UX design agency in Southampton: Many kinds of visitor. One clear way through.
When different people come to your website for different reasons, each of them needs a quick, clear route to what they want. We plan how your site is organised and design the screens, and our developers build them.
Trusted by Moor Hall, BeU Swindon, Summer Dreams Wines and Screencraft
engineUX and UI design, planned around what your visitors came to do
Beyond is a UX and UI design agency in Southampton, Hampshire. UX (user experience) design is how your site is organised: which pages it has, and the route a visitor takes from arriving to doing what they came for. UI (user interface) design is how those pages look and behave on screen. We do both, and our developers build them in the same studio.
We start by finding out who uses your site and what each of them is trying to do, because most sites serve more than one kind of visitor. Then we plan the pages and menus around those tasks, sketch the main routes as simple layouts and go through them with you. Only then do we design how it looks.
One website, several kinds of visitor
Plenty of websites have to serve more than one kind of visitor. A restaurant with rooms has diners and overnight guests. A health service has young people, parents and the professionals who refer them. A manufacturer has buyers, specifiers and design agencies. Each group wants something different from the same home page.
Screencraft, a display maker in Hull, is one example: its site speaks to buyers, specifiers and creative agencies at once.
How we sort it out
- 01
One clear starting point
A home page that welcomes everyone, then sends each kind of visitor the right way quickly.
- 02
A route for each group
Separate paths in words each group uses, so nobody wades through pages meant for someone else.
- 03
The important buttons always close
Booking, referral or contact buttons within easy reach on every page, especially on a phone.
- 04
Room to grow
Pages built from blocks you can reuse, so you can add more later without a redesign.
How you'll know the new design is working
We judge a design by what people do on your site. So we compare before and after launch: how long visitors stay, how many come back, and how many finish a booking or an enquiry.
After Moor Hall's new site launched, for example, returning visitors rose 22.2% and time spent on the home page rose 40.7% in the first month.
We also look for the places people get stuck, using tools such as Hotjar, which shows where visitors click and how far they scroll.
Our UX and UI design process
BeU Swindon: research with the people the site is for
BeU Swindon is a mental health service for young people aged 0 to 25 and the adults around them. Services like it can feel confusing or intimidating, so the site had to make help feel within reach for young people, parents and carers, and professionals at once.
We ran workshops with young people and wrote the content with them. Each group has its own path, with self-referral, service information and emergency support always close. We designed it for phones first, so young people can find support easily and privately.
“The Place Beyond proved to be an exceptional partner on the BeU Swindon project. What stood out from the beginning was the depth of research undertaken to truly understand our audiences, exploring the needs, behaviours and motivations of the young people, parents, carers and professionals we wanted to engage, ensuring every aspect of the campaign was built on genuine insight.”
More UX and UI work
UX and UI design questions
What does a UX design agency do?
It works out who uses your website and what they're trying to do, plans the pages and routes around that, and designs the screens they use. The aim is a site where each visitor finds their next step quickly, whether that's booking a table, finding support or comparing suppliers.
What's the difference between UX and UI design?
UX design is how the site is organised: which pages exist, how they link up and the route through them. UI design is what those pages look like: layout, type, colour, buttons and movement. We design them together, and our developers build both, so nothing gets lost in between.
How do you research our users?
It depends on who they are and how easy they are to reach. We talk to you and your team, look at how people use your current site, and where we can, work with the people the site is for, for example in workshops. Then we write down what each group needs before anything is designed.
How do you measure whether UX design has worked?
By comparing what people do before and after launch: how long they stay, how many come back, and how many finish a booking or an enquiry. If one of those numbers doesn't move, it shows us where to look next, and we can make changes after launch.
Can one website work for several audiences?
Yes, if the plan starts from who those audiences are. Each group gets its own route from the home page, written in words they use, with the thing they most need close at hand. Everyone shares one site, one look and one place for your team to update.
Do you redesign existing websites?
Yes. Much of our UX work starts with a site that isn't doing its job. We look at where visitors give up or get stuck, then plan a structure that fixes it. Send us the link with your enquiry and tell us what you think is going wrong.
Do you build the site as well as design it?
Yes. Our developers work in the same studio and build what we design, in Next.js and React with Sanity for editing, so the screens you approve are the screens that go live. If something in the design is hard to build, we find out at the next desk, not after launch.
How much does UX and UI design cost?
It depends on how much research is needed and how big the site is. We price against an agreed plan rather than open-ended day rates, so you know the cost before work begins. Tell us what you're trying to fix on the first call and we'll suggest where to start.
How long does a UX project take?
That depends on the research and the size of the site, so we agree the timeline with you when we plan the work. If your launch date is fixed, we'll plan the research and design to meet it, and tell you plainly if something has to give.
Do you work with businesses in Southampton and Hampshire?
Yes. Our studio is in Southampton, so we're close to teams across Hampshire. We also work further afield, from Hull to Provence and California. If you'd like us to look at your current site first, send the link with your enquiry and we'll come to the call with some thoughts.
Ready when you are
Make your site easier to use.
Tell us who comes to your site, what they come to do, and where you think they get stuck. We'll reply within one working day and set up a free call to talk it through.
What happens next
- 1You'll hear back from us within one working day.
- 2We'll set up a free, no-obligation call with the people who'd actually do the work. Everything is made in-house.
- 3You get a clear proposal with scope, timeline and cost, usually within a week of our call.
