Beta Product Design
The third time is the charm.
We just completed our third (actually our third.5) design document. Two years ago, we worked with Sidehatch Studios to complete our first design doc. One year ago, Semiotic Technologies completed our second. And, as you may remember from an earlier blog posting, we collaborated with 360KID back in December on a preliminary design doc.
Continuing to work with 360KID over the last three months, we have just wrapped up work on a more extensive design, easily the most extensive thus far. It’s a place we could not have reached without having gone through our earlier efforts at planning the user experience and art direction. The product has evolved tremendously in just a short time. It’s a very different experience than what we developed in our prototype and what we have yet to reveal on this site. Yet, we could not have possibly reached this point without having gone through earlier iterations.
As I wrote in an email to a potential funder, we have been thinking deeply about the issue of financial education, and considering how best to provide youth and adults an exciting financial education product, for some time. In recent months, since our economy has gone wild, we’ve noticed an increasing number of competitors and rising interest in this area. We’re more ready than ever to confront the challenge and seize the opportunity.
Over the next two weeks, we expect to settle on a developer with which to collaborate toward launching our Beta this summer. We have engaged in extensive dialogue with three development houses, and more recently a fourth, to turn this new design document into a real product that youth and adults acoss the country can enjoy and benefit from. Again, we’ve learned so much from the work put in over the last two years. The road ahead will be deeply informed by the journey thus far.
Stay tuned.