Interview: David Mingay, Creative Director at ustwo

This week we have had a chance to interview David Mingay,  Creative Director at ustwo, about the work they have done on the new Tesco Hudl. Hudl is Tesco’s new 7-inch HD tablet that aims to open up a world of entertainment and connectivity to all.

ustwo™ partnered with Tesco to define, design and implement a world-class user experience across the entire Hudl tablet environment. By focusing on the users’ needs and requirements, ustwo™ looked at key areas of the tablet experience, including first time use journeys, effective widget design and a ‘Getting Started’ app to guide and teach the user about the possibilities of their device.

Without further ado here is the interview:

Mobile Orchard: Share a bit of your history with us, how did you get started in the industry?

David Mingay: ustwo™ was founded back in late 2004 in a kitchen with the help of a £5000 family loan to buy two laptops. Our mission was to build a studio where like-minded creatives could work under one roof, share unique ideas and ultimately bring them to life. We set about creating an environment that we looked forward to coming to each day. The business was about being creative with technology, and this meant we found ourselves in a fast moving industry where we could make a difference. Our first client was Sony Ericsson and as a company they encouraged flexibility throughout the working environment and so did we.

Like a lot of design companies that are run by ‘creative types’, it goes without saying that if you enjoy the space you work in, the chances are that the majority of staff will be of a similar mindset and thrive there. So from day one our company culture has always been our bedrock and has been crucial to our success as it’s really what makes us different. We have something unique, which comes from the simple notion to build a company that wasn’t all about work, but instead about life, passion and play. We firmly believe that environment directly relates to culture, so if you hire the right people, create the right environment, then you are two thirds of the way there. The only missing component is getting the right work in through the doors.

We’re now 170 people working out of 3 studios in London, New York and Malmö (Sweden)

MO: Did you have a special process for getting from idea to the final product?

DM : The Hudl project was a little different from the norm in that the Tesco had already developed some of the ideas, and wanted us involved to help with both the design and execution.

Tesco wanted to go that extra mile to ensure the final tablet experience was as good as it could be and we very much shared that focus.

The process for was split in two: firstly, we had just two weeks to redesign the first time use experience, all the widgets and the Tesco Launcher system and present this as a click-through prototype. This involved a team of User Experience Designers, User Interface Designers and Motion Designers working together in a project room (the war room), collaborating to bring fresh ideas, clear design approaches and executions all together in one experience.

This was then presented to some senior Tesco stakeholders using Apple keynote – a good tool for demonstrating high resolution prototypes, as it’s very good at mocking up transitions, user taps and video in a seamless manner.

Once signed off, the project reverted to more of a typical project methodology, whereby the same team then set about refining the user journeys, designs, iconography, widgets, sounds, icons etc and getting it all production ready for the final drop.

For the Tesco Launcher app, we worked closely with Tesco’s third party development company Novoda, who spent a lot of build time in our studio collaborating with us to ensure the experience and quality/smoothness of transitions were exactly aligned to our vision – they did a great job here. To help, we produced a number of motion design mockups using Adobe After Effects just to get those transitions and interactions just right.

MO: What would you say was the most challenging aspect of the project?

DM: Definitely the Tesco Launcher app as we we needed to strike a balance between a service that is a visually exciting experience in terms of interaction and movement and one that remains practically useful for target users. It also needed to be easily customisable as well as being aligned with Android user experience paradigms.

MO: How long did it take to produce the final product?

DM: From start to finish the whole project took around 3 months to complete. Obviously the team shape and size varied during that time.

MO: Did you have a large team working on this project or a smaller team, and which would you recommend?

DM: At it largest, the team was around thirteen people and at its smallest we were running a three person outfit. Team sizes all depends on the project and where it is in the lifecycle. The key however is always to focus on the project outcomes and to being pragmatic to the various twists and turns a project can take. This is a real strength of ustwo; for example we were originally only tasked to look at the widgets and Tesco Launcher app, but we ended up doing system sounds, icons and secondary wallpapers too. We have such a strong set of people at ustwo™ that we’re able to provide a quality of service I think is unrivalled in the industry. Lastly, strong planning, project management and client collaboration are key to underpinning productive engagements such as this.

MO: How was working with a large company, such as TESCO, different from working with smaller companies?

DM: Working with Tesco was massively enjoyable due to the fact that they have a talented team that take user experience design very seriously. This approach is also echoed right up to the senior level of the company. This is very unusual in a large company and I would say it bodes well for Tesco’s long term Digital Experience strategy – they’re really taking this seriously.

Usually larger companies come with the risk of having stakeholders who don’t understand or “get” digital. This is exacerbated by not have the access to those stakeholders in order to “manage” viewpoints. With a smaller company this is less of a risk as you usually get the chance to manage stakeholders directly. However, the smallness can result in small project ambition, budget and timescales – and this can be equally frustrating.