build & design

DoE created responses to the core questions in conjunction with Boomworks' content guidelines and conversational design process. This included detailing best practice for response content design with regard to messsage lengths, response visualisation using UI components, appropriate on-boarding and graceful fail flows. This phase ended with an untrained ViTA.

Training

Boomworks completed the first round of foundational training which produced a beta of ViTA that was then ready for further internal training by DoE. Further training of ViTA was conducted by DoE asking the virtual assistant an unlimited amount of permutations for the core questions. The most important aspect of this process is that it captures the multitiude of ways in which a core question could be asked.

From sketches to finished product

The result

DoE integrated ViTA within SquizMatrix and ZenDesk while Boomworks closely monitored the interactions during the launch week. As part of our support agreement, ViTA was tuned and re-trained on a weekly basis after observing user interactions. This provided insights to DoE where further content, summarised or expanded answers were required to enhance usability and provide pathways for product enhancements.

Case study:

Sydney Opera House

The Challenge:

Sydney Opera House has an extremely popular website with online ticket sales being critical to their business.

However, this was only partially responsive, not accessible and search capabilities on the site were limited. They were struggling with website maintenance on an aging platform. Boomworks was engaged to be their technical partner for upgrades and design, creating solutions that had a minimal impact to their ticketing system and user traffic.

User testing

Wireframe

From sketches to finished product

What we did

  • Visual design and templating
  • Rebranded homepage and navigation
  • Converted all templates to responsive framework Global UI design patterns & Prototype planning
  • Verified search concept prototypes through usability testing at Boomworks' labs
  • Build recommendations for future platform upgrades
  • Hi-fi prototype/user functional specification
  • Transformed whole site to be accessible
  • Redesign and migration management of video platform
  • Functional specification
  • Specified and built custom Tessitura JSON API for search
  • Integrated new search server

From sketches to finished product

The result

  • Easier to browse, fully accessible and responsive website
  • Improved engagement through an innovative search solution for event, video and content
  • A new and intuitive method of event search on the new homepage design for improved transactions
  • Evolved into a long-term partner with SOH supplying strategy, design and technical support

Improved engagement through an innovative search solution for event, video and content