All posts tagged design

Startups, this is how design works — The Numbers

by Wells Riley on May 15, 2012 in Design, Entrepreneurship with No comments
numbers

On April 2, 2012, I published a project to the web called Startups, this is how design works. I spent four months researching Designer Founders, interviewing some industry-leading designers, writing, researching some more, and designing the layout for this story. I wanted to explore the intersection of design and startups, and encourage people to learn more about designer founders and help them make their first crucial design hires. Forbes is calling this The Era of Design – I’m compelled to agree.

I want to be as transparent as possible with my data. I’ve seen a few people on Hacker News share numbers, and those people are awesome… I think it’s great to see the numbers behind things that work. Hopefully my Google Analytics data will continue down that path of shedding light on little successes and making web metrics a bit more transparent.

The project was, quite literally, an overnight sensation. At 1am EST on April 3, my phone went berserk.

I was getting about a dozen mentions per second via Tweetbot on my iPhone. I instantly checked my analytics, and was able to snap this screenshot showing the exact moment the website went viral. The inflection point was clearly on Twitter, but I can’t identify the individual tweet that caused it. Thank you, to whoever it was.

Totals

These numbers represent traffic between April 1, 2012 and May 15, 2012.

Visits: 384,550
Unique Visitors:261,826
Pageviews: 415,027
Pages/Visit: 1.08
Avg. Visit Duration:00:00:34
Bounce Rate: 93.62%
% New Visits: 67.71%

Goals

I’ll also be transparent about my goals. I set a goal of 500,000 visits within 14 days… it was incredibly aggressive. It basically meant that it ‘had to go viral’ otherwise I’d be looking at far less traffic, probably between 3,000 – 5,000 hits. It also meant that I needed to get a ton of press… something I had never been able to do before. Here’s what happened instead:

229,372 visits in 14 days. My personal goal was basically contingent on getting coverage from TechCrunch. I contacted them and Co.Design, but neither covered the story. That’s fine… maybe I’ll have better connections for my next project. I also wish that Leo Widrich‘s blog post “7 Steps To Get Press Coverage For Your Startup” had existed a month and a half ago. C’est la vie.

Awesome stuff happened

The story WAS covered by TNW (Thank you again, Harrison Weber), Graphic Optimism, The Industry, and was awarded an Awwwards Site of the Day (thank you, whoever submitted it?!)

I’ve received a ton of emails, twitter followers, and have had some great discussions with people. I’m so excited that the message is thriving, and that I played a part in reaching the non-designers. As more designers found and co-found companies, I think it’s going to seem much more ‘normal’ in the coming months / years. It’s great to see so many people psyched about it on Twitter… I read through pretty much every one of the  12,632 tweets. Thank you.

Not so awesome stuff happened too

My website was shared everywhere, including Hacker News, Reddit, and Metafilter. I invite you to read through the comments.

I’m all for constructive feedback… designers need to be able to thrive on it. It improves the thinking behind my work and anything that comes after… sometimes, it’s a pretty big pill to swallow. People saying “This is a disaster design-wise” and “This is shit” is never pleasant to read about your work. In the end though, I’m glad it happened. Who was it who said “If no one hates you, you’re doing something wrong”?

I did silently act upon the constructive feedback, though. The fonts I used really did look like absolute shit on Chrome for Windows. It’s something I didn’t adequately test before launching with Google Web Fonts, and that’s my fault. I switched to using locally-hosted fonts instead, and the problem was completely resolved. Good times.

Social engagement a go-go

Twitter was pretty instrumental to the virility of this site. 45 days later, and I’m still getting Mention notifications on my phone. I still haven’t turned back on the alert sound.

I came across a Wikipedia article about the “1% Rule” as applied to social engagement online.

The 1% rule states that the number of people who create content on the Internet represents approximately 1% (or less) of the people actually viewing that content (for example, for every person who posts on a forum, generally about 99 other people are viewing that forum but not posting).

Here are my results from the last 30 days (I wish I had screenshotted this 15 days ago)

Google Analytics
 Topsy social interaction data

Interestingly enough, it seems that only 0.25% of visitors engaged in social interaction on Twitter on the most active day. Overall, only about 0.50% of visitors engaged on Twitter. Compare that to Facebook interaction, 0.84% of visitors Liked my page. Seems pretty close to the projected 1%, but I wonder why my numbers were so much lower. Next time, I’m going to spend a fair amount of time thinking about how to better encourage social interaction to get closer to that 1%. KISSmetrics seems to have a few ideas… Get More Tweets: 5 UX Tips for Boosting Your Site’s Virality

Overall, I think it’s a good benchmark to see how well others are doing.

Sum up

I hope this kind of post continues to urge more people to be transparent about their numbers. It’s an interesting metric to compare, and usually held pretty closely to one’s chest. I like sharing, especially when I feel like I’ve done something right… I hope this helps someone else.

The end of Bionic Hippo

by Wells Riley on January 13, 2012 in Design, Entrepreneurship with 15 Comments
hippogear

So I guess this was pretty unexpected. It’s not exactly how I planned to start 2012, anyways. Here’s the story.

In January 2011, it became necessary for us to grow quickly. We started out as a two person design & dev shop and, despite an impressive portfolio, we just weren’t making money. We made some hires (two designers and a new developer) and pivoted our business model. What was once a website design firm for bands became a UI/UX, Branding, and Software Development firm building web and mobile apps for startups. Quite a big leap.

I had built a very talented team around myself, and I knew we were up to the challenge. As a solo designer (the so-called “creative director”) I did fantastically well. I knew what needed to get done and what every deadline was. If I had a question, it was easy to contact the client with no middleman. Introducing a staff changed everything. Designers needed guidance and leadership. Every question, every revision, every deadline flowed through me. I had all of the accountability and quadruple the responsibility.

Anyone in a management position is probably rolling their eyes right now. Kudos to you folks… I had no idea how hard your job is, and the consequences when things go catastrophically wrong. Now I know.

Managing developers on exponentially more complex projects was even worse. Early in 2011 all of our developers were contractors – we didn’t have the financial stability to hire just yet. I trusted the most pivotal part of my company’s growth to outside workers, and it ended up destroying my company. I posted my blog post about Tony Hsieh at Zappos a few months after I learned this lesson, and I’ll say it again here:

Don’t outsource your core competency!

The developers were unreliable. They didn’t care about my company, my client, or their deadlines. They cut corners, made excuses, and lied. A week before a huge deadline, I was informed that no significant work had actually been done despite weeks of updates.

I sat down in a coffee shop with said client, and I remember the moment clear as crystal. I felt horrible. I was shaking. I had royally fucked up, and it was all my fault. Months of waiting, thousands of dollars, marketing dollars spent. No product. All we had to show for hours spent doing UI and UX and thousands spent on office space was a few photoshop mockups of what the product should look like. I told them this with their mouths agape. Was this really happening?

I promised to fix the problem, and told them it would be complete in under one month. All things considered, it was a seemingly impossible feat. I made a promise based on a gamble that the speedy developers I had in mind were actually available for work right now.

They were.

Unfortunately, I spent the whole project budget on their services. That’s money that was supposed to fund my work, the other designer’s work, branding design, front-end development, office space, our lawyer, and our accountant. All of that money now came directly out of my pocket to pay everyone who had worked so hard. It was devastating, but we weren’t ruined. We still had one other huge project that was certain to be our saving grace.

That other project was massive, and there was enough money in it to squeeze through. Not only would I be able to pay myself back, but still manage to pay everyone else. It was perfect. But then the unthinkable happened.

The same goddamned thing.

Different developer, different project, different platform, but same exact problem. Lies, delays, miscommunications, and no product on the due date. Different coffee shop, different client, same conversation. My mind was spinning out of control. What the hell am I going to do? How can I recover from this? It was at this point I started chronically losing sleep. Paranoia, stress, and frustration became baseline for me. It stayed like this for a month.

Fortunately, I was able to find another developer relatively quickly. He promised quick, professional delivery AND could start right away. He also had a portfolio of previous work. The client and I agreed he was the right choice.

Yeah, we had problems with him too. The deadline was pushed by months. Tons of money lost. All my fault.

It’s at this stage I felt completely defeated as an entrepreneur and leader. I failed horribly. This would be my second failed startup in less than two years. This time was different, though. I had disappointed my clients, my staff, and myself. Lots of real money was on the line, and everything that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong. I had to do something drastic before the townsfolk came after me with pitchforks and torches.

A New Page?

I chose to ditch the software development side of Bionic Hippo entirely. I’m a designer, and I do damn good work. My colleagues do damn good work too. In the waning months of 2011, we became a design-only consultancy. We had no clients because everything had screeched to a halt from before. We were still cleaning up our mess, but we had a plan. Out of nowhere, A Boston Startup Accelerator invited us to do a residency during the January – May session, and two HUGE new potential clients came forward. They wanted only UI and UX design. it couldn’t have been more perfect! Office space, publicity, money, and unlimited access to our target market. All of which came at little to no monetary cost – something that had become a critical issue. We had only about a thousand dollars in the bank, which can hardly buy anything for a 5-person team of consultants.

Talks with the Accelerator were laborious, but we ended up with a great deal. In exchange for mentorship, events, presentations, and some work, we were offered free office space and access to their extensive network. We were going to push “Design as a Core Competency” and the growing trend of “Creative Co-Founders”. I talked to designers from Facebook, Zaarly, Square, Zerply, FictiveKin, 500startups, and The Designer Fund (among many others). I flew across the country to San Francisco to gain a wider perspective on the matter. It was going to be incredible.

I asked my lawyer to draft documents granting equity to my founding partners. We were going to be a real company, and everyone was going to take part in our success. That set us back almost half of our remaining savings, but it was ok, right? Gotta spend money to make money.

By the time I got back from SF, we had been waiting about two months to get the final green light from the Accelerator. They promised an answer on the date that coincided with my return from the west coast.

Nothing.

More prodding… nothing. “We’ll talk in January” they said. I couldn’t wait until January. I knew it just wasn’t gonna happen. We’d run out of money before then. They didn’t know that because I was too proud to tell them.

Fortunately, I heard back from one of our huge prospective clients. All was not lost!

They they said they chose someone else. All was lost.

I made an executive decision. We had no money, no work, no office space, and a tarnished reputation. We were all exhausted. I was responsible for not only providing for myself, but providing for four other people. It was going to be impossible, and I couldn’t ask my team to make that kind of sacrifice, especially right out of college. Instead of running face first into the ground, I decided to wave the white flag. We were beaten, and it was time to gracefully move on to bigger and better things. I’m incredibly thankful that we ended when we did… we have just enough money to pay everyone with some scraps left over. I don’t know what I would’ve done if we had gone bankrupt. I hope that’s a lesson I’ll never have to learn.

I’m also fortunate that everything ended on a relatively good note. As a team we went through hell together, and the abrupt end didn’t come as too much of a shock to anyone. We’re all still BFFLs and helping each other out whenever possible. That makes me really happy.

Moving On

I’m now seeking employment at some exciting startup that understands why design is so important for startups, their products, and their users (and, most importantly, hiring designers). I learned so much about design and now I want to apply that knowledge. I’ve learned a lot about management and teamwork, too. I’m hoping to move to San Francisco — It’s going to be a huge change for me, but I think it’ll be worth it. I still have a lot to learn, and I need experience working with smarter, more talented designers. It can only make me better, and it’ll give me the opportunity to make different mistakes.

I’m not done being an entrepreneur… I never will be. It’s in my DNA. I can’t see myself not working in or around startups right now, and I’m definitely going to be a founder again someday.

We’ll see where this road takes me.

Four Common Mistakes Designers Make

by Wells Riley on July 11, 2011 in Design, Freelancing with 1 Comment
designer_mistakes

Graphic designers have a very interesting task.

Their work is largely subjective and based on experience, insight, and inspiration. While developers (and bankers, construction workers, and mailmen for that matter) also rely on these traits, there’s a certain sense of ‘right and wrong’ in these professions. If a HTML form doesn’t work or a mobile app crashes at launch, it’s much more obviously “wrong code” than something would be a “wrong design.” Does such a phrase even exist? Not really.

Designers also have incredibly diverse starting points. Some are classically educated, others aren’t. Some start in large firms while some freelance exclusively. Whether you’re an experienced freelancer or a newbie designer, here are a few mistakes I’ve made and seen other designers make.

1. Undervaluing the Work

I once read a story about a wedding photographer who charged $1000 per shoot. It wasn’t a livable income, but she was only a freelancer and held a full-time job elsewhere. After a little while, she couldn’t justify the time expense for what she was charging and decided to double her rate. $2000 for the same shoot, same equipment, same photographer. She hadn’t gotten “better” (in the arbitrary nature of that word) but she knew her time and expertise was worth more.

She became better known due to the higher “non-amateur” rate and more couples began requesting her services. To make a long story short, a year later she was being flown around the world to exotic vistas and tropical islands to shoot weddings at $50,000 a pop.

So what happened here? Did she scam her customers by charging more? Is she a huge jerk? If you’re an aspiring photographer you might be thinking to yourself “Wow that’s ridiculous. I could shoot an awesome wedding for like… $500!”

Well yes, you could. If that’s what the work is worth to you. So many photographers (and designers) follow this mentality. They know the work – and maybe it comes naturally or they enjoy it – so they have a difficult time charging what seems like “exorbitantly high” rates for their services. It’s a psychological barrier preventing many freelancers from succeeding at all.

Give yourself an hourly rate (even if it’s just for yourself) and double it. If clients turn away, re-evaluate the project. Is it WORTH your ‘original’ rate? Do you want the project that badly? Do you need the work to pay rent? Will you enjoy spending time on it? If not, then maybe you should let it go. It may be hard to believe, but better work will come your way. I can’t explain how… it just ‘happens’.

If you’re feeling guilty, think about it this way. People need you because you have a highly desirable skill. You’re knowledgeable and have what it takes to execute on something they could only dream of. You also provide invaluable insight that they couldn’t possibly have from a non-designer position. How much would you pay a lawyer or developer per hour to do something you can’t do yourself? I doubt they’d work for $12/hr… ever.

2. Not Taking Charge of a Project

So we’re on the same page and you’re at least thinking about what you’re really worth, right? Let’s add some value to that price increase of yours. As a hired professional, customers look to you for insight and advice, whether they make that apparent or not (and if they’re not, then they’re not the kind of client you should be working with). If you’re dealing with something like this on a daily basis, then you’re not asserting yourself and not taking charge of your project.

Don’t be afraid to be frank and truthful with clients, even if it goes directly against a request, suggestion, or idea they’ve given you. If your dentist suggests you brush your teeth with toothpaste instead of table salt, who are you to argue? He’s the one with the education and experience. If you can command your project and demonstrate your authority over the subject, clients will listen. I was an abused peon for years before I wised up and acted like a professional.

3. Not Practicing

This one seems obvious but I see it happen a lot, especially with students. Once work (or classwork) is done,  you don’t touch Photoshop or a pencil until you have to again. Oh no.

Graphic design is a constantly evolving skill. You can’t get anywhere if you don’t practice, test your boundaries, and create constantly. The worst thing is to get into a creative slump or get stuck working all the time. I design out of passion and I’m constantly creating different things for myself. Most don’t even see the light of day, but it’s good to flex the creative muscle outside of ‘required work’ once in a while.

4. You Don’t Know How to Say No

This one is my favorite. Everyone says it – it’s like the Golden Rule of freelancing. “Know when to say ‘NO!’ to clients.” I used to be naïve less naïve and thought this didn’t apply to me. I wasn’t getting an overwhelming amount of work and could technically handle all of it. How could I possibly turn any project down?

I think this is one lesson that can only be learned from experience, because I think every freelancer or newbie designer disregards it. With experience comes knowledge and expectations. Bionic Hippo has carved out a nice niché in entrepreneurship and startup companies, and we’re surprisingly particular about which projects we take on. Clients need to have a certain attitude, a vision, and clear direction. We value our time (see #1 above) and prefer spending time on awesome boundary-pushing projects than those with no vision, no business, and no passion. It’s that specificity regarding clients that keeps us on task and constantly working towards the goals we want to achieve.

Great clients respect (and may even demand) this kind of attitude. They don’t want to be lumped in with the ‘least common denominator’ clients – you know, the people who pay you squat, disrespect the craft, and use your skills as a talking, emailing mouse cursor.

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