Two month festival shines spotlight on Salford talent
A rooftop fashion show and a recreation of a First World War ‘tram tank’ are just two highlights of the Create Salford Festival.
Established four years ago and originally based within the Digital World Centre (Salford Quays), the successful company – run by Lisa Duddington and Ricardo Ortega, employs a handful of core staff and their expansion includes building a pioneering user research testing lab in White Tower, MediaCityUK.
With an impressive client portfolio including Unilever, Vodafone, Manchester Council and Netflights, Keep It Usable are unique in the sense they offer a combined usability, user experience/UX and are also a highly creative design agency.
Talking about their new home, Lisa, who trained in Psychology and Computing, said: “There are very few agencies across the UK who specialise and offer the services which we do – with our depth of expertise and experience. Therefore our business is very much in demand. We love our new office in the White Tower at MediaCityUK and are excited about continuing our high growth. We are also looking forward to opening our user testing lab too, which has been designed following extensive research with our customers. It’ll be the first of its kind in the UK with a much more homely, welcoming feel and a highly creative observation room. An important part of this was choosing not to use one way mirrors as they make participants feel more nervous, as well as having other side effects which negatively impact on the results.”
Keep It Usable help companies to increase sales by improving the user experience of their mobile, web and software platforms, working with cutting edge technology such as eye tracking to analyse user interaction and produce design changes that deliver results. They use psychology, human behaviour, neuroscience, ergonomics, expert researchers and world class designers to create ground-breaking user experiences.
Last year’s Rising Star award winners, Keep It Usable, were recently once again shortlisted for a Salford Business Award in the Online category, following another highly successful year.
A rooftop fashion show and a recreation of a First World War ‘tram tank’ are just two highlights of the Create Salford Festival.
Lifestyle Outlets, part of Peel L&P, has announced a strategic partnership with ITV as it continues its growth as a leading developer and operator of leisure and experience led retail destinations.
In less than a month’s time, MediaCityUK is set to light up the night as hundreds of runners come together to help make a difference for the global spinal cord injured community. Running either 5km or 10km distances, they will become part of an exciting global event; Run in the Dark.