Vijay Mathews (@vijaymathews) is a co-founder of W&Co., an interactive design & development agency based in New York. In the last few years, he’s built mobile apps and websites for a variety of clients, focusing on the education, non-profit, retail, and government sectors.
This conversation discusses running a multidisciplinary firm, the workflow and roles at W&Co., and the trouble with de facto standards in the design biz.
Show Notes & Links
W&Co. does Design AND Development, and has since the beginningChris Auyeung, Vijay’s co-founder at W&Co.Josh Miles discussed the growth of his firm on a previous podcast episodeThey now “do the kind of work they want to do”They’ve stayed nimble so they can “keep the overhead low but still provide the quality of work they wanted to provide.”“We didn’t have the mindset to say no to work; we were just getting started.”Designers should “know and understand the capabilities and limitations” of software and devicesZeitgeist, En Vogue … can you tell Prescott went to art school?The Polymath aka The Renaissance ManVijay and his team have moved away from mobile applications toward broader digital/web projects“Maintaining native applications across a wide variety of platforms and devices was impossible.”80% Websites, 20% AppsHTML5, CSS3, JavaScript“Do you need an app?” A question for webmasters and podcastersCandy CrushW&Co. applications on the iTunes storeHow The Sausage Gets MadeAnother reference to “The Museum in Minneapolis” (throwback to Episode 30 with Michael Bierut)Ask yourself “What could it be?”Websites that haven’t updated since 1997“Should you be using a photo-editing tool for web mockups?” ← Click to TweetWord Processor Wars of the 1980s and The Browser Wars of the 1990sXKCD Comic on competing standardsPrevious episode on Project Management Apps with Bryan OrrLingua FrancaThe Story of QuarkXPressPrescott New Year’s Resolution for 2008: “Never use Quark again!”Eisenhower Methodology, againRemember The MilkTools
Adobe Creative CloudJira for bug-tracking (and modified for project management)Agile developmentTechniques
Consider longevity in the marketplace (shorter-life projects can be more avant garde)Don’t be too conservative during the ideation phasePlay to your strengths in your roles (designer, IA, etc.) but join forces as well to have multidisciplinary crossoverUtilise Master Pages in InDesignHabits
Have a daily scrum meetingExamine your calendar the night before30-45 minute run early in the morning to clear the headArrive before the staff to sort email and admin
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