This is a draft.
Our team is currently cracking away at creating more content to make our Handbook something increggdible. Soon, you'll be able to explore it fully. In the meantime, think of it as a carton of eggs, each section packed with the potential to deliver something eggceptional.
Design
Design is at the heart of who we are. We are design-led.
First of all, let's get this straight: Design is not art. Not at Significa, at least.
Yes, we still care about good looking things. Impeccable looking things, actually! But as yet another instrument to a grander purpose: to create better products.
Now, as a Designer at Significa, you aren't a UI Designer, or a UX Designer, or a Service Design, or a Product Designer, or a Motion Designer. No! At Significa, you are a Designer. Period.
That's because, in our context, all these things are inseparable. Design comes as a package. Equipped with various tools to make it happen.
We breathe Design. We sweat Design. Design is in us. We are led by Design.
Although not necessarily artists, we are exceptionally creative. Not in the artistic sense but rather as a tendency to render problem-solving hypotheses. In other words, we solve problems through and with Design.
It might sound very light-hearted of us to say we solve problems with Design. But as a matter of fact, Design is our driver for product development.
The absurdly-great importance of Design comes from the fact that it integrates the business goals, the product requirements, people's needs, strategy, technology, marketing, and so many other stuff. All of this combined with outstanding looking things.
At Significa, a designer isn't someone who merely makes things look good. Even though they can do that very well. Alternatively, a designer is one who thinks laterally, one that pays attention to context, considers consequences, is product-minded, puts users and usability ahead, and understands that an elegant solution is more than just a good looking one!
Another thing that tells us apart from your typical software house – which we strictly aren't – is our obsession with designing emotionally-driven products. You know, humans are emotional creatures to whom a split second of emotion may change the entire perception of a product. We work in this realm: strong, emotional brands paired with phenomenally-designed, exciting interfaces, skyrocket the potential of products.
On with the show, though. We do Interface Design and Branding. The latter only if there's an associated interface project alongside. In other words, we don't do standalone Branding projects.
Far too iterative to sprint.
Design is far too iterative to be held in Sprints. Either with clients or users, the frequency of iterations and the amount of changes and discussion, it provokes disables its feasibility in Sprints.
There are far more iterations than what a siloed Sprint of X weeks would allow. Design needs flexibility, room for manoeuvring, and space for dancing back and forth. Design ignites critical mass. Its iterative nature and inherent flexibility jumpstart discussions on product development and strategy, to name only a couple.
Decoupling Design from its nature, trying to fit its round peg into Development's square hole, would be absolutely damaging to itself, its purpose, and the products it serves.
Sprints do not fit that mould. They restrain the enormous potential of Design as an ideation tool. They would be a bottleneck rather than a helping hand. And yes! We run Design and Development with two distinct methodologies.