Over the past 2 months at Inkod-Hypera I learned a lot about the importance of user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) in the process of making web (or mobile) products. First off, those 2 expressions are not the same, in fact, UX govern UI (in web-lingo: UX is the parent, UI is the child). Secondly, user experience (UX) is based on social and cultural trends whereas user interface (UI) is more based on technology – multi-touch, touch, mouse, command-line, speech, etc. The direct result of the latter is that user experience is both subjective in nature and dynamic, because it relates to an individual’s performance, feelings and thoughts about the system – that can change, over a period of time.
Google.com in 1999
Over at Inkod-Hypera we developed a proven methodology that puts great emphasis on UX, before Photoshop is even launched. We do product concept, benchmarking, usability testing, user interface planning (mockups/wireframes), functional specification and only then – guiding our in-house studio for the design aspect. During my time here, I’ve met with dozens of customers, 3rd party vendors, entrepreneurs, ad agencies, and more to get a feeling of how they perceive the field of UX and design. Unfortunately, especially with start-ups and 1st time entrepreneurs – the focus is still on the what, instead of the why/who/how.
Met this week a good friend, developer since the age of 12, ex-CTO, co-founder of 2 start-ups and CEO of a 3rd one, that told me ‘UX is the new semi-God‘. Not CTO, not the code, not the product (what) – but the business (why/who/how). And he said it took him 2 years to realize that, and outsource the work to an expert. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing the code in PHP, Java, .Net, or Rubi – the software will work. But if you haven’t figured out the user (who), the problem that needs solving (why), and the right way to solve it (how) – that’s not good.
I’m not saying ‘Hire us’, this is not a sales pitch (ok, ok – half sales-pitch). I do say ‘work with experts‘ – you have developers, right? Hire UX experts, or outsource the work.
Google.com in 2010
As the internet evolves, and mobile becomes a larger aspect of our lives, I hope people will pay more attention to user experience, and understand its importance from day 1, not launch + day 1.
I remember reading a tweet the other day, which I actually agree with (can’t remember the author though), saying ‘social services like facebook, twitter, myspace, come and go. Flickr has been here since 2004 (!), and is here to stay’. The same goes, in my opinion, to blogs. Other sharing services will come and go, but the web-log, is here to stay.
It’s been 3 weeks since I started working at Inkod-Hypera, and almost 2 weeks since my last post. True, there’s facebook, and twitter, and LinkedIn, and other social services that I update on a daily basis, but those micro-updates cannot be compared to a blog post. Same audience perhaps, different format. And no limit on words!!
Ilan (creative director) and Assaf (VP products) are testing the new helicopter model
Being recognized for your work is always a good thing, and makes one feel good about the things one does. In the 3 weeks I’m here we’ve received dozens of ‘thank you’ emails from customers, the best incentive for any employee. One of our customers, Sparkeo, is a winner at mini Seedcamp Tel Aviv [English post], and are waiting for the Seedcamp results. We’ve been published [Hebrew] in a local news website, and are gaining momentum in the social scene (you’re welcome to joinus).
During the past 10 years in IT my roles were predominantly in the end-user position – either selling or marketing of a product or a service. I was familiar with the process, just not part of it. Well, this has changed, as of June 1st.
As the Marketing Manager I handle strategy, lead generation, brand management and positioning, sponsorship and events, PR, BR (bloggers relations), community and social, marcom, online/offline, and other stuff as well. Here’s a profile slide that you can download/share around. For business opportunities (or just social), feel free to contact me at dvir at inkod-hypera dot com. Samples of our work – after the embedded slideshare presentation and online. Enjoy!
