Lifehash: Behind the Scenes, Part One
How does a small company make a new product? This is a process that XY is incredibly familiar with. It’s something we’ve been doing cyclically since 2012, usually with a relatively small team of people with broad skillsets.
If you read Arie Trouw’s quarterly update, you may already know that the next product XY will be introducing is called Lifehash. It’s tentatively scheduled to be built over the course of 2021 and released near the end of the year.
It may seem like we’re taking the very first steps down this path, but the first (and arguably most important) steps have already been taken. Development starts with seeing a need, want, or niche that we can realistically address. An opportunity.
The second step is therefore determining viability. Is it likely that the product we want to develop will return its costs and make a profit? Will the product be desirable long enough to make the devotion of resources used for it worth the profit it makes? Do people really want it, and are they going to continue wanting it?
A good example of a product people really want is XY’s longtime flagship, XY Find It, which has been in development since 2014 and in fact has seen the company through both high times and rough patches. This product is a combination of a Bluetooth tag with a small sound system that can be attached to things you might misplace so you can find them quickly, and a companion app that can keep tabs on it and beep it. The device is currently on its fourth generation and the app has a new version due out soon.
A common need, an accessible solution, continuing development, and long term success. These are the properties we want to see as likely outcomes when considering a new product.
The concept of Lifehash is straightforward, and those of you who are fans of XY’s immensely popular gamified geolocation app, COIN, may recognize some of the principles at play. The idea is to allow you to control and monitor your online data.
We’re approaching the fact that people have a lot of personal data online not as a problem, but rather as an opportunity for each individual. By knowing what you have out there, having a centralized place to monitor and examine it, and even leverage the data you create to your own benefit, we hope to return power to users who are most often seen as a commodity to sell to advertisers. In keeping with our core belief in dataism, you should see value in the data you generate.
That’s the idea. The product? Well, there should be an app for that. And we’re exactly the right company to make it.
Lifehash is being built on the backbone of multiple XY technologies, including COIN (which provides its business model and entry point), and XYO World (which provides its software framework). But it’s unique in most ways and will require a significant amount of new development.
Already well underway is its codebase, which shares a number of core functions with XYO World, although Lifehash will be centralized where XYO World is decentralized. And some of the most important features of Lifehash will be in its user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). We’ll cover those a bit more in future installments.
The new task currently underway is critical to Lifehash’s success. We’re determining its branding. Branding has to convey exactly what Lifehash is and why users should want it, while asking as little effort as possible from the potential user.
This means that Lifehash has to look like what it is, and tell you what it does, in a matter of seconds. This began with the name, which conveys the concept in the pithiest way possible. Telling people what it does will need to be concise and appealing.
But what does Lifehash look like? It’s like hearing someone’s voice without ever having seen their face, except we have to construct the face, ourselves.
After a marathon week of branding wherein Marketing Operations Specialist Jordan and I drafted our thoughts on logos, color palettes, fonts, and the general look of Lifehash, we met up with Arie to brainstorm what we wanted to do with what we had worked on.
I really enjoy testing our logo designs in web mockups, because it gives me a better sense of the brand as a whole. Sometimes a color palette can completely change the “vibe” so to speak for a logo. At the end of the day, we’ll want something that is clearly data-centric, but also has an understanding that life and data go hand-in-hand. Data can often be seen as very black and white, or absolute. Life tends to have more fluidity and change. I’m excited to find the perfect blend for Lifehash.
- Jordan Trouw, Marketing Operations Specialist
Lifehash has to be three things. Friendly, secure, and techy. Those are the qualities we want to broadcast visually while we convey its usefulness through language. There were some hits and some misses, sketches made on the fly, disagreements, and eventually, consensus.
We talked about so many possibilities, everything from Bauhaus to Robinhood. Jordan favored a bold, contrasting, tech-leaning visual. My input was generally rounder, brighter, and more monochromatic. Both concepts were designed to leave a strong impression without blending in and risking being forgettable.
My personal feeling is that, when someone is researching a product, the one they come back to tends to be the one that leaves the strongest memory. But Arie pointed out that the most successful products often have similar branding. For example, Facebook blue is similar to Twitter blue is similar to LinkedIn blue. So the branding used also has to be trustworthy and fall within the potential user’s expectations for that type of product.
We’re still working out the colors. But we figured out our starting point. My round designs got squared off and punched up. The result is bright, strong, and approachable.
Lifehash is postmodern but cheerful. Professional, but still a little playful. And by Arie’s suggestion, we’re using this incredibly cool midcentury modern font inspired by Arabic calligraphy (really!) that I immediately fell in love with.
What do you think? Do you want a powerful tool to keep an eye on your data and use it the way data gurus do? If so, what would you expect that software to look like? Do you want it to look that way? Do you think certain visuals are overused or are you more likely to trust something that resembles something you already use? Comment below, or send a tweet, we want to hear from you.
Lifehash is, after all, for you. What does your Lifehash look like?
