06 5 / 2013

"While Airbnb is data driven, they don’t let data push them around. Instead of developing reactively to metrics, the team often starts with a creative hypothesis, implements a change, reviews how it impacts the business and then repeats that process."

How design thinking transformed Airbnb from a failing startup to a billion dollar business (via sprmario)

Lesson learned here is that data and creative problem solving need to work as a team. The attached article is a solid read as well.

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21 4 / 2013

"If you’re hiring for a creative position, this means creating an environment where good work can exist. This is obviously a complex topic in itself, but it touches on things like process, workspace, responsibility, and the kind of projects they’ll work on. If projects consistently don’t ship, don’t get implemented properly, or get watered down to nothing, this will quickly lead to disillusionment. Don’t think that pay or hiding behind perks or good company “culture” can even this out."

– Jacob Heftmann, Designer & Creator of Wevther (via howtoworkwithcreativepeople)

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09 4 / 2013

Having Fun with Emails

I’m sure this has been done before, but this is the first I’ve seen it.

Rather than the typical info@, hello@, support@ for their generic email, Medium decided to have a some fun with it.

This may seem simple or even unprofessional to some, but it made me smile. Smiling users will never be bad for your brand.

So before I steal it in one way or another, I want to give a shout-out for a job well done!

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19 3 / 2013

The Art of Designing for People

I just listened to a fantastic podcast/interview by Dorm Room Tycoon featuring Ryan Singer, from 37Signals.

Ryan talks about the importance of solving the human problem first (the interaction and the UI) and finding a way to make it work on the back-end.

On building something intuitive for new users, he asks, “How [as a designer] do you make things familiar even though it is new?”

Living in the software and UX space, solving this type of problem is what gets me excited for work each day.

When you have a spare 38 minutes, you can find it here: http://www.dormroomtycoon.com/ryan-singer-37signals-interview-the-art-of-designing-for-people/

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11 2 / 2013

Wishlist: Exact Playlist Time on Spotify

I love Spotify. I’m a proud Premium member, in fact, because I believe their product is exceptional. However there is one tiny piece of information I desperately want from them: exact playlist time.

Above is a snippet of my playlist ‘Jams,’ which Spotify tells me is 1 hour long. Yet, I assure you that with 25 songs, ‘Jams’ definitely has over 60 minutes of playtime.

For the first 1+ year of service, this detail (or lack thereof) didn’t affect my experience. However, it has recently become a thorn in my experience when I started teaching yoga. For class, I’m trying to build an exercise playlist to be as close to 65 minutes as possible. Much trickier than it sounds!

The interesting part is that Spotify shares exact minutes for any playlist under one hour, yet rounds down to the nearest whole hour for anything above 60 minutes - meaning a 1 hour 59 minute playlist would be labeled 1 hour. Odd.

I can’t see a reason why Spotify wouldn’t share this tidbit. Exact timing would improve my user experience and likely that of many others. Product management may have their reasons, but if not, could someone make that quick push? :)

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