As with many of our product-focused projects, both are in stealth mode so we can’t name any names but stay tuned for more details.

We’ve also been growing our team. We’re working with several new designers, developers and producers who are helping 17FEET continue to do great work. We’re always looking for talented folks to join our team. We’d love to hear from you.

Check out our current job openings.

The project is the culmination of 4 months of research, usability testing, design and development working along side the great team at Next10, who sponsor the challenge.

One of the realizations we had early on as we talked to the people using the Budget Challenge was that half the audience wanted more information with deeper dives into policy data while the other half simply wanted a high level primer on the state budget and choices involved to fix it.

With that as our Challenge, 17FEET set out to create a multi-layered interface that would allow someone taking the Challenge to get the basics, while providing access to deeper data for the policy folks to sink their teeth into.

We’re happy with the result and in the end we hope we helped to shed a little bit of light in how we can all educate ourselves and help fix our states budget woes.

Think you’ve got what it takes to balance the California state budget?

Give it a try!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203358704577237353576597194.html

At 17FEET we’ve aways had a culture of making stuff from custom designer toys to t-shirts. In a few hours we once designed and built a mobile web app that locates oyster happy hours around you, and we’re currently working on a iPhone app centered around discovering great cocktails- what’s not to love about that?  The point is, I think it’s important not to just do design as work, but to always be thinking and making. It might be cooking, drawing, sewing, or iOS development, but it all feeds the creative beast and the great studios understand this and cultivate it.

What are your thoughts on designing outside of the realms of client work? Are there good examples of successful applications or businesses that came out of this type of culture?Onward and upward. Go make something!

The infographic, launched today on the Salesforce.com blog is the handiwork of Sr. Designer Seth Hamlin and in our humble opinion is pretty sweet.

But, jeez, does there have to be  a confusing picture of Jimmy Wales at the top of the page when I simply wanted to know if Eddie Money’s real last name is Money.

If you looked at this page wouldn’t you think the guy with “Eddie Money” under his picture is Eddie Money? When the page loaded I thought, “hmm Eddie looks pretty good, must be an old picture.”

I’m all for dead simple design that works. Craigslist – don’t change a thing. But when the design so clearly breaks the experience and potentially confuses people it might be time to look at a slightly different approach.

By the way, Eddie’s real last name is Mahoney.

Think about the path to purchase when flipping through an app catalogue – iTunes, Android, Chrome Store, etc. Decisions are made in a matter of seconds. The true consideration comes when people interact with the product.

It’s interesting to see how companies are approaching the eye/try/buy cycle in the digital space. Over the next weeks we’ll be looking at some examples.

One approach is to be dead simple. Dropbox, the powerfully simple file sharing product is embracing this. They’ve got great word of mouth. They know what you’re here for and, that they can be most successful if you just try the product. So, they’ve created the easiest path.

The design of their logged-out homepage makes the choice very simple and says, this is super simple and we don’t need to junk it up. Trust us and give it a try. This seemingly undesigned page has some interesting attributes. The emphasis on the “download dropbox” button communicates that this is the most important thing to do. Also, the use of the downward arrow feels like a progression – a standard arrow for this action but in the context of this page, it feels even more action oriented.

Sometimes less is more, particularly when you want people to get straight to the goods and let the product do the talking.

17FEET got it’s start doing innovative marketing sites for big brands and agencies. We still do. But our focus has increasingly been on making things people use, whether it’s part of  brand and marketing campaign or a digital tool that adds real value to real people. This has caused our process to change a little bit too. We’re more agile in everything we do from initial concepting to creative development to final designs and we’re getting to better results quicker. We love this more streamlined process and so do out clients.

On that note, this blog and twitter is where you’ll find our most current news, quips, thoughts and rants. Stop in and say hi. If you read something you love or hate, let us know!

In the meantime, we’d love to to talk about your next big project, and if you’re a designer or web developer who’s passionate about the web and making amazing digital experiences, come on by, the coffee’s on us.

See you soon.