This is our own project, rather than a client project, but there are some great insights here that we’re excited to share.

First of all, we learned that it isn’t all that daunting to launch a new product into a seemingly saturated market. When you have another take on how to serve the market, provided every touch point tells this story, you can find success.

Kipu is a great example of how the experience of a product isn’t covered by just the design and function of the app itself. We spent a great deal of time considering how we were going to break into an underserved market which had learned to loathe the kind of product we were offering them

.We addressed this across every touch point of the product, from the tone of the content to the style of the app to the marketing material, and certainly how we were going to present and seed ourselves to the market.

The result was thousands of prelaunch email signups and a rabid base of users who couldn’t wait to have the chance to work with Kipu. Yes, the product was carefully designed to serve the market, but it’s not enough to have a great product if you can’t reach an engaged user base.

The post NEW WORK: Kipu, taking the pain out of time tracking. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

And on the Kipu front, we’ve got a Kipu iPhone app in development along with another round of updates to the Web app before we take it public. You’ll surely be seeing a lot more from Kipu this summer!

And all of this as we gear up for another excursion to SXSW, this time with Matt and Gabriel joining me. Though, sadly, for a much shorter period of time than in previous years when I had the chance to stay for music, with stops in San Fran, New Orleans and Chicago. But I’ll be sure to cram in as much chaos as possible into this year’s SXSW trip as I’ll be speaking with Jon Lax about value pricing at Monday the 14th’s Abolish the Hourly, DJing on the 12th at the Maple Leaf Digital Lounge and (hopefully!) again on the 13th.

And all the while we’ve been tackling a number of other great client projects which should start to see the light of day soon.

*phew*

And now back to work!

The post Oh dear, it’s March! Travel time, project updates, and more. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

We’ve been busy working on a number of mobile initiatives in November, including Kipu mobile which includes exploring ideas on mobile time tracking and calendaring. We’re looking at platforms beyond iOS and will hopefully have some more specific project news to share soon.

We’re also really excited to be working with two great teams that both make their homes in Liberty Village: NuLayer and Teehan+Lax. NuLayer was recently featured as an up and coming app agency in Toronto Life, while Teehan+Lax has long been considered one of the preeminent UX shops in Toronto. Together, we’ve been making magic and hope to keep doing so well into 2011.

Finally, we’ve been working with Tim Shore and a great team at Freshdaily with some exciting stuff in the works. We’ll be sharing more about that soon.

All in all, an exciting holiday season is in the works!

The post Client news: mobile and more… appeared first on Say Yeah!.

The Chokehold of Calendars discusses the concept of a goal oriented calendar, rather than using a calendar to reference interruptions of your working time.

In Mike’s words:

In my experience, most people don’t schedule their work. They schedule the interruptions that prevent their work from happening.

This aligns directly with our goals for Kipu and, as we look to improve on the planning of future time within Kipu’s calendar, this concept introduces all sorts of ideas around improving the ease of billable time entry, collaboration, and more.

Stowe Boyd responds:

I also believe that calendars that will be smart about why and how we work will also be integrated with streams. For example, commentary and work products (a deck, say) that we create in support of a meeting could be annotated with appropriate metadata so they would stream to the participants and be attached appropriately to the meeting object, as well.

This falls directly into what companies like Brainpark are continuing to develop in providing organizations with collaborative streams and company wide access to information and resources. Just another reason we’re excited to be able to count Brainpark among our friends and collaborators as we continue to explore ways technology can lead to a more rewarding personal and professional life. Exciting times!

The post Stealing time. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

We’ve done well to develop an internal naming process where we gather details about product, target, corporate personality, and competition before mapping out concepts which lead to related, suitable name options.

Even this process, however, invites surprise. Emotion can sometimes take the lead, as it did with Say Yeah, or you can find yourself staring down well-considered metaphoric, literal, and other options while someone comes in from left field with new party suggestions, as with Kipu.

Yet, in both of these cases, by understanding the product and recognizing the strategy behind it, we’ve been able recognize when we find a name that resonates with the company and product culture. In the end, it means we’ve settled on a name that makes it all the more easy to share our passion around the product. That’s really exciting!

Beyond that, you’ve got your due diligence to do. Trademark searching, domain registration (the most difficult area of compromise for any new product), along with linguistics and other research which is dependent on target and geography.

Marty Neumeier, who wrote the exceptional book, The Brand Gap, shared this slide a few years ago, highlighting key naming styles:

• Descriptive
• Suggestive
• Metaphorical
• Neological
• Historical
• Arbitrary

Once you’ve gathered product, target, marketing strategy, and competitive info, this is a good starting point for naming discussions. And if you want any help in this area, give us a shout. We love collaborating on such creative and fun challenges.

The post What’s in a name. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

See more Kipu with the brand new features page.

And if you haven’t signed up for the beta yet, now’s your chance to get on the list for free and complete access to Kipu through 2010.

The post Kipu features list and screenshots. Plus, all of Kipu in 2010, for free. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

You know, those photos that ship with the iPad are fine, but I’m loving my Kipu wallpapers. They’re cute, uncluttered, and bright like sunshine.

Here’s how they look on my iPad:

I bet you want these for yourself now, right? No problem! Download them from our flickr wallpaper gallery. (They work in portrait and landscape mode, no matter how many icons you have!)

Download:
Full resolution Kipu iPad lock screen.
Full resolution Kipu iPad home screen.

The post Kipu for your iPad! appeared first on Say Yeah!.

We love our 2D Kipu but that doesn’t mean he’s ready for Saturday morning cartoons. Bob commented on our Kipu for your phone article saying:

“The background artwork is nice. The character itself needs a bit more depth or life to it. Maybe by adding some stroke outlines or some simple one tone shadows. If Kipu is a Raccoon, he definitely needs some stripes on his tail.”

Then he sent this image in his followup email:

“This is what I had in mind based on the comment I made on your website.”

Very cool! Thanks Bob. So what do you think?

The post Kipu redesign by concerned observer Bob Wiley. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Earlier this week we put up some I Need Sugar wallpaper to help combat the general issues of Apple’s built in lock screen options and the busy home screen wallpapers that make your icons difficult to see. Well, we’re super excited now to offer Kipu wallpapers which are not only cute as can be, but the home screen wallpaper is so springtime it’ll make your icons want to dance!

Click to download the lock screen and home screen:

How they look in action:

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