Product Strategy
Successfully molding an early vision into final product requires clear goals, a plan of action, and some creative thinking.
I’m Jonathan, a UX designer & strategist living in Boston, MA. I like to keep things simple, look to the future, and focus on the user. I help shape and launch products for mobile & web that solve problems and do cool things.
Successfully molding an early vision into final product requires clear goals, a plan of action, and some creative thinking.
Understanding your target audience is key. Each feature or design should be built around their needs and behaviors.
Crafting a color scheme and deciding where the buttons are placed and is the fun part. Great designs balance form and function.
Yeah, so I bought some BitCoin at a Liberty Teller kiosk in the South Station train terminal. I’ve been a BitCoin and virtual currency enthusiast for a while now but this was the first time I’ve actually purchased the stuff. Since acquiring BitCoin from online exchanges often takes multiple days and is still cloaked in some skepticism, the kiosk approach is a faster and more accessible alternative. My experience was quick and easy. I inserted $60 cash into a small atm-like machine with a touch display and received a ticket with a private key in return. I later transferred my BitCoin from that ticket to an app on my Nexus 4.
The Liberty Teller kiosk was dreamed up by two friends Kyle Powers and Chris Yim and is one the first first of its kind in the country. The pair have since opened an additional kiosk location at Clover Food Lab in Harvard Square and similar BitCoin outfits are continuing to sprout up across the globe. The future of BitCoin is both uncertain and exciting; finally having some skin in the game makes it all that much more exciting.
Redesign, Reboot, Re-engage
Alrighty, so my site and portfolio redesign is finally live. Woo! All prior post are pretty stale. Time to create some fresh ones…
This is a huge surprise. Just when pretty much the whole world had already written off Microsoft as having failed at the mobile game, they come out with the Windows Phone 7 Series (let’s call it WP7S). Forget the cumbersome name and instead check out the freshest UI and mobile experience in years. The video above is a lengthy 22 minutes but if you’ve got the time, it’s a great way to learn about the main features of this new OS and actually see a device in action. I’d also suggest you check out Gizmodo’s thorough analysis here.
Microsoft’s new mobile OS is a complete departure from the past. Thank God! The interfaced is called “Metro” and borrows heavily from the Zune HD and XBox experience. Although it won’t be available until the holiday season, the WP7S team will have the cooperation of all the major carriers (with AT&T being the “premier” one… huh?). Also, 9 manufacturers are on board so far, including Dell, Samsung, and LG. And to ensure that each device lives up to Microsoft’s standards, each manufacturer will have to adhere to a “tough, but fair” set of hardware requirements — sounds like the only leeway they’ll get is whether or not to include a keyboard. Read more →
When Jobs & Co. unveiled their newest toy to the world last Wednesday, I was more disappointed at the long list of missing features than wowed by Apple’s magic. And it seems most people out there had the same reaction I did. Nearly half of CrunchGear.com readers that took this poll said they would not be forking over money to purchase an iPad. The remaining half was split between wanting to buy one and “Meh, I could go either way”. This reaction is completely logical; without some of the much-anticipated features such as a camera, simultaneously-running apps, an option besides AT&T, Flash, GPS, and an earth-shattering new user experience (just to name a few) the iPad simply doesn’t live up to the hype that had snowballed since rumors of such a device had surfaced years ago. At first, you may think the iPad is just a big iPod touch, but then you’d be under-appreciating what’s perhaps its most important feature: a glossy 9.7 inch, 1024 x 768 resolution screen.
Apple is no doubt taking a gamble by entering a relatively uncharted product category. Many people, including myself, aren’t convinced that this is a device that actually solves a need. I’ve already got a smartphone and laptop, do I really want to pay for this in-between thingy? The feeling of “omg, this is going to change everything.” that followed the announcement Read more →
Swedish doctor and researcher Hans Rosling gives an awesome talk at TEDIndia on the trends in economies and when Asia (China & India, precisely) will overtake the West. Rosling sports a killer Swedish accent but has even better visuals and whit. He’s managed to put together software that clearly draws out the historical trend of the major economies over the past 150 years or so. He maps out income per person over life expectancy with the US, UK, China, India, & Japan on the graph and shows the trajectory each of these economies has taken up until today. And he then predicts exactly when India & the Red Dragon will surpass Europe and the US. As he’s telling a great story throughout, the charts and visuals give the brain a way to really digest what he’s saying. I’m gonna watch some more of his stuff…
Update: you can try his visualization software free online: http://www.gapminder.org/ Well, it’s actually Google’s now…