We’re a digital experience company

Since 1994 the digital channel has gone through 3 distinct phases. To understand where this industry is going, it helps to understand where it has evolved to its current state.

In the beginning

Between 1994 and 2001, the digital channel went through its first phase of development. Companies spent millions of dollars investing in large enterprise level technologies in order to deliver, by today’s standards, the most basic of features and functions. The digital agencies that were built during this phase, needed to offer a wide range of interdependent services and end-to-end solutions to meet the needs of clients.

Smaller, faster, better

But the dot-com bust marked an end to the first phase of the digital channel and a second phase began in 2002.

At that time, technology was becoming more modular and manageable, moving away from large enterprise software in favor of leaner and less costly solutions. New businesses and brand experiences were being built rapidly on top of these new platforms. This phase has become known as Web 2.0.

This shift meant that a new type of firm could service client needs. Teehan+Lax was started at this time. We focused our services around providing very specialized help in user experience design. By working with small, nimble teams we were able to take advantage of new working models to deliver high quality work.

Call it convergence, cross-channel design, multi-platform design—whatever you like. For brands and businesses who want to deliver amazing digital experiences today, it’s a whole different ball game.

A new challenge for brands & business

We are now entering the third phase of the digital channel. The challenges of clients, brands and consumers is markedly different today than in 2002.

The digital channel is no longer constrained to just a browser and the inbox. It’s an ever-widening spectrum of screens, services and spaces. Consumers are increasingly sophisticated, with longer tenures online leading to increased expectations about what kind of customer experience they expect from the companies they interact with.

A consumer today moves seamlessly from their mobile device, to their computer, to their television. They expect brands will move with them as they engage with a variety of devices in a variety of contexts and settings.

We believe that brands in the future will be successful when they are able to define and design customer experiences in this world.

Teehan+Lax is focused on building a company to help clients navigate this world.

While we approach each project with a fresh perspective and an ever-widening arsenal of tools, there are 3 keys to how we define experiences in today’s digital channel.

1. A holistic, ongoing planning process

Our approach shifts the emphasis from planning individual media, like web sites or mobile apps to planning for the entire medium. We help you define and manage the entire digital playing field, and use this to identify where and how to engage with your customers most effectively.

2. Outcomes, not deliverables

Because the problems we’re solving in this new digital environment are much more complex, we always define projects based on outcomes, not deliverables. Outcomes that are both meaningful and measurable keep us grounded and aligned with your goals and business drivers—and at the same time gives us the opportunity to take a more agile and adaptive approach.

3. Rooted in technology

In this next iteration of the digital channel, the most successful work will be highly aligned strategically, and loosely coupled technically. That’s why we’ve incorporated technology back into our model. But unlike before, the goal isn’t to execute end-to-end builds, but rather to define the foundational services layer that support cross-platform user experiences.

Since 1994 the digital channel has gone through 3 distinct phases. To understand where this industry is going, it helps to understand where it has evolved to its current state.

In the beginning

Between 1994 and 2001, the digital channel went through its first phase of development. Companies spent millions of dollars investing in large enterprise level technologies in order to deliver, by today’s standards, the most basic of features and functions. The digital agencies that were built during this phase, needed to offer a wide range of interdependent services and end-to-end solutions to meet the needs of clients.

Smaller, faster, better

But the dot-com bust marked an end to the first phase of the digital channel and a second phase began in 2002.

At that time, technology was becoming more modular and manageable, moving away from large enterprise software in favor of leaner and less costly solutions. New businesses and brand experiences were being built rapidly on top of these new platforms. This phase has become known as Web 2.0.

This shift meant that a new type of firm could service client needs. Teehan+Lax was started at this time. We focused our services around providing very specialized help in user experience design. By working with small, nimble teams we were able to take advantage of new working models to deliver high quality work.