If you could get leaders from Etsy, Foursquare and GroupMe in the same room to talk design, what would you ask them? Well, here’s your chance.

We’ve joined forces with these three NY-based mobile startups to pitch a panel concept that follows the well-received format of our SXSW “Design and the Mobile Startup” discussion in Austin. Help us drum up the votes for an inspiring and insightful discussion with New York’s most successful mobile startups about their backgrounds, design processes, challenges and key elements to success.

1. Ask your question: www.akko.co/IW12.

2. Vote!

On March 11th 2012 at SXSW, Studio Akko founder Ron Goldin coordinated and led a panel discussion with several influential leaders from successful start-ups.

The panel included Foursquare’s Head of Product Alex Rainert, Foodspotting co-founder/CEO Alexa Andrzejewski, and Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger who spoke of how great mobile design experiences begin and evolve. They covered an overview of vision, the designer’s role, multidisciplinary collaboration, alternatives to user research, the nuances of mobile interface design, and the challenges of scaling a mobile product.

Presenting to a room packed to its 350 person capacity, a further couple of hundred attendees (including many friends!) unfortunately were turned away, showing the relevance of both the content and panel members to the SXSW community. A huge thanks to Morgan Holzer (@msh) who provided a video of the entire discussion for those who couldn’t attend.

Following the success of this topical discussion, Studio Akko will be looking at other forums to present this format with a fresh lineup of engaging panelists.

Original panel description:

http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP11295

Accompanying slides:

http://akko.co/mobiledsgn

What people said:

https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23mobiledsgn

Getting ready to begin.

"Startup Village" at the Hilton

Alex Rainert and Co. passing the line outside Salon A

Photo from an audience member (thanks!)

Photo from an audience member (thanks!)

The whole lineup:

Yapp Events (https://www.yapp.us/)

Gowatchit (http://gowatchit.com/)

Engagio (http://engag.io)

Float (http://floatschedule.com/)

Unroll.me (http://unroll.me/)

Kapitall (http://Kapitall.com)

Squarespace v6 Beta Premiere (http://bit.ly/kJ2xDV)

Jump In The Pool* (http://jumpinthepool.com/app)

* made in 24  hours!

Below: Kapitall screenshot (wow).

While the jury’s still out on whether Microsoft’s new rebrand as part of the Windows 8 release is a perfect specimen, overall it’s definitely a step in the right direction in terms of its simplicity and demonstration of the increasingly mature design culture brewing in Redmond. Most entertaining have been the array of “looks like” comments, which are surprisingly diverse given the simplicity of the form:

• blue screen of death
• a Scandinavian flag
• a cross
• a bento box
• a picture frame that needs adjusting
• the Windows 1.0 logo (is this a criticism or a clever throwback?)

Regardless of whether you love it or hate it, the ferver of reactions is one of many recent reminders that both the media and the increasingly design-savvy consumer are vocal in their public scrutiny of brands that effect the products we use each and every day.

 
1. Being a designer at a startup is a state of constant audit - you’re constantly looking at the flow and thinking about what can be changed to improve the product.




2. There’s always a balance of incremental vs. framework-level changes. Research and analytics can help decide whether the problem is a quick fix or whether its time to make a more fundamental change in approach.




3. Sometimes it’s worth shipping a feature just for the sake of learning things about the customer. We even go far as to remove certain features to make the outcome of the research endeavor more focused.




4. Advocating for UX in a startup can come from everywhere: to support our actions, we look at logs, customer support, even tweets that badmouth features.




5. Collaboration and trust matters more than process. Sometimes this means letting go of control to make the team work well together and deliver the best product.




6. Sometimes developers end up doing some form of design. When a whole experience can’t be fully speced by a designer, having a developer take a stab at the in-between helps them to become better product people by working closely with the designer, making the whole team stronger.




7. A lot of non-designers do some form of interaction design by simply being smart, user-centered thinkers. One of the things a well-trained IxDer brings to the table is bringing a level of consistency to that thinking across experiences and devices.

Chad Thornton (@chadt) is the first official interaction designer at Airbnb, the online service that helps you find non-hotel accommodations while away from home.

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