A FLAT VIEW.
When a design enquiry arrives, our first question is not how it should look. It is who will use it, where, and for what purpose. The work begins by examining the space between the brief and the situation in which the result will be used.
The name Flatbitstudio expresses a wish to approach things from a flat perspective: to look without letting personal taste or a familiar method decide the answer in advance. We consider both the person commissioning the work and the person using it, then decide where attention is needed. For us, a flat view means examining the assumptions behind a decision before making it.
READ THE DETAILS.
A sound overall direction can still contain small points of friction. The order of words, the density of information, the response after an action. With an interface, we look beyond a single screen to what comes before and after it. With a product, we consider the points of contact and the posture in which it is used. Reading these details gives the design its structure.
We move between the detail and the whole. Does improving one interaction make another situation harder to understand? Does a stronger visual treatment obscure the message? We refine the result by checking both the quality of its appearance and its clarity in relation to its purpose.
MORE THAN ONE WAY.
Flatbitstudio,Inc. is now in its fifteenth fiscal year. Our work has ranged from regional businesses to companies operating worldwide, across product design, app UI/UX, brand expression and service development. Each setting asks something different of us. What we learn in one field becomes another way of looking at the next.
A problem that appears to belong to a screen may become clearer when the underlying workflow is examined. A working prototype may move a discussion forward more effectively than a collection of visual proposals. We therefore move between design and technology as the work requires. The value of broad experience lies in choosing an appropriate method for the problem in front of us.
THINK. MAKE. TEST.
The tools available to make things are changing rapidly. We use AI in research, prototyping, production and development. Making a first version sooner creates time to test it. Exploring several approaches helps us clarify why we choose one. We care about using the speed of a tool to make the work more considered.
Daily practice has convinced us that a contemporary designer needs to observe, organise information, understand technology and make things that can be tested. We turn an idea into a prototype, examine it, and proceed to implementation. After release, we look at how it is used and continue to improve it. This approach runs through both our own services and our commissioned work.
Begin with a flat view. Read the details. Choose the method the work needs. We draw on experience while reaching a decision for the task at hand. In this Journal, we want to write about what we noticed and why we made a particular decision, as well as the finished work.