A repository of notes on product design for tech startups.

May 13, 2017

I’m sure that there are many interesting careers that visual and graphic designer can lead. They solve problems too. But fundamentally visual problems are different from or are simply subsets of product ones. The problem in the product design industry is that there are still a considerable number of designers who confuse the GUI and the visuals with…

Tony J

Feb 26, 2017

Hi Fairy, great question! Speaking from my own experience, it’s quite tricky to start by aiming for low-fidelity prototypes, especially if the testers are the average person / common user. The way these users interpret the low-fi prototype in front of them could be very different from the designer’s original intent — hence the need to make the…

Why culture and community always win, and why I want no part of that winning

Prototype Fidelity

In Digital Product Design

Originally published on Inkling’s Blog

As mentioned in my first post, the road to a quality product is paved with lots of prototypes. Building a lot is better than building carefully, and it’s…

Tony J

Feb 8, 2015

How to Create Digital Content Prototypes

Originally published on Inkling’s Blog

How to Create Prototypes

Once you’ve recognized the importance of treating your content like a product, now it’s time to start building. But…

Tony J

Nov 10, 2014

Three Secrets of Design

A continuation of Thoughts on Design

1. Constraints make…

Tony J

Oct 12, 2014

YC Startup School 2014

My rough notes + personal takeaways

Ron Conway

Tony J

Oct 10, 2014

Thoughts on Design

— Create the right context for your product

Design is not graphic art. This has been well documented. I think product design is more closely aligned to engineering and psychology than the visual arts, because building a product entails so…

Tony J

Sep 21, 2014

The Experience of Sharing

Why we need photo narratives

— Why We Need Photo Narratives

It has always been hard finding a place to post and share photos I take with my DSLR. Of course, there’s Flickr, 500px and even Facebook, but none of them…

Tony J

Sep 7, 2014

My Product Values

This list contains some of my beliefs about how products should be developed and how a team or startup should go about the business of making something great.

This was originally posted by Adam Wiggins on his Github gist. It was titled: My Heroku Values. I’ve forked it…

Tony J

Aug 31, 2014

On Human Need and Novelty

The success of an app depends on its ability to satisfy a fundamental human need in a novel way. I think the key phrase here is ‘novel way’, meaning the human need is to be satisfied in a way that has never been done before — in a way that is better, or at least perceived so by its…