Wavii
717 design mocks in 2 years. I was the lead creative force from the early stages of the company in March 2010 until its public launch in April 2012.
The Vision
Wavii is developing a system using Natural Language Processing technology with the ultimate goal of understanding, structuring and visualizing data. The idea is that the system can take an article or any written information and distill it down into simple bits of structured meaningful data. The data can then be used to compare, connect, aggregate and visualize large amounts of information.
The Journey
Phase 1: Refining the product vision; exploring product ideas; understanding abilities, limitations and goals of the technology.
Phase 2: Designing a product, defining features, functionality, UX and UI for every aspect large and small. For example... designing a system of templates to display various types data in a clear, consistent and compelling structure; exploring ways to create social interactivity; exploring how to dig deeper into layers of information around a news event, how to get users to follow topics, engage in discussion, share news events, etc.
Phase 3: Enhancing the tech, refining the product and launching.
The Challenges
- How to create a viable product within the tech limitations, and with the ability to grow alongside the technology.
- The considerable distance the tech (NLP) needed to advance in order to be able to meet the design vision.
- How to compete for users attention in an already flooded world of connectivity.
- Working as the sole designer in an engineering focused environment.
The Lessons
- The trials and tribulations of working in the early stages of a startup.
- Collaboration and communication with a diverse group of people passionately invested in their work and ideas.
- Being the lead creative force and handling the responsibility that comes with such influence on the focus and direction of the company.
- Trusting design intuition, learning when to fight and when to let go of creative decisions/opinions.
- User-testing, UX, product development, collaboration, planning and delegation.
Award! Time Magazine Best Websites of 2012
Wavii was acquired by Google in 2013.
