Software Without Compromise

Everybody loves their iPod, and rightly so. It's one of the greatest technology products of all time. The iPod experience is the sum of many parts: design, development, etc. One of Apple's biggest strengths is their ability to put all of these pieces together effectively. If the iPod was ugly, unusable, had buggy software, or felt lousy in your hands, it wouldn't be the same device; it would be mediocre like all of the other portable mp3 players that came before and after it.

On the web, shops are usually run with a strong focus on one piece of the puzzle. Some firms are development-centric, others are design-centric, others still are business-centric. A shop's core skill usually trumps everything else. Even when they hire consultants to fill the gaps in their skill set, shops tend to keep focused on their core competencies, failing to properly execute the work of the consultants. It seems to happen everywhere — even in the best shops.

So, having the best people work on the product isn't enough; to achieve greatness, there has to be tight collaboration between all parts. The developers must respect and understand the designers, and likewise. Most importantly, no one concern can trump another.

Introducing Giraffetyp

Today, we're excited to be announcing a new software company. User experience design firm Arktyp, and software development company GiraffeSoft are joining forces to offer the type of tightly integrated process that results in greatness. Also, we'll be launching our first product sometime in the next little while (more about that later — subscribe to hear first!).

Our Process

Software developers have this really great methodology called Agile Development. Instead of planning a long development cycle up front (the norm, known as waterfall), projects are scheduled in many very short iterations. It turns out that planning an application up front doesn't work all that well; it's nearly impossible to know exactly what you need from a software application right at the beginning. You've got to shape it as it comes to life. With agile, after each iteration, the current state of the application is assessed. At this time, changes to the plan are not only possible, they're encouraged.

As it turns out, designers have been working this way nearly forever. So, it was only natural for us to look for a way to integrate design in to an agile development process. Instead of looking at design and development as two separate pieces, we see at ourselves as working toward the same goal: great software. We evolve the design and development in tandem, resulting in a perfectly tailored solution.

As a client of Giraffetyp, our process means:

  • You'll see working software sooner.
  • You'll get to try out more of your ideas.
  • The design system will always work perfectly for the current version of your app; and, nothing will ever be an afterthought.
  • Your brand will evolve with your product, resulting in more meaningful, and effective communication with your users.
  • The featureset will be based on your actual use of the system, instead of guesses, and speculation.

The Team

James Golick is the development lead at Giraffetyp. His experience ranges from artificial intelligence to web front-end / javascript development. Most recently, James has fallen back in love with web development due to a great new framework called Ruby on Rails. Since discovering rails just over a year ago, he has become a prolific contributor to its open source ecosystem, as the author of several well-used plugins, and gems, and contributor to countless others, including the framework itself. James is an advocate for well-written, well-tested software. For more of James's opinions on software development, and open source projects, check out his blog.

Tony Schibono is the design director at Giraffetyp. With over 12 years of experience directing both print and digital design projects, Tony leads with a pragmatic and elevated perspective on design innovation. He is a tireless advocate for building strategic brands that are unique in their marketplace, visually appropriate, and succeed to connect with an audience in meaningful and relevant ways. At Arktyp, Tony leads inter-disciplinary teams of creative talents and technical gurus. For more on Arktyp and an extensive viewing of Tony's design work, see Arktyp's portfolio.

Between the two of us, we are responsible, at least in some part, for Adobe's Kuler, Standout Jobs, TWiT.tv, AmberMac.com, kluster, Macleans.com, Video District, and more.

Hire Us!

We are available for projects, big and small. If you have a product you'd like to see come to life, or one that you'd like to take to the next level, contact us via email or give us a call @ (416) 848 7372.

This Site

Giraffetyp started as an ongoing conversation between Arktyp and GiraffeSoft about building great products. This site will serve as a place for us to continue that conversation, and hopefully to bring some more people in to the dialog. Subscribe for updates about our process, thoughts about the industry, and info about our products.