IoT innovation has been steadily emerging for the last decade. But in the coming years, it’s poised to take over big time. Where smart speakers were once in 6.6% of US households in 2016 and 32% in late 2018, that number is expected to rise to 75% of homes by 2025 — and that’s just one example of this rapidly growing sector.

With the network of devices expanding and becoming more commonplace in daily settings, the interconnected “world of the future” is shaping up around us. And it’s this rapid IoT transformation that’s paving the way for new innovations and possibilities — as well as fresh competitive advantage for brands who jump on board.

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At Cheesecake Labs, we’ve created a four-phase methodology for successful app development: product definition, product design, product development, and product optimization.

Utilizing this process ensures an app meets — and often surpasses — the expectations of our clients, their stakeholders and, most importantly, the users.

In the first installment of this blog series, we explained how our first phase — Product Definition — helps set the stage for successful design and development. Now it’s time to look at Phase #2: Product Design. In this guide, we’ll explain how the Cheesecake Labs team approaches application UI and UX design — and why that unique approach delivers real value to your business. Continue Reading

So you’ve got a brilliant idea for a new app or service, your colleagues and team are all onboard. Great. Now you’ve started thinking about how to build it and who could help build it. Even better. But hold up a second, what exactly is it you’re creating?

Will your app have an audience when it reaches the market? Does it align with, and benefit your business strategy? Is there a clear problem being solved? These are the questions you need to ask before you get started. Continue Reading

Innovation matters. It is determinant for organizational growth and consequently to the products that we are building.

Having said that, when it comes down to exploring new opportunities that could lead us to innovation, the way we build and tell these stories can lead us to success (or not). But why isn’t that so easy? Because we are programmed with many behavioral mechanisms that prevent us from acting. To briefly illustrate, one of these behavioral mechanisms is the so-called “negativity bias.” Continue Reading

Change the Game Challenge is an initiative brought by Google Play to inspire teens to build a more inclusive future for mobile gaming. The challenge was made available to girls between 15 and 21 years old attending elementary school. The prizes include get to know Google’s office in São Paulo, have access to online courses and work with Google’s partners. Isn’t that amazing?

Having said that, I wanted so much to contribute to this project!

In the end, I came up with a pretty good solution for a better understanding of game mechanics and goals, applying product thinking and storytelling techniques. I called the Game Design Canvas.

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I recently shared content about Product Thinking during an event and this mindset is changing the way I’m looking at Projects and Products.

There are great articles out there about Product Thinking, like this one, but no canvas that brings together all the main questions Product Thinking focuses on.

With that being said, I took a stab at it and created one (there is a tiny possibility others are looking for something like this but never found it).

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“Branding experience is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

So how about having a seat and staying in the room? To have a seat nowadays, a brand should have feelings and opinions, not just sell itself. Otherwise, it will have to leave the room. That’s what we call Branding Experience.

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How one methodology allowed me to create a great design system from scratch and made me a better developer, with principles of componentization, hierarchies and reuses of code.

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Depending on your journey as a designer, you may be used to the freedom that graphic media allows: to create overlaps/overlays or to elaborate compositions and grids that fill all the paper with pretty organized photos and texts. However, why is it so hard to build a web page with this same freedom? Fortunately the capacity to build these layouts have been improving and what’s best: it is so simple that you can start using it right now!

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The year is 2017 and despite all advances in software development methodologies, many product teams still tend to separate – or even dissociate – the design process from the development workflow.

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