We're looking for a new member to join our close-knit design team. Here's the deal»
Process isn't rocket science, but it is how great things get made. Ours is a back-to-basics thing that moves through four phases called Define, Frame, Implement and Evaluate — you'll learn all about them when we're working together. The most important thing to understand is that these four phases do one very important thing: they end with measurable results. To get an idea of how we work, take a look at one of our extranet sites. (It's a charity project we did in a single, coffee-fueled 24-hour burst last year.
The whole point of the work we do focuses around a good user interface (UI). The interface of the product embodies the goals of the business and is where the customer's experience happens. It's got to sing. No matter where we are in the process we've got tried-and-true methods to apply to this central design problem. Many are quick and cost effective--like whiteboard mindmaps and interface sketches--and all involve rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty with the details--the code, icons, wording and more that tie it together.
We work best alongside entrepreneurs crazy enough to know that taking risks is the way to found a great new company or launch a new product or initiative. We excel at getting to the heart of a the matter — where business goals meet users' needs — to imagine the product experience that wow's everybody involved. In these situations we work quickly to go from concept into something tangible, be it visual designs as functional specs, clickable interfaces or functional prototypes.
We're a team of eight-and-a-half T-shaped people that's been around for 8 years and consulted with over 70 startups. What the hell does that mean? The half-person is our accountant who whips us into shape half the week. The T-shaped thing is part of the design zeitgeist and was coined by IDEO's founder Tim Brown. Check it out.
The history part is that it started with our founder Bryan Zmijewski going solo 10 years ago and has ended up with a pile of hard-earned expertise across a bunch of projects. Not all of them have been successes — that's key to why we know what we're doing. You've got to risk failure to know what works!
We've worked with some of these companies recently:
"They've got that magical balance of creativity, roll-up-your-sleeves hard work, incredible collaboration and teamwork skills, initiative, etc etc etc. So rare. I simply can't get enough of their time... and my hope is that some of our newer designers absorb their unique talents by working with them. Kinda like osmosis ;-)"
— Jeff Beaver
Founder, Zazzle.com
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