Our experience and insights define our perspectives
on the evolving digital world.

1. Relationships matter when everything is connected.

This is no longer a single-device world. People live in digital ecosystems where they are surrounded by multiple devices. The new mobility comes in new form factors: tablets, TVs, phones, and laptops to name a few. By focusing on just the handset experience or on just one device at a time, designers are missing an opportunity to craft deeper connections with people's lives. How do we help these devices work better together, rather than just coexist? The answer lies in "Distributed Experiences" — digital solutions that reach across the various devices within an ecosystem. (Read our perspective Distributed Experiences: Multi-Device Design.)

2. Great experiences come from specialists.

The mobile experience is not owned by any one design discipline. In fact, the best experiences we've crafted at Punchcut have been ones where team members from Strategy, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Motion and Technology have been equally present and active in brainstorming potential solutions to a given design problem. Each member of the team is encouraged to bring depth from their field, and contribute to a collaborative work style. We don’t just “throw over” a design solution to a visual designer when it needs to be skinned. Both visual and interaction designers actively participate in early stages of projects, challenging and extending each others' concepts rather than just executing on another's vision.

3. Create spaces people care about.

When designing an interface, you are designing a virtual space. Whether or not that space has physical properties, its rules and physics must be applied consistently. We pay meticulous attention to lighting, shading, material and gravity models even if the UI feels especially virtual or digital. The rules don't have to be realistic, but they should be believable and viscerally understandable. It should be engaging, even delightful, to "be" in that space.

4. Focus on the Minimal Viable Product.

Fight feature addiction. Resist the temptation to throw everything into an app. Focus instead on doing less and doing it exceptionally well. (Read our perspective on overcoming feature addiction.) With living platforms that can push updates at any time, what matters most is the Minimal Viable Product. Launch your experience with a core set of features that are insightfully crafted. Remember, they can be updated as you go. The most important thing is building loyalty by building thoughtfully.

5. Create experiences that users want, not what they ask for.

We believe in involving users throughout the design process. They keep us honest. Starting with Participatory Design, we explore their true needs by inviting them to design with us. Once we've refined our recommendations, we'll bring back users for Concept Validation to see how well the concepts resonate. Finally, when we're getting closer to a tightened-down design solution, Usability Testing will help catch any false assumptions and ensure users can perform tasks efficiently. At every stage, we have an opportunity to refine the concept.

Still, throughout this process, we know that when asking users what they want, you can’t always rely on what they tell you. Observation is the best teacher. Watching users over time reveals what they actually do, and allows us to design for those scenarios. Taking a principle from game design, there's no substitute for play testing.

6. Fail early and quickly.

When you've got a good concept, get sketches or screens on a device as soon as possible. Use it, simulate interactions. See how it looks with simple built-in photo galleries on existing hardware. Make physical objects out of foamcore. Rearrange the furniture and role-play with it as much as possible. Learn from your prototype and iterate. Experiences must be felt, not simply seen or discussed.

7. Downtime is just as important as the uptime.

When teams are heads-down on a project for weeks on end, productivity suffers. Good ideas suffer. Recognize that design teams need to push away from their desks and get out of the office for inspiration from the real world. Encourage designers to check out peripherally related industries and adapt existing ideas to new contexts. A little downtime can go a long way to re-energize designers and their work.

8. Mobile UIs don't have to solve it all.

Sometimes in our addiction to features it's tempting to have a UI try to solve the world's problems. Resist the desire to spell out every possible interaction with an interface. Remember, we're shaping human behavior with these interfaces. The amount of screen time may directly influence face time with other people. Every step doesn't have to be dictated by the UI. Leave room for human interaction, and allow the power of inference to give users choices about how they wish to interpret the information and take action.

9. Dogfood it.

Eat your own dogfood. Rely entirely upon the mobile UI you are trying to develop. If you want to understand how something will be used, use it as your own. Migrate your Contacts and forward your phone number to the new device. Depend on it for every task. Resist the urge (and it will be there!) to jump back to your trusty old device. Capture real-time observations for improvement and channel those into the design effort. You'll find the little things really add up.

10. Engage designers early.

We cringe when we hear about products that have been defined solely by product managers, engineers and marketers — without any input from designers. Bringing in a design team only after the product has already been defined dramatically limits the scope and impact of the design. The organizations that are succeeding today are those that embrace the role that designers can play in shaping a product. If you are in a position to engage an external design agency, bring them in before any RFPs are issued to brainstorm around the problem, bring insights around user desire and behavior, and uncover any missed opportunities.

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Responses / Topics: Mobile, Smartphones, Events