Small Is Good We are a small team. We don't have a hierarchy and we don't spend time reporting to one another. Being small means we can adapt quickly to challenges and opportunities. Being small means we organize ourselves to best solve problems. UX Is Not UI UX is visual design. UX is information architecture. UX is interaction. UX is usability. UX is driven by user research. UX is content strategy. Our solutions must work well, not just look good. The End Is Not In Sight Big bangs are costly, and slow, and generally fail because the end state changes while the documents are being written. We start small, and we iterate frequently, quickly, and with the involvement of all stakeholders. We know the end state changes, so we embrace that and plan our activities accordingly. Design For Mobile First The most efficient solution is a blank page. Everything added to a blank page makes the solution slower, and potentially less responsive. Designing for mobility forces us to consider the user experience in restrictive environments, and keeps our solutions from becoming bloated. Preach To The Choir Make believers of non-believers. Make strong believers of believers. Make practitioners of strong believers. Evangelism requires evangelists, and we can't talk to everybody. Open Is Better Than Closed We have no secrets to hide. Everything we do is available to everyone. Every project is open to everyone involved in the project. Developers share with users. Testers share with designers. Silos are for corn, not for ideas. Conventional Wisdom Is Often Wrong We seek to be contrarian, in a constructive and cooperative way. We believe that all assumptions should be challenged, or at least examined, before they set the tone for a solution. Almost every obsolete solution approach and discredited design principle was once someone's conventional wisdom. It Starts With Users An amazing user experience does not start with technology, or proxy groups, or committees. An amazing user experience starts with a diverse group of users. Users are smart. We believe in users. Passion Matters We believe in what we do and we take on projects that we believe in. Our interests and skills are varied and we work to expand both every day. We get excited by projects that push things forward. We expect our work to make our partners and our team better.