Jason Zimdars - 37Signals
Jason Zimdars ou apenas JZ trabalha como visual designer e front end developer na 37Signals. (uma empresa americana que desenvolve aplicações web para gerenciamento de projetos. Com aproximadamente 3 milhões de clientes, são os criadores de vários produtos de sucesso tais como: Basecamp, Backpack, Highrise e autores do livro: Getting Real) (clique aqui para ver em português)
1)Hey JZ, first of all, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to give us this interview and would like you to tell us about yourself, your life as a professional designer, and the “paths you’ve traveled down” to get where you are. (We also know that you’ve been a designer since your childhood, doing more artistic design earlier and now more… psychological design, since we’re talking about User Experience 
)
Thanks, it’s good to talk with you. As you mentioned I’ve always been interested in art and design — and technology. I feel like I grew up at a very interesting time. I’m old enough to remember the days before personal computers, but I’m still able to experience the amazing things we can do with technology today and use them in my career. By growing up when I did, I have a very fundamental relationship with technology. I dabbled with art and programming on very basic personal computers. I was able to learn HTML before WYSIWYG editors existed. Having that understanding of how these things work is important to me — I can’t imagine being part of the next generation for whom the computer has always been a part of their lives, but it’s just sort of this magical box. Sure kids in college today have tremendous advantages, but they may never get a chance to look under the hood like I did.
I was an “art kid” growing up and even in college was in a very traditional art program. Drawing, painting, ceramics; even the graphic design classes were largely traditional — we hand-drew letterforms, cut designs from paper and painted swatches. But this was also the time when the internet was blossoming. So, with a self-motivated interest in technology I explored computers and the web. Heck, I even talked a painting professor into letting me paint frames of an animation in class, then sequence them with Flash for a project.
Naturally, when it came to my professional career, I stuck with what I knew and liked best. That has always been human-computer interface. I think you’re going to do the best work when you do what you like and what interests you. I don’t have specific education or training in user experience, but I’m a pretty good user. They say the best training for writing is reading and I believe the best way to learn to make great software is to use it. Not only use software, but pay attention to what works, what doesn’t, what was unexpected, what could be better. Years of experience as a user helps you develop a feel for user experience that I doubt a school or book could teach you anyway.
2)How’s your creative process, from start to finish?
Design always begins on paper for me. My sketchbook is where I work out my ideas. I like that with paper I can quickly try a lot of variations and have a record to return to later. Once I’ve got an idea or two that I think is worth moving forward with, I try to get into some kind of mock-up where I can see it in as real a form as possible. Those mock-ups can be static comps or be right inside the application using mock functionality. But the idea is to go from paper to the browser as soon as you can.
Once in the browser it’s easier to see things you couldn’t work out on paper or in Photoshop. From there it becomes a process of iterating just going over and over it with small improvements until you have something really good.
3)Paper prototypes – do they really work? You recently “fired photoshop” from your life, how does that feel? Don’t you miss it even a little?
Well, I wouldn’t say that I “fired” Photoshop, but I have definitely changed the way I use it. Before joining 37signals, I worked a lot on client-driven websites. In those cases the Photoshop comp was our contract, we never proceeded forward with a website or application until we had approved comps. While this approach certainly ensured that we had a solid direction moving forward, it didn’t allow the design to continue to evolve and grow as we moved into code.
Even before joining 37signals, I had begun exploring the idea of working more directly in code and not in Photoshop. I noticed that whenever I designed for myself, I always started with mark-up and layered CSS and graphics on top of it. Even when you’re working from a comp there are things you can’t see until the design is in the browser. There can be awkward interactions that aren’t visible until you can click them. A static comp is just too illusionary to be the gospel for your design. So working out my ideas in the browser became my preferred way of working.
At 37signals we really believe in the Getting Real methods and part of that is making our work real. Sure, I might jump into Photoshop to quickly try a design idea that might take too much time or require too many code changes to see in code, but for the most part we try to work in the browser, with real code that we can click and resize and truly feel.
Most of the time we communicate ideas with each other with simple sketches and then jump right into the apps to try them out. Photoshop only comes into play when it’s a faster way to see and evaluate an approach.
Do I miss it? Not really. I still use Photoshop plenty, but it’s just another tool. It’s nice to not be making comps just for their own sake. The work that I’m excited about is in the browser so the sooner my process gets me there, the better my work is.
4)What tools do you use to find User Experience issues? Do you do usability testing? When? How often?
There aren’t any specific tools or tests that we use and yet we are constantly evaluating the usability in everything that we do. Its is rare that a day goes by when we aren’t working on something in our apps that could be better, be it copywriting, design, or customer service. Ease of use, clarity, and pure enjoyment are things that we expect of our products and every member of the team is always working to make sure we meet our standards and continue to improve them. This isn’t just the realm of designers, at 37signals everyone is involved in using, supporting, and improving our products. Programing, customer support, designers, right up to the partners that run the company; everyone is always keeping an eye on usability.
5)Working in a company that has customers around the world, do you have UX problems that don’t affect Americans, but affect Brazilians, for example? How do you solve this kind of problem?
Many of the design considerations we make have to do with copywriting and units of measure. There are subtle differences in the way US and other countries expect to see dates and times, in particular. This is an area where we’re still improving. Right now we’re fortunate that our customers are primarily English speaking, but I’m sure that will change as we consider localization and experience growth outside North America and Europe.
6)Where do you find inspiration?
Lots of places, but no place in particular. I don’t really seek inspiration, but I try to pay attention when it finds me. The things that I appreciate in the work of others are sincerity, clarity, beauty — the little things that seem clever, creative and make them enjoyable. You can tell when a product is made by someone who really loves it and truly wants people to love it, too. I look for those little moments in products, movies, music, whatever, where you kind of connect with the object. I try to imagine the thought that went into it and how that touch was created. It is a lifetime of experiencing these little moments that help me make them for others.
7)What are your favorite websites, and why?
I tend to visit sites more for their utility than simply for the sake of their design so I appreciate websites that work well and get me in and out quickly.
I really like CNN.com’s article pages. The tabs for media content are nicely done and the “story highlights” at the top of each article are a tremendous innovation. Many times that’s all I need to get what I need from a story.
I love the design and general spirit of Etsy.com. I have a lot of respect for people who make things with their hands.
I’m not a big fan of design galleries, but siteinspire.net stands out as one that truly has a voice. It is well designed and impeccably curated.
I can’t imagine shopping without Amazon.com. I love some of the stuff the guys are doing at Behance. Very nice, clean design. Threadless is another favorite — great design, amazing community.
Thanks a lot for this interview JZ. The closing comments are up to you… 
No, thank you! I enjoyed talking with you and I hope some of this is interesting to people out there. If I had to sum it all up, I’d just encourage everyone to keep learning, keep growing and always try to get better. So many things all around us can be better and design has a huge opportunity for impact in places you might never expect.
