Designing for scale: UX localisation for global growth
The challenge:
A SaaS marketplace for maritime experiences was preparing for international expansion but faced significant barriers in adapting its platform to diverse regional expectations and legal requirements. Beyond cultural and usability mismatches, one of the biggest scaling challenges was navigating legislation - varying laws and compliance standards across different countries directly impacted how the service could be developed and delivered. A strategic UX discovery phase was essential to ensure the product could scale globally while maintaining compliance and usability.
Our approach:
We led a structured discovery process to uncover region-specific friction points - both user-facing and regulatory. Our method combined product and user analysis with cross-market compliance review, including:
User segmentation by region and service constraints
Localised user journey and service mapping
Legal touchpoint identification within the UX flow
Usability testing in markets with distinct regulatory environments
This hybrid approach helped us identify where legislation was shaping user expectations and product limitations, enabling the team to design experiences that were both compliant and intuitive.
Outcomes:
Improved engagement through localised UX: key UI elements were redesigned to reflect regional norms and constraints, improving trust and clarity for new users in regulated markets
Scalable compliance-informed design system: built a flexible UX architecture that could accommodate legal variations without fragmenting the core experience
10% increase in early engagement: changes implemented during the discovery phase—focused on clearer communication of service terms and user flows, resulted in a measurable uplift in engagement
Cross-functional alignment: facilitated alignment between legal, product, and design teams through stakeholder workshops, leading to a unified roadmap for compliant and scalable international growth
Impact:
Our UX localisation and compliance discovery provided the foundation for global scale. By embedding legal context into early UX decisions, we de-risked service expansion and improved user trust across markets. The engagement lift validated that thoughtful design, grounded in both cultural and regulatory understanding, can accelerate product adoption while ensuring operational feasibility.
The UK B2C e-commerce market was valued at approximately £172.3 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach £256.5 billion by 2030 (Grand View Research).