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Obvious Design consults in two inter-related areas: product vision and user experience architecture. To find out more click Services.
Our Product Vision Specialty
Our product vision speciality is in defining brand new products, especially those for which there is no direct precedent or competitor. This is a critical point in a product's and a business's life: the direction it takes out of the starting gate can define its destiny months or years later.
Please see Services for more information.
Our Product Design Specialty
Our specialty is interactive products for which
ease-of-use is a critical factor in the product's success. This
isn't necessarily true of all products, but is true in circumstances such
as the following:
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The product's marketing strategy relies on
glowing press reviews and positive word-of-mouth reputation.
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The product is in a mature competitive environment
where quality of user experience is a key differentiator.
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The product's interface carries the responsibility
of a salesperson and customer service representative, and therefore
has a direct impact on sales.
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The product's domain is intrinsically complex,
yet for it to succeed a way must be found to make it understandable
by anyone.
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The product is intended for the mass market,
where little or no technical skills can be assumed on the part
of the user.
These are situations in which the product design
is truly strategic: business success is made or broken by the
quality of the product's design.
Claims to Fame
Philip has designed hundreds of features for dozens
of products, some of which you might have heard or used.
In 2005 Philip contributed key designs for
the recently announced Intuit QuickBooks
2006.
In 2005 Philip also did some advanced design for the Yahoo Toolbar, a product with countless millions of users.
In 2004 Philip did a functional redesign of the
Adobe
online store, revamping the overall approach to up-selling
and cross-selling. This went live in September
'04.
In 2003 Philip contributed designs for PalmOne (now Palm)
to the PIM apps that appear in products from 2003 through 2006, including the
Tungsten and Treo lines. This work included a major revamp of the Tasks application
to allow cross-cutting one's to-do list by project, priority or date.
In 2001 through 2002 Philip contributed several key designs
for PalmSource to
what is now PalmOS 5. This
work included a flexible status & control area appearing on tall-screen
handhelds such as the Sony
Clie and the Palm Tungsten and
LifeDrive PDAs.
In 1998 we redesigned the overall information architecture
and key interactions for the Gap
Online Store, one of the web's biggest
retailers. This architecture continues to be refined and used today, and have
been copied by other retailers. This work was cited in Steven
Krug's best-selling web design book, Don't
Make Me Think.
In 1996 Philip designed ClarisOrganizer
2.0, a product which at the time garnered substantial acclaim and
won several awards. Organizer continues its life as Palm
Desktop for Mac OS X and has been in regular use by
millions. (It was bundled
with most Macs for a few years.) This case
study of its design written in 1997 continues to reflect
our design approach
This is a short sampling of prominent products
we've been involved with. To see what else we've done since our
founding in 1997, please see our project
history.
Reputation
We strive for the highest quality in both the
designs we create and the services we provide, and are proud of
our growing list happy clients. To see
what previous clients, the press and end-users have to say about
our work please see our accolades section.
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