Vijay Mathews (@vijaymathews) is a co-founder of W&Co., an interactive design & development agency based in New York. In the last few years, he’s built mobile apps and websites for a variety of clients, focusing on the education, non-profit, retail, and government sectors.
This conversation discusses running a multidisciplinary firm, the workflow and roles at W&Co., and the trouble with de facto standards in the design biz.

 
Show Notes & Links

W&Co. does Design AND Development, and has since the beginning
Chris Auyeung, Vijay’s co-founder at W&Co.
Josh Miles discussed the growth of his firm on a previous podcast episode
They now “do the kind of work they want to do”
They’ve stayed nimble so they can “keep the overhead low but still provide the quality of work they wanted to provide.”
“We didn’t have the mindset to say no to work; we were just getting started.”
Designers should “know and understand the capabilities and limitations” of software and devices
Zeitgeist, En Vogue … can you tell Prescott went to art school?
The Polymath aka The Renaissance Man
Vijay and his team have moved away from mobile applications toward broader digital/web projects
“Maintaining native applications across a wide variety of platforms and devices was impossible.”
80% Websites, 20% Apps
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript
“Do you need an app?” A question for webmasters and podcasters
Candy Crush
W&Co. applications on the iTunes store
How The Sausage Gets Made
Another reference to “The Museum in Minneapolis” (throwback to Episode 30 with Michael Bierut)
Ask yourself “What could it be?”
Websites that haven’t updated since 1997
“Should you be using a photo-editing tool for web mockups?” ← Click to Tweet
Word Processor Wars of the 1980s and The Browser Wars of the 1990s
XKCD Comic on competing standards
Previous episode on Project Management Apps with Bryan Orr
Lingua Franca
The Story of QuarkXPress
Prescott New Year’s Resolution for 2008: “Never use Quark again!”
Eisenhower Methodology, again
Remember The Milk

Tools

Adobe Creative Cloud
Jira for bug-tracking (and modified for project management)
Agile development

Techniques

Consider longevity in the marketplace (shorter-life projects can be more avant garde)
Don’t be too conservative during the ideation phase
Play to your strengths in your roles (designer, IA, etc.) but join forces as well to have multidisciplinary crossover
Utilise Master Pages in InDesign

Habits

Have a daily scrum meeting
Examine your calendar the night before
30-45 minute run early in the morning to clear the head
Arrive before the staff to sort email and admin