Team Announcement: Josh Collie, Zinc’s Lead Designer
Josh is joining Zinc to help make it beautiful and accessible.
We are very excited to welcome Josh to Zinc as our Lead Designer. Josh has a wide- range of technical experience from working for large technology giants such as YouTube & Google to agile startups like Moneybox. Having also worked across the globe from San Francisco to Seoul.
In this interview we delve into Josh’s design philosophy, his blockchain origins and his take on aesthetic trends in the space.
Please tell us about yourself & your background
“A designer and developer originally from Scotland, I’m Josh and have joined the Zinc team to create a beautiful and accessible product.
One school break time I had a friend teach me the basics of HTML in 15 minutes. Since that introduction to HTML 17 years ago I have been on a journey designing websites and products for a variety of companies from startup to corporate all across the world.
Initially I studied Applied Computing at university with the intent to become a software developer while continuing to explore my interest in design during my spare time as a freelancer. It never occurred to me that design was a viable profession as the role of UX was still developing and not something I was cognisant of.
During this time I would write blogs occasionally lambasting products or websites of large companies thinking I knew it all. One day I published a blog post that took aim at YouTube to highlight about how their design could be improved. I was fortunate enough that it crossed the desks of people at Google who subsequently contacted me with a job offer. Looking back at the critique, I had many terrible ideas, but thankfully they were able to see my passion for design and desire to improve products I loved.
From that point onward I have been designing products ever since.”
What made you want to work in Korea?
“It was a combination of interest in the culture and wanting to challenge myself and design for an utterly different market. Designers can be so focused on designing for their own culture and communities they rarely look what challenges other parts of the world have to offer. Designing for slow internet connections in India or high information density and completely different typographic standards in Japan really appealed to me.
Straight after graduating I moved to Gangnam, Seoul and began working for Google. It was an amazing experience where I learned a lot from a great team and became more aware of the challenges large organisations face when it comes to design. My time there helped me become more humble in my approach to design and gave me a much greater appreciation of user research and psychology in the design process.”
What excites you most about the blockchain space?
“How nascent everything is. Akin to the web in its early years, there is so much below the surface yet to be discovered in terms of applications of technology to solve problems. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what is possible. Patience and unrelenting determination will be key over the coming decades.”
In terms of design, what you think is missing in the Blockchain space?
“A focus on usability and tangible benefits. A lot of projects promote their services as talk about the amazing technology they use but don’t ground this with real world benefits.
Secondly, there should be a greater focus on making white papers and research as accessible as possible to the layman. I very much enjoyed reading the original Satoshi paper and it is one of the more accessible I have come across. It was informative, succinct and easy to understand.”
What made you want to join the Zinc?
“Difficult problems are a magnet for designers and I consider that there’s a lot of service design to do in the crypto-space to make the benefits of the technology accessible. The team here at Zinc have exciting long term plans and a real focus to create a product with real benefits that isn’t just hype.
Also, when interviewing with the team there was a genuine, palpable excitement they hold for what they’re building. Being part of a passionate dedicated team is very important to me.”
In your role, what are your key points in helping Zinc realise its full potential?
“I’m working with the team at Zinc to build an elegant, performant product, and design process that will make the task of building brilliant teams as efficient as possible for everyone.
There’s a huge opportunity for blockchain companies to better harness the power of great design to excite people in the space and build the next generation of tools, so we are going to put a great deal of resources into this and ensure we work closely with our users to create the products they need.”
What are the things that you personally hold in value outside of your work?
“Humility and ambition.
Humility is important as a designer but it’s always nice to see it in professions and people outside of work. It makes a world of difference in day-to-day interactions.
Being outspoken about great ambitions is also refreshing. The fire in one’s eyes can be contagious, there’s a virality to it. If a few more people were more outspoken about their great ambitions without the fear of failure, or had the willingness to embrace failure, it would encourage a great deal more to shoot for the moon. I believe there’s a tremendous amount of untapped potential in us all that could greatly change the world for the better.”
Welcome Josh we really look forward to working with you. Excited to make Zinc the most elegant product & usable product in the blockchain space.
P.S. We have some more news being released today. Stay tuned.
Website: https://zinc.work
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zinc_work
Bonus: Do you have any hidden talents?
“When I’m not designing I enjoy learning new languages but have a tendency to want to learn too much at once. Currently I’m working on my Russian and Korean as and when I can (assuming I don’t get distracted with learning a Nordic language).”
