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As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product.Jef Raskin
There is no such thing as a boring project. There are only boring executions.Irene Etzkorn
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.Henry Ford
If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.Ralf Speth
(Application design) will save the world right after rock and roll does.David Carson
Financial design isn’t website design. Our apps rarely contain the photographs, widgets, and eye-candy you’ll find on a traditional website. Screen real-estate is at a premium and our users are geared towards performing functions; finding market research, placing trades, generating reports.
However, our apps while complex are often needlessly complex. Design for finance should consider the human element; how people interact with our content, how data is sifted, sorted, categorized, delivered and how it can be easily digested. Making users go out and cherry-pick various bits of information within large systems is difficult. Aggregating data, pre-defining roles and delivering your content (in context) - is efficient, easy to use and enjoyable. I often hear ‘design for the lowest common denominator’ (design for stupid). However, I believe that most people are inherently capable when we give them the correct tools and offer the best user experience.
One-way streets, where we only push data are quickly becoming dead ends. Two-way streets where users more readily interact with our data is better. Better still is a model that helps users ACT on our data. Be it through a network of peers (a closed social network is a close one), active filtering through lenses, trade history, personalization or mashups. How well we accomplish this 'robust simplicity' will determine how favorably our brand and products are received.
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." - Leonardo da Vinci
While I regularly get back to NYC, the bulk of my team is remote. We’ve been working successfully for NYC FinTech clients since 2008.
We always keep standard banking (EST) hours. No more interfacing with offshore assets at inconvenient times. When you provide feedback by EOD we’re able upload our latest work the next morning so you can share with your team, comment on slides and provide feedback - no time lost. We collaborate via Webex, Slack, Basecamp, Skype, InVision, Jira, Confluence, Github, Join.me, GoToMeeting, and Line - or just pick up the phone and give us a call.
While I do miss the culture of drinks after work, Starbucks, shared lunches, great food, and just dropping by the office, I often manage to hangout with clients when I’m in NYC or when they come to Asia. COVID19 has made collaborating remotely part of the new normal.
After kickoff, we work with stakeholders to capture project deliverables. Listen to your users to identify needs that have yet to be met, expose opportunities for competitive differentiation, and collaborate with your team to develop strategic roadmaps for improvement and innovation.
We roll the research and user feedback into a rapid prototyping cycle. It begins with wireframes, page layouts, navigation structures and ends with High-fidelity iterations you can shop around your team. We can also run AB testing before we move into the delivery phase.
Our work is delivered in a format that's ready to hand off to your development team (CSS/Zeplin/HTML). We can provide full HTML/CSS or simple redlining of our mockups. Additionally, we follow up with a custom Style-guide to keep your product consistent as it evolves.
You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.Zig Ziglar
A cloud near the constellation Aquila contains enough ethyl alcohol to fill 400 trillion trillion pints of beer.Yum
Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people.S. Jobs
From the initial concept screens all the way through development-handoff and launch. We can work as the Project manager & art director for a specific product or insuring visual consistency across your entire company. With one point-of-contact and daily standups we can effectively collaborate to produce a successful final product.
Have an existing app that needs a revamp? A spec for new app development and need a front end? We provide multiple layouts for you to select from, then use an iterative approach to end up with screens with clear function and form - that will get noticed on the street.
Design is more than just how an application looks, design is also how it functions. We collaborate on user flows, wireframes, UX writing, interaction design, eye-tracking, key performance indicators, and experience architecture to insure your product launch is a success.
With recent uptick in hits from mobile devices > 30%, financial products are addressing customers on responsive devices. We work with your existing design or create a new platform-agnostic interface that will be 100% responsive and stack logically on tablets, mobiles or other small screens.
Establishing new standards is great, not having a place to archive those standards for future development - not so great. A 'living' style guide is a smart way to archive our new standards so consistency continues even as your product continues to evolve.
HTML5, CSS, Bootstrap, Wordpress, Angular, SASS - we can build your web app or flesh out the designs into interactive demos. We normally showcase with Invision, log bugs with Jira and communicate via Basecamp, Confluence, and Slack.
Indesign, PDFs, PPT, End of Year, and glossy presentations: we provide print collateral or tear-sheets for demos, announcements or events. We can also create standardized templates for your group to use in their internal/external communication.
I'm Cire (pronounced:ˈsīrə). After working on Wall St. for 8 years, I opened a design shop in Hong Kong, then Singapore. I now split my time between the cities. We've been working almost exclusively with NYC financial clients for 15+ years now!
The team varies depending on project load. We have consultants in Argentina, Singapore, the UK, and Thailand - always trying to source (and keep) the best talent, regardless of location. I act as a single point of contact, handling most meetings, client relations and the majority of the concept design work.
We rarely take on more than 6 clients a year - and 90% of our business is derived in-network - we've never advertised. The NYC financial arena is a relatively small one. We do our best to keep our reputation up - and network growing.
