Matter » Research | Strategy | Design Consulting

New Perq Preview Site Launched

ash — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:40:45 +0000

Early adopters and other others interested can now get a further glimpse at Perq on the newly launched preview site. The site features new information about the Perq app, an FAQ page, and sign-up form. We are excited about the pending release of Perq, and feedback suggests our customers are too. Have a look at the site and sign up for updates to keep informed about this best-in-class business application!

New Web-App Product Nearing Launch

ashwp — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:58:22 +0000

Time to let the cat out of the bag, as it were. Since early this year, Matter has been discreetly designing and developing a best-in-class Web-based business application, and the day of its launch is nearing.

For over seven years, Matter has applied research and multidisciplinary design expertise to the products, interfaces, and systems of a diverse array of clients. Now, for the first time, Matter is directing its efforts toward its own products. The first such product, to be announced in 2009, is a Web-based business application called Perq. The product is for business owners and personnel managers, supporting the HR function of creating policy and managing requests for time off, or “leave”.

The formulas for accruing and “spending” vacation, sick days, and other leave types can be surprisingly complex for staff as well as employers, especially if different levels of tenure are involved. And once you’ve overcome the complex rules, there is the burden of ensuring those rules are followed and that money and effort aren’t wasted in the form of mis-accounted leave. Perq simplifies and automates all these problems with a simple, enjoyable interface commanding powerful logic and algorithms. Perq gives business owners, team managers, and HR professionals an elegant and solid solution to problems they often prefer not to think about, and it gives whole teams of staff and managers a clear view into an otherwise unclear picture of who is on leave, and when.

At Matter, we have long been ambivalent enthusiasts and critics of “Web 2.0″ rhetoric, as well as the product morass. And it is both enthusiasm and criticism that compel us to enter the crowded Web application market. There had to be a market need, and we had to be sure we could uphold our commitment to quality. With both those factors clear, we now confidently and responsibly bring Perq to light.

We established early on that any venture in this area would adhere to Matter principles of user-centered design and its standards of excellence in form and function. This is the value we provide to clients in our strategic design practice; it is imperative we provide it to product customers as well.

We look forward to revealing more in the coming weeks and months, and to making other exciting announcements. Stay tuned here or subscribe to the RSS feed for ongoing updates about this exciting new product and its development. And let us know here if you would like to participate in the Perq private beta test.

Matter Launches Particular To Meet Particular Needs

ashwp — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:51:15 +0000

We are pleased to announce the launch of Particular, our offering focused on branding and visual design projects. Since its formation in 2002, Matter has offered expertise in identity systems, package design, interface design, and related visual design applications, all of which came along with Matter’s overarching strategic services. During that time, these activities have primarily been cast as part of more comprehensive or complex efforts, and not brought forward as a specialized offering. Now with Particular, those projects which were challenging to organize and classify under the Matter rubric, are specially identified and planned, providing new value to Matter clients.

Numerous client companies, ranging from Global 1000 to start-ups, have employed these special design services over the years, usually as ad hoc activities among many activities in a strategic program. Under the Particular structure, clients now procure these activities specifically, and we are better able to plan and deliver these applied design services.

We are booking Particular projects now, so please enjoy browsing the Particular site, and contact us to discuss your own Particular project.

Seeding the Agriculture Sector

Matter. — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:27:19 +0000

New strategic engagements mean foray into the agriculture sector for Matter, continuing a purposeful pattern of diversification.

One of the principal tenets at Matter is the furtherance of learning, and that includes purposeful interest in working across a variety of channels and industries. Matter believes a breadth of sector knowledge results in value and innovation for all its clients, as Matter is better able to identify and act on strategic design opportunities inspired from unexpected sources. Clients often are specifically interested in the strategic advantage of exploiting Matter methods and knowledge from sectors other than their own. Such is the case with new client conversations in the world of agriculture.

Agriculture is a fast-changing and fascinating sector, representing a surprising range of overlapping subject areas: technologies that range from wireless communication to value chain automation; food production and quality-of-life considerations; emerging topics of hybridization and genetic modification; national and global economic issues; as well as predictive modeling and risk management.

Matter is excited to add to its ’sector portfolio’ by developing further understanding of agriculture and anticipates interesting challenges and opportunities in applying systems thinking and strategic, humanistic design in this new fertile ground.

Matter. — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:18:10 +0000

Video

We recently held an Open House in which we invited friends, families, and colleagues to enjoy our new space as well as some good food and drink. Since in our research, we do a lot of observation with video, we thought we’d turn the camera on ourselves, so to speak.

Although you can’t see the whole Matter space or hear the good conversations, it’s interesting to see night fall and the patterns of activity.

Here’s the whole evening in time-lapse form condensed to about 14 minutes. (You’ll need Quicktime.)

Project Photos

Games for Change V, Come Out & Play III: Changing the Game in NYC

Matter. — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:30:41 +0000

If you are a young person without a high school degree, could games, gamer culture and the commercial game industry play a role in improving your career prospects?Matter thinks so, and under the auspices of our work on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s New Options for Youth Initiative, we have been exploring the possibilities. Recently in New York City we joined a group of similarly enthusiastic individuals and organizations to explore the transformative potential of serious games, games for social change, and big urban games. From the beginning of the week—at the Games for Change Festival’s social issues games workshop—through playing, refereeing and analyzing large scale outdoor games, we encountered a remarkable range of thoughtful, talented and inspiring proponents of play and social transformation. Matter participated in the events with special attention toward developments in philanthropy, the commercial game industry and new cross-sector collaborations between the two.

See the links below for additional information.

Games with a purpose:
Games for Change Fifth Annual Festival | June 2-4 New York City
Games for Change Organization
Serious Games

Big games:
Come Out & Play Festival | June 6-8 , 2008 New York City
Big Games Manifesto
MIT New Media Literacies Project overview of Big Games

Why games?
G4C’s Answer
Harvard Business Review Says Gamers Rule

“Information Design Workbook” Features Matter Perspectives

Matter. — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:10:31 +0000

The newly released “Information Design Workbook” from Rockport Press offers a thorough look at the disciplines and types of work that constitute “information design”. Matter work and the comments of principal Jeff Harris are featured.

Taking on a broad range of interpretations of “information design”, the book includes contributions from recognized firms such as frog design, Sagmeister, VSA Partners, and Pentagram. Matter contributed primarily to sections of the book about “Personas and Scenarios” and “Types of User Research and Testing”.

“Information Design is an aspect of nearly all our work,” says Matter principal Ash Arnett, “No matter what kind of system we’re designing, and whether we’re dealing with something as abstract as strategy or concrete as a specification, the clear and purposeful expression of information has everything to do with the meaning and experience of the content. We are glad to see and contribute to books like this, where knowledge and perspectives are shared.”

The Information Design Workbook is available at Amazon and through all major book retailers.

Matter Invited to Kellogg Action Lab

Matter. — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:29:13 +0000

Matter is pleased to announce its membership in the Kellogg Action Lab. This by-invitation participation makes Matter part of a group of consulting companies deemed particularly suited to work with non-profit and community-based organizations who are grantees of The W. K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF). In its central work with the New Options for Youth Initiative and the “0 to 8” strategic initiative, Matter has served vulnerable communities and the Foundation that supports them by providing innovation knowledge, tools and techniques for problem-finding and problem-solving, and design-based ways of working.

Working with WKKF, Matter is developing new ways to effect social change through design in philanthropy and new ways for grantmaking organizations to innovate and accelerate social value. Matter anticipates continued development in the arena of social value and views its membership in Kellogg Action Lab as an important part of that direction.

Anne Jensen of KaosPilots Completes Internship

Matter. — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:46:08 +0000

We are sad to bid farewell to KaosPilot Anne Toftelund Jensen, her keen perspective, her infectious energy, and her little salty licorice fish.

Anne is in the third and final year of the KaosPilots International School of New Business Design and Social Innovation in Denmark. She visited Matter this fall as part of that school’s World Internship program. To cap off their final year of school, Kaospilots arrange an eight-week internship to specialize in their chosen area of interest. We were delighted to have Anne direct her curiosity about service design and large systems design to our work here at Matter.

She hit the ground running working with Matter’s lead design team for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s New Options Initiative where she lent a hand with planning user research, articulating high level requirements, generating an opportunity map, and capturing lessons learned. We wish Anne well and expect to be hearing future tales of her leadership in the development of very interesting, very large scale design projects.

Jonathan Poore Joins as Program Manager

Matter. — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:01:24 +0000

Matter is pleased to welcome to the crew Jonathan Poore as Program Manager. Jonathan brings years of experience from EarthLink, where he worked as a Business Analyst and Program Manager on numerous mission-critical projects. His experience in information technology will serve Matter clients in the technology sector, and it will also provide an excellent basis for managing Matter projects that deal with complex systems of all kinds. Jonathan’s experience thinking in terms of systems and complexity, along with managing business and customer value will make him a tremendous asset to our team.