In recent months I've been highly involved into working on UX and UI. Our company in addition to our London crew has two other offices in Dresden, and Vienna. Just after Christmas holidays we had a big workshop in Vienna for a whole week, teammates from all over Europe flew to Vienna. I can not stress enough how important it is for all team members to have a common understanding on where the product is heading and share the same belief about our mission.
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| St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna |
Before going into details about my personal realizations I'd like to remind to those who are not aware, that before Christmas we've released v3 of the app which included new, very exciting segment - multi player mode. People still can trade against the market but scores that they acquire are not their final profit - at the end of every day we distribute the winnings to the top best players with best scores. That way, even if the market was playing against you, you still have a chance to go back home with sizable prize. It works like this: you pay $10 as an entry fee and we grant you access to trading floor for 5 minutes, you can enter the game whenever you want and play how many times you want, the only limitation is that you can trade for 5 minutes at a time. Every time you enter a game $10 fee is deducted from your account and added to the pool which is then distributed to the top players, so in some days you can still win even with negative score. Anyway that was the v3 its currently out on iOS so if you haven't tried it yet, go ahead link is here (ps. don't forget markets are closed on weekends) also updated video trailer here: http://youtu.be/QrmZxLTm_fM
Six months ago we knew where we were going and its super satisfying to see ourselves here, but it is much more exciting whats planned for the future. For apparent reasons I can not disclose how much app will be changed in upcoming months but I can assure that it is worth waiting. What we've came up together is truly lifting personal financing and trading to a new level. Working with people who are specializing in different domains empowers birth of amazing ideas and even more amazing and engaging discussions. It is very interesting to see how user experience is comprehended by front end developers and system programmers. Working together in design sessions, consensus on essential topics are met way easier than in waterfall structure, iteration and feedback we got from each other was priceless.
Some people treat UX as a new trending topic and characterize it with traits such as objectification or staticness the truth is that it's not a subject of trend, strong UX is always a unique solution to a unique problem. It shouldn't and just can not be compared to a trending colour that you apply for a dress which makes it sell this season. It is way more than that. User Expierence is a path that users take on their journey together with the product, it is the exciting momentum that is being captured by every person, it is the most intimate moment that we User Experience designers have honor working on.
I learn a lot from my colleagues, I'm very happy to see such professionals surrounding me every day, it is them who create environment where personal growth is unavoidable. Well that and books, God I can't tell you how much I love books. All the knowledge of humankind is captured in those lovely collections of words, sentences paragraphs pages and ideas, my recent books that I've read: Lean Startup - this one was on my list for quite some time. Lean Startup by Eric Ries is a must for every one involved in technology development, weather its your job passion or just something you're interested in. As the boxer Mike Tyson once said about his opponents’ prefight strategies: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” the book is exactly about how not to get punched. Lean UX - a natural second step after Lean Startup, this one is about application of Lean Principles on User Experience. It touches a few interesting points and focuses mainly on integration of lean ux into already existing organisation, could be handy. I'm currently reading The Tipping Point, it compares ideas to viruses and analyses how they spread and what traits are shared. Absolutly amazing book, I'm enjoying reading this a lot. After I'm done with Tipping Point and it looks I should be done with it pretty soon cause its just melting in my hands I'll immerse into "Start with why" by Simon Sinek recommended by @Tomaslau. Tomas is a great person and product guy whom I've met not so long ago, I guess he wouldn't be angry if I'd also call him a Despreneur - a mix between designer and entrepreneur it is he who came up with the term and as a matter of fact is writing an amazing magazine just on that topic (design, technology and entrepreneurship) which can be found at http://despreneur.com/
Well this came up a bit dispersed but I'm gonna come back to this post and give it some more structure later. Over and out.
