At Fruto, we’re passionate about shaping digital products that truly serve their users. As a leading user research agency in the UK, we don’t just tick usability boxes; we embed ourselves in your team, uncovering real user behaviours, motivations, and challenges.
Through expert research, strategic UX design, and practical collaboration, we help companies move from assumptions to evidence-based product decisions that unlock measurable impact.
From edtech platforms to AI-driven innovations, our research-led approach brings clarity to complexity, ensuring every user journey is intuitive, purposeful, and enjoyable.
So how do we do it? And how have we helped some of the UK’s most exciting organisations along the way? Let's find out.
Our user research approach: Empathy meets evidence
We believe the best digital experiences are born from a deep understanding of real users. That’s why our work always begins with rigorous user research, tailored to your context.
Whether we’re running usability tests with secondary school teachers or joining safety drivers on the streets of London, we take the time to understand how your product is used in the wild; not just in the wireframe.
From the initial discovery through to detailed journey mapping, our user research services include:
User interviews and ethnographic research
Usability testing
Heuristic and expert UX reviews
Quantitative tools like the System Usability Scale (SUS)
Stakeholder workshops and co-creation sessions
Combined, these methods help us uncover what really matters to your users and where your product can improve; while empowering your team with actionable insights they can rally around.
Some examples of how we’ve been able to help clients in the past are outlined in our case studies:
Case study: Embedded UX partnership with Dr Frost Learning
Dr Frost Learning is one of the UK’s most impactful educational platforms for secondary school maths. With millions of users worldwide, it offers interactive resources, exam-based content, and smart tools that support teachers and students across Key Stages 3, 4, and beyond.
As the platform evolved, the team recognised the need for a more user-centred approach and that’s where we came in.
What they needed
Dr Frost Learning had reached a critical point and increasing complexity across registration, subscription, and exam revision journeys was making usability a growing concern. The product team, including a newly appointed product manager, knew they needed structured user research and scalable UX design to support their continued growth.
What we delivered
We delivered:
UX review & user research
We kicked off with a focused UX review to uncover immediate usability challenges. From there, we conducted in-depth usability testing with a diverse group of secondary school teachers, including department leads and early-career educators across various school types.
Each session was grounded in real tasks, such as:
Creating worksheets
Setting homework
Tracking student progress
We paired these findings with SUS scoring to benchmark user satisfaction and identify key friction points.
Actionable insights
We delivered a prioritised report that didn’t just highlight problems but explained the ‘why’ behind them. This empowered the Dr Frost team to tackle the root causes; not just the surface-level symptoms. We also helped them establish sustainable user feedback loops for ongoing improvement.
Embedded partnership
Our collaboration evolved into an embedded UX and UI design partnership. Acting as an extension of their team, we supported high-impact projects including:
GCSE exam revision redesign - We simplified navigation, improved content clarity, and introduced visual cues to reduce cognitive load; resulting in over 420,000 practice sessions in just three months.
Scalable design system - We built a modern, brand-aligned design system with reusable components and developer guidance to support efficient, consistent design at scale.
By embedding directly into weekly stand-ups and asynchronous workflows, we helped Dr Frost Learning move faster with confidence; embedding UX thinking into their strategic roadmap and daily decision-making.
Case study: UX for autonomous vehicle testing with Wayve
Wayve is at the forefront of autonomous vehicle technology, using AI and machine learning to develop self-driving systems that work in real-world urban environments. With hundreds of on-road tests conducted each week by expert Autonomous Vehicle Safety Operators (AVSOs), the quality of driver experience and data collection is vital.
What they needed
Wayve asked us to improve the AVSO user experience and ensure that their feedback loop with research and engineering teams was as efficient and insightful as possible. The focus was on removing friction and enhancing the reliability of the test data.
What we delivered
In this project, we delivered:
Ethnographic research
We joined AVSOs on real test drives around London, observing how they interacted with the software and identifying areas of confusion or inefficiency. This naturalistic research gave us first-hand insight into the interface and cognitive demands of their role.
Stakeholder workshop
We brought together cross-functional teams for a half-day journey mapping workshop. This allowed participants to share perspectives, uncover hidden pain points, and ideate around opportunities for improvement. By including the AVSO from our research, we grounded every insight in lived experience.
Recommendations and quick wins
We identified both strategic and quick-win opportunities, such as introducing no-typing input options to ease feedback capture. These changes have already begun to improve the testing flow, with plans for more comprehensive improvements underway.
Why partner with our user research agency in the UK?
At Fruto, we combine rigorous research with hands-on design and strategic partnership. Whether you need to:
Validate a new feature before launch
Scale UX across a fast-growing team
Deepen customer empathy internally
Or completely reimagine your product journey
We've got the tools, experience, and mindset to help you do it right.
Our embedded model means we don’t just deliver findings and walk away. We help you shape strategy, prioritise action, and build the internal capability to keep putting users first.
Let’s build better digital experiences together
If you're ready to make user insight the driving force behind your product, we’d love to talk. Whether you're in education, emerging tech, or another sector altogether, our team is here to help you create experiences that truly work for the people who use them.