One must achieve great things in order to receive the distinction of knighthood.
That’s precisely what Sir Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of industrial design, did at Apple. His products have become staples in the daily lives of many. Science and technology editor at the London Evening Standard, Mark Prigg, sat down for an interview with Sir Ive about what makes Apple products ubiquitous. Aside from being “humbled” by his inclusion into the knighthood, Sir Ive explains that Apple has experienced so much success largely due to its commitment to product design. Apple’s designers…
The beauty of startup culture is that ideas come first.
One idea in particular has been the subject of some controversy. Eric Ries, entrepreneur and pioneer of the lean startup movement, has led a revolution in terms of how startups are being launched. Ries’ brainchild has been met with some criticism as of late. And now, a counterculture seems poised to form around the notion that, for startups, bigger may be better. Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo, explains why he has taken a stance (somewhat) against the learn startup. The…
During the formative days of a company, changes will continually be coming down the pipeline.
Your early stage design practices will need to be conducive to such an environment. To ensure that your design is agile enough to adapt to the many changes that will inevitably need to be implemented, you’ll want to follow the three fundamental design practices SCVNGR and LevelUp Chief Ninja Seth Priebatsch outlines in this article: Keep it as simple as possible. You don’t want to compound your design challenges with unnecessary gadgets and icons. As a rule of thumb,…
An overly analytical, measured approach to product design will, more often than not, lead to disappointing results, says Chris Chan, co-founder and VP of product at Causes.com.
User experience aficionado Chris Kaufman shares his best advice for young companies looking to conduct better UX research, with details on how social media has changed the landscape.
In a post for Design Staff, Braden Kowitz recently examined Gmail and Google’s knack for customer retention via their use of innovative product design and strategy. In his post, Kowitz writes, “one of the keys of a product’s success is how the different value propositions work together.” In the case of Gmail, he says the allure of extra storage space was easy to understand and what most people joined up for. Not until later did customers catch on to the search abilities of the program and the ability to read emails as conversations. While…
In a recent post on The Customer Collective, Tim Fong says good design can be a tipping point for B2B sales. He adds that by applying “design thinking” and innovation to the sales process, “companies can become more profitable, grow their top-line and gain distinct competitive advantages.” Fong writes, “design influences the marketing and sales aspect as well, and this is where many companies can experience dramatic increases in profitability” through a new sales methodology.” To illustrate this idea, Fong takes a look at several innovation examples and examines how they fit into…
Plenty of great technology companies have been built by taking an existing product and improving its design or capability. And while there’s nothing wrong with that approach, writes Robert Hoekman Jr. for Fast Company’s Co.Design, it doesn’t do much to really shake up the world and bring true innovation to it. After all, Hoekman Jr. argues, good design comes from incremental improvements based on old standards. Game-changing, groundbreaking design, on the other hand, comes when a company attempts to establish a paradigm so far beyond status quo that it leaves an industry’s…
While many people might see product innovation as solving a problem or an unmet market need, serial entrepreneur Dave Troy looks at things a little differently. Some of the best innovations, he says, solve a problem people didn’t even know they had. Taking inspiration from design innovators such as Don Norman, Tim Brown, and Daniel Pink, Troy runs down four elements that entrepreneurs can use to think about product innovation and development on his blog. For example: Design When you think about design, Troy says, you really are determining “how it works,” which is…
Obviously, UX has become an integral aspect of design and development.
Modern UX design has eliminated many of the limitations that once confined the users, and understanding the UX standards of the current environment should be a paramount concern for today’s UX professionals, writes Shawn Graaff of Memeburn. Cennydd Bowles and James Box of UK design consulting firm Clearleft echoed this sentiment in a recent presentation at the Tech4Africa conference. Here are some of the guiding principles of UX they expounded on: UX isn’t a discipline that should stand alone. Box…
