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Ostmodern – A digital design studio with an agile approach.
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We are on-demand experts, social network evangelists and user-centred design advocates.
Our work is based on a creative approach to established principles of functionality and usability, a closely collaborative client relationship allied with real design experience and a deep understanding of content and commercial considerations.
We make products that people want to use.
WORKING WITH US -
Virgin Music coming soon!
A quick post to let you know about an exciting new online Music on Demand service we’re working on for Virgin Media.
Virgin asked us to handle the user experience, visual design, brand ID and front end build on their new project and we’ve been working on it for 5 months now. -Looking over Chris’ shoulder at what’s on his screen, I’m pleased to say that it’s all looking pretty special too!
Full launch is expected to be early next year so watch this space. -We’ll be able to let you have a first look at how it’s all coming together very soon…
November 26th, 2009 by JodyOstmodern needs you
We’re on the hunt for a User Experience Architect to work with us on some exciting projects we have lined up for 2010. If you’re interested in applying for the position, please send your CV to hello@ostmodern.co.uk
The Role
Working under Ostmodern’s User Experience Director, you will be responsible for gathering and interpreting our client’s requirements while working in multi-disciplinary internal and external teams, to lead the development of the project UX through to final documentation and handover.
A creative thinker with a thorough eye for detail, you will be expected to take direction well and adapt to our existing working processes, while bringing your own pro-active thinking and ways of working to the table.
Pragmatic in your approach to client interaction and negotiation, you will be a good communicator and able to explain your thinking and concepts in a simple and concise way.
Terms of employment or contract are negotiable, dependent on you.
Essential experience and skills:
- A good grounding in industry standard UX practices
- Flexible and creative approach to UX problem solving
- Previous participation in user testing and understand the value this brings to a project
- Evaluated user testing findings to make recommendations for product improvements
- Proactive thinker who will also seek and take direction
- Able to adopt our processes, but keen to assist in evolving and improving them
- Has a pragmatic approach to change
- Had experience of working with industry standard documentation
- Aware of the context of UX in relation to visual design and technical development
Desirable experience and skills:
- Familiar with a variety of development models, including agile and waterfall
- Worked on a number of different platforms, including mobile, web and itv
- Responsible for conducting user testing
- Be familiar with rapid iterative prototyping
- Able to produce current state and competitor analysis for clients
- Have worked collaboratively in multidisciplinary project teams
- Produced functional specification documents
About Ostmodern
Ostmodern take a fresh approach that actively breaks away from the rigid structures that are usually found in client – agency relationships. Applying a highly creative approach to established principles of functionality and usability, we offer a closely collaborative client relationship allied with real design experience and a deep understanding of content and commercial considerations.
Centered on a dedicated, experienced team interacting with our clients on a day-to-day basis, we blend the design disciplines of user experience definition, information architecture, visual design and user testing into a single dedicated work-stream. We then work closely with development, content and commercial teams in an agile way to produce strategies that work and products that people want to use.
Over the last four years we have worked closely with leading UK and international media organisations (BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Filmflex, Virgin Media, Microsoft, Com Hem) in the strategic development, design and launch of their core digital products, bringing a wealth of experience and understanding in the fast evolving areas of the digital marketplace.
November 24th, 2009 by TomUK Online TV Space Hots Up
This weeks announcement of the C4/YouTube deal capped a busy few months for the UK online TV market. Ever since the demise of project Kangaroo in February this year there has been a rush of entrants looking to fill the void.
Microsoft was the quickest off the blocks launching MSN Video Player in early August. Sourcing content from BBCW and leading UK indie All3Media, the service offers 350 hours of content and has already built a monthly user base of 500,000 over the last two months. Meanwhile Hulu has used the last six months to focus on courting ITV as its UK strategic partner but may now wish it hadn’t bothered, the deal is held up awaiting a new ITV CEO and Chairman for sign-off. Transmission business Arqiva decided the best way to get into the online TV business was to purchase the remains of Project Kangaroo for a reputed £8m and to put in place content supply deals with the BBCW and C4. They will not be overly pleased with C4 handing over its long-form programming library and 30 day catch-up content to YouTube and will now have to build a user base from a standing start using content that is more freely available than I’m sure they believed it would be.
So, what next? Expect Microsoft to extend and broaden its online TV offering significantly over the next three months to take advantage of being first to market post Project Kangaraoo. Arqiva to rush SeeSaw to market by December and Hulu to still be waiting and praying for a new ITV CEO and Chairman to be appointed before Christmas.
October 18th, 2009 by mark_bradfordPaid-for content, up for the fight?
I was struck by Rupert Murdoch’s upbeat assessment of the pay content business outlined in his speech to the World Media Summit in Beijing on October 9, 2009.
Although recognising the value of content has been volatile in the past decade, he highlighted that he believed we are entering another decisive phase in which device makers are again courting the creators of content. He quotes “I have sensed the shift in recent days during my travels in Japan and South Korea where I met some of the world’s leading electronics manufacturers. These companies don’t want their customers to be served a diet of digital dross, and yet that will be the inevitable consequence if the worth of content and creativity are not appreciated”.
News Corp is clearly up for the fight against the free ad supported model, Murdoch “The philistine phase of the digital age is almost over. The aggregators and the plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the co-opting of our content. But if we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid-for content, it will be the content creators who will pay the ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs will triumph”.
So it looks like the next 12 months are going to be very interesting as the pay walls go up and the free ad supported model comes under attack. We will watch this space with interest.
October 13th, 2009 by mark_bradfordDesign is not enough!
Ostmodern favourite Dieter Rams, discusses his work on the Braun T1000 radio.
I’ve always said that good digital design holds much more in common with real world product design than it does with graphic design. Too often in the world of digital, we see examples of creative visual design which solely serves the purpose of ‘decorating’ a badly designed underlying product. Something that product designers by and large don’t have the luxury of being able to do.
Rams’ approach to working with a holistic understanding of end-to-end design, should be a mantra for all good digital designers.
Working this way and taking a product design analogy as design tool, forces a designer to look deeper at the human aspects of interaction, rather than just the visual aspects. This in turn places the user at the centre and [hopefully!] ensures that when the point comes to look at visual and branding aspects, the purpose of design and the context of the product is fully understood.
August 6th, 2009 by JodyThe All New 4 on Demand Service
Channel 4 commissioned us to work with them on the transition of 4 on Demand (4oD) from a PC desktop application to being available through a browser as a central part of channel4.com. Previously, only catch up TV has been available on channel4.com, but the arrival of 4oD begins to open up 27 years of Channel 4 programming to be watched via free streaming. As a result, the new 4oD service had to be able to cater for a much broader range of content.
Channel4.com already provides some consistent linking between programme information pages, online listings and full online programmes, but the new 4oD had to provide a strong starting point from which users could watch & discover new & archive programming. So, looking at the many ways people consume online TV, a number of very specific task based areas were created on the new 4oD service: Time based listings show 30 day catch up (for those that have missed Hollyoaks and such), categories are shown with examples of the content included, A to Z listings, a predictive video search, and a catch all promotional area which contains new and “must see” shows for those who find themselves in need of inspiration.
The promotional area needed to display recent shows beside archive programmes that may be unfamiliar, so synopsis info and imagery was important. We designed a section where each picture and a full one paragraph description expands on mouse over, inviting users to flick through programmes and making use of Channel 4’s big bold images . Also in this area, shows can be grouped by editorially defined titles like “Classic Channel 4″ or “Comedy Gold” to provide a more curated, human experience and give users an understanding of the depth of content available on the wider service.
The beta 4oD homepage has recently been launched and users will see improvements being made to this and the rest of the service (via an iterative agile process) over the coming months.
July 6th, 2009 by TimThe trinity of owner, designer and developer
Due to the way we work, we often operate as a design team embedded into a project/company.
Working this way, enables us to become part of that company for the duration of the project (and beyond), benefiting from greater communication, teamwork and innovation.
The more we work this way however, the more we notice how often there is a dysfunctional relationship between owner, designer and technical developer.
The problem often stems from one team not understanding or trying to accommodate for the pressures and requirements of the other team. This will often exacerbate the problem; on one side unrealistic expectations are set and not met, while on the other a ‘you can’t do that’ syndrome develops with little attempt to find workarounds.
Left unchecked, this gap often widens into more of a cultural one, with those in the business seeing the development team as ‘heavy lifting engineers’ (mostly in an affectionate way) and those in dev referring to those in the business as ‘out of touch suits’ (mostly not in an affectionate way). In truth, if a common language can be found, these two groups working in harmony results in an incredibly rich, collaborative realtionship.
From our experience, bridging this gap and establishing a common language begins with the following steps:
- Having a vision
- Communicating the vision
- Sharing ownership of the vision
- Creating a strategy for realising the vision
As a UXD team, we often find ourselves founding and leading these steps on the projects we work on. We regularly have to work hard to overcome a perception that design is somewhat elitist and demonstrate that it can be a bridge between previously isolated members of the product team. In short, giving a context, vocabulary and channels that enable everyone to communicate productively.
On reflection, good UXD is mostly about facilitating the wider product team to design the product together.
June 3rd, 2009 by TomDriver Experience Design
A fascinating insight into the inner workings of a modern F1 car steering wheel.
It never fails to amaze me how handmade and low tech these things are. Quite literally looks like it’s been made in someone’s potting shed with bits and pieces from Maplin’s.
After seeing the drivers grappling away with fiddly rotary nobs and push switches, while wearing thick nomex gloves and traveling at 160mph in a 4G corner, i’d love to have a look at simplifying some of the ergonomic and cognitive flows.
All looks like a bit of an overly-complicated “technical engineering solution” to me…
May 26th, 2009 by JodyReflecting on Project Kangaroo
It’s been a couple of months since the death of Kangaroo , so we took some time to have an internal debrief on process and project development. Here’s what we found…
A successful user experience is when all components of a product and brand work together in harmony, reflecting users mental models, helping them to achieve their goals and simultaneously those of the business.
More often than not, sites that offer poor user experience, represent a lack of communication within the business, with blurry understanding of business objectives and deficiency in knowledge about their users.
In short, the user experience of a product is often the mirror through which a company can view itself, warts and all. So, what did Project Kangaroo see when it held up the mirror?
The Kangaroo case study is a uniquely troublesome one. Any project that has an arbitrarily enforced ‘pause’ in its development, is going to be difficult to keep fresh and relevant, particularly in a rapidly changing environment such as VoD. One of the biggest challenges working on the design and architecture of on Kangaroo, was that it was already developing legacy issues before it had even launched.
Naturally, in a developing market startup, full of talented passionate people, there was a palpable sense of frustration about not having a live product to learn from and build on. This frustration manifested itself into a roadmap where the emphasis was focussed on a drive for new features and functionality, with no real desire or context to revisit any previously completed bodies of work.
This isn’t usually a problem in the lifecycle of a normal project. -When the basic product launches, it quickly becomes apparent that many of the assumptions made about users behaviour were inaccurate, offering opportunities in the context of newly developed functionality. In the case of Kangaroo, we hadn’t had the opportunity to consolidate the core product in light of user feedback.
Without a live product to learn from, it is important to get something in front of users as regularly as possible, while ensuring that as many of the team as possible get the opportunity to watch this happen. This was achieved in the form of rapid iterative prototype testing on any new pieces of functionality.
In the last few months of the project, this inclusive multidisciplinary approach to UX combined with a transition to Agile, resulted in good communication and a real exploitation of the creativeness within the various teams. There was also a shift within the business, inspired by a visible beta site and the reality of launch, to review some of the existing design and IA and consolidate the product. We were really beginning to see the results of these processes.
On the day the Competition Commission ruling was announced, we were in Reading about to start a day of testing on the live site. Not really knowing what to do, we decided to see how the site stood up against the two perceived industry leaders in VOD, iPlayer and HULU . We encouraged users to spend 10 minutes on each one and let us have their thoughts. The response was eight of the ten users reporting that Kangaroo would be their preferred provider for a variety of reasons:
- Scope of content offered
- Ease of location & playback
- Well crafted page design that allows key tasks to be performed with great ease
This was a somewhat bittersweet confirmation of all the hard work for all those involved in the UX, throughout the project.
April 27th, 2009 by TomAgile – A modern approach
We’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about how we, as user experience and visual designers, work with our technical development partners to ensure the design integrity of finished products.
Whether by instinct or the benefit of bitter experience, our preference has always been to work as part of a multi-disciplinary project team. -A luxury that is seldom afforded to us. However, we’ve always endeavored to extend our approach of combining information architecture, user experience, brand and visual design to the wider project disciplines.
Successful internal project communication is a commodity that is often in short supply, particularly between the business, design and technical development teams. There’s no substitute for getting the right people in the room at the correct stage of a project. Getting this right, ensures a shared understanding of the origin of decisions and allows everyone within the team to work with a firm understanding of the broader context.
There is however, a clear problem when working with multi-disciplinary teams in a waterfall approach: Convincing a project manager that it’s a worthwhile investment allowing a technical project member to spend time involved in the design process and vice-versa. -Illustrating the time that will be saved later, (instead of ‘bug’ fixing the inevitable ‘broken’ parts of the product) still doesn’t seem to justify the up-front cost to the client.
So what’s the answer? Agile development?
It would appear to be a perfect resourcing solution. Instead of having the whole team sitting around for weeks pontificating about design, let’s start building now and stick the designers in the development team to solve problems as they arise!
There can be a tendency as a designer to instinctively feel resistance to this approach for a number of reasons, not least because the technical team has instigated it. Another cause for resistance is the built in assumption that designers can conceptualise, architect and design a product on the fly while it is being built in a 30 day sprint. A designer (we’re a sensitive lot) can’t help but feel slightly chastened at the lack of understanding for how much work is involved in the end to end design process.
We originally approached Agile with a mixture of optimism and trepidation. However, after establishing the nature of our relationship within teams, we found it to be even more successful than anything we’d achieved, working as multi-disciplinary teams in a traditional project lifecycle.
Our initial reservations about Agile stemmed from the concern that we may not have enough time to explore and therefore establish the bigger strategic picture. However, we quickly learned that provided a bit of a head start is established and that user testing includes both features in development as well features from the product backlog, we had enough room for manoeuvre.
In addition, we’ve found that the flexibility of being able to revisit or redirect product features on a monthly basis, interwoven with user test cycles, has afforded us much more control over strategic product direction. -In a fast changing landscape such as this one, we’ve found this not only liberating but an essential part of future product development.
Some further reading on UX and Agile:
Adapting Usability Investigations for Agile User-Centered Design
12 Best Practices for UX in an Agile Environment
Agile Usability: Best Practices for User Experience on Agile Development Projects
February 13th, 2009 by Tom