The llama wants to do good.

Digital, but humane.

We are a research and design agency from Zurich, Switzerland. We bring psychology and anthropology together and live user experience design that puts people in focus. As a studio, we want to reflect on our discipline and advocate for responsibility in digital design.

How we want to work

A thorough understanding of humans is the foundation.

Digital design becomes truly valuable when real problems are solved for real people. A deep but actionable understanding of people is the foundation for designing good products. We come armed with the methods to create this understanding and translate it into strategy.

Answering important questions.

Design translates, design makes thoughts tangible. Design and research helps also strategically. We answer important questions early on and thus allow to set the right direction early.

Bringing in different perspectives.

Design focuses strongly on user needs and thus on the needs of an individual - too strongly, as we believe. Design becomes better when it incorporates more perspectives. That's why we combine psychological with anthropological methods.

Designing systematically.

Design should scale and also work in the future. So we design systematically and build a design system that will work well in as many contexts as possible.

Supporting good intentions.

Good design can make the difference. That's why we believe that design is just as important for charitable and grass-roots initiatives - so we spend some of our time supporting these.

Thanks for the collaboration.

Studio Llama

New methods for responsible design

The digital progress offers great opportunities - but negative consequences have also become increasingly apparent, such as disinformation, violations of privacy and excessive online behaviour.

We see the mindset and methodology of digital design as part of the problem, which generally expects positive effects from technology. We develop design methods that also take risks and effects on society into account in the design process.

methodology
responsible design
ETHZ x die Mobiliar

(How) can you trust artificial intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday life. This is also the case for die Mobiliar's employees: an algorithm makes the claims process much simpler. But how has the interaction changed?

We used methods from human-machine interaction and anthropology to help understand how the new approaches are perceived, how they change the employee’s work and and if this entails any risks.

research
artificial intelligence
Groupe Nous

Culture in Covid times

Groupe Nous has developed an innovative 3D audio format to brighten our time with cultural events even in pandemic times.

We defined, designed and implemented the ticketing system for it.

concept
design
development
die Mobiliar

Content marketing, but human-focussed.

Marketing is constantly changing. die Mobiliar is opening up a new topic area by crafting valuable content: in other words, content marketing.

We supported the project from the start: User research and strategic design define the choice of topics and orientation. We then worked with and developed the larger design system and supported the implementation down to the last detail.

strategy
concept
research
design
Art Basel

An art fair expands into the digital space.

Art Basel also reacted to the pandemic and took a step into the digital space.

We supported Art Basel with an expert review and a survey. Our work created understanding and serves as a starting point for the further development of the platform.

research
esurance

Entrepreneurs want to keep the overview.

Esurance has set its sights on transparency, so that insurance is not the most complicated thing that entrepreneurs have to deal with.

We support esurance in general: be it with tools, so that entrepreneurs can understand their insurance needs, or with the redesign of the website.

strategy
concept
Protekta

Even legal protection can be understandable.

Protekta is getting more than a new coat of paint: it's getting a new foundation. The website also has to meet the new requirements.

We have redesigned Protekta's website - and in doing so, we have addressed previously-known user needs with the user guidance.

concept
design
Picture of Andreas Wolters in a suburban garden
Picture of Benedikt Merz in an urban environment

Coffee or tea? ☕

We'd be happy to talk about your project or idea - be that research, strategy, conception, design, or sustainable digitalisation in general.

say hello
Picture of Scarlett Eisenhauer in a business setting