Sling hired us to produce an animation for market research purposes. The video was to be shown to the target audience for the product in order to gauge interest and excitement in it. This would help them decide whether to pursue and develop the product concept further. We wrote, recorded, storyboarded, and animated the video.
“Nyquist Design has consistently done outstanding animation work for several high-profile clients I’ve worked with over the past several years. Their work is not only highly creative and eye-catching, but their creative ability is exceptional with great focus on superb storytelling.”
Mark VenaHow do you onboard a large merchant with hundreds of franchises, like McDonalds, and allow tiered control so that franchisees can access the records they need and corporate can access everything? This was the challenge presented to us by PayPal. We designed a website that met the needs of PayPal, their large merchants, and franchisees.
E*TRADE hired Nyquist Design to redesign the options quote screen for their website. The objective was to create a cleaner page which placed focus on the content that users were most interested in. Interest was gauged by user testing and website analytics.
Nyquist Design is one of our best vendors — they have exceeded our expectations in user design, graphic design, project management, and client account management.
Ingrid StabbCommunicating with style and confidence is the difference between speaking and inspiring. We’ve been helping Equinix inspire the customers and peers for years now. As their go-to vendor for presentation design, we help their employees to fine-tune their messaging and delivery–turning rough decks into works of art.
Equinix works with a lot of agency partners but there are very few that can bring the range of skill, precision and customer service in the face of our insane deadlines and highly technical content that seems to be the default mode for Nyquist Design.
Chris Quinby
For Calendia.ai, we ventured into a thoughtful design journey. Merging intuitive user experience with understated visuals, the app’s essence lies in transforming dates and times within simple photos into accessible calendar events. With a dash of AI, Calendia.ai offers a bridge from paper to digital, relieving us from the monotony of manually entering a series of calendar events, and simplifying life’s timelines.
In a digital age where calendars have evolved significantly, the process of manually inputting schedule information remains cumbersome. Recognizing the need for a more efficient solution, our design studio embarked on a mission to streamline this process. The opportunity lay in leveraging AI technology to simplify and expedite the conversion of schedules into calendar events.
Our journey began with thorough research and empathy-building exercises. We engaged with a diverse range of potential users, including parents, administrative assistants, young professionals, and teens. Through interviews and feedback, we gained valuable insights into their scheduling pain points. This research informed the creation of personas, empathy maps, and user flows. With a solid understanding of user needs, we transitioned into the
design phase. Wireframes, visual designs, and prototypes were meticulously crafted to ensure an intuitive user experience. Continuous testing and refinement involved real users who would benefit from the product. Our iterative approach allowed us to fine-tune the design and provide engineering with the necessary assets and revisions.
Journey Map
User Interviews
Calendia.ai emerged as the solution to the scheduling dilemma. Leveraging generative AI, we designed an app that empowers users to effortlessly convert schedules into calendar events. The process is as simple as taking a photo of any schedule or document containing date and time information. The elegant and user-friendly interface was meticulously crafted for a delightful user experience.
We successfully addressed the scheduling challenges of the digital era by introducing Calendia.ai. This innovative app, born from extensive research and user-centric design, exemplifies our commitment to transforming complex tasks into simple, efficient solutions. Calendia.ai not only
revolutionizes scheduling but also enhances the lives of users by allowing them to effortlessly manage their time and commitments. This case study underscores our dedication to crafting products that empower and delight users.
97% reduction in the time it takes to create 20 calendar events. 10 seconds vs 16 minutes!
My 18 years of experience working for fintech companies made me the perfect design partner for OakNorth Bank of London. While working an extensive discovery phase for the redesign of their product offerings, I set up shop overseas on a couple occasions, in order to facilitate design sprint training sessions with the broader company.
Services
Web Design
UX Design
Prototyping
Workshopping
My Role
Strategy
UX Research
UI/UX Design
UX Management
Workshop Leadership
Timeline
6 Months
I have had the pleasure of working with Ian twice and have always been impressed by his ability to jump into a project and work quickly with teams at any stage of development. He’s a talented and seasoned product design team who approaches each project with a wonderfully optimistic ‘can do’ attitude, which makes him an absolute joy to work with. If you need a product designer to help you, I highly recommend Ian Nyquist!
Elena Khol
OakNorth found itself with a wealth of ideas for product features and content but lacked a cohesive vision for their integration. Despite a surplus of product managers and engineers, the absence of designers posed a challenge in defining the details and overall user experience.
Leadership’s aspiration to involve product managers and engineers in design thinking faced hurdles due to their limited design experience, preventing the team from establishing a solid foothold in this creative domain.
To address the design gap, OakNorth enlisted my help to facilitate a one-week design workshop in London, focusing on “The Sprint Methodology.” Recognized for its efficiency in solving complex problems, this methodology provided a structured framework for collaboration. The workshop brought together product managers, engineers, and my own expertise to streamline ideation, prioritize features, and instill design thinking skills among the team.
My strategic involvement successfully filled OakNorth’s design gap. The one-week design workshop, centered around “The Sprint Methodology,” enabled teams to align their vision cohesively. I not only provided a structured framework for ideation but also equipped product managers and engineers with essential design thinking skills. This collaborative approach not only addressed immediate design challenges but laid the foundation for an enduring partnership, empowering OakNorth to infuse design principles into their product development process.
My work yielded transformative results for OakNorth. The once disjointed ideas for product features and content evolved into a more coherent and user-centric vision. The infusion of design expertise and the adoption of design thinking principles led to tangible improvements in the user experience and overall product quality.
Moreover, this collaborative effort boosted team morale, with product managers and engineers embracing their enhanced role in the design process. This case study stands as a testament to how strategic partnerships and focused workshops can drive meaningful change, enabling organizations to overcome creative challenges and innovate successfully.
30+ Product Managers, Engineers, Designers, and researchers empowered with design training, working toward a common goal.
For Calendia.ai, I merged intuitive user experience with floods of colorful gradients. The app’s essence lies in transforming dates and times within simple photos into accessible calendar events. Firmly rooted in AI, Calendia.ai offers a bridge from paper to digital, relieving us from the monotony of manually entering a series of calendar events, and simplifying life’s timelines.
Services
UX Research
Product Design
UX/UI Design
Visual Design
My Role
UI/UX Design
Visual Design
UX Management
Timeline
1.5 Months
In a digital age where calendars have evolved significantly, the process of manually inputting schedule information remains cumbersome. Recognizing the need for a more efficient solution, our design studio embarked on a mission to streamline this process. The opportunity lay in leveraging AI technology to simplify and expedite the conversion of schedules into calendar events.
My journey began with thorough research and empathy-building exercises. I engaged with a diverse range of potential users, including parents, administrative assistants, young professionals, and teens. Through interviews and feedback, I gained valuable insights into their scheduling pain points. This research informed the creation of personas, empathy maps, and user flows. With a solid understanding of user needs, I transitioned into the
design phase. Wireframes, visual designs, and prototypes were meticulously crafted to ensure an intuitive user experience. Continuous testing and refinement involved real users who would benefit from the product. My approach allowed us to fine-tune the design and provide engineering with the necessary assets and revisions.
Journey Map
User Interviews
Calendia.ai emerged as the solution to the scheduling dilemma. Leveraging generative AI, I designed an app that empowers users to effortlessly convert schedules into calendar events. The process is as simple as taking a photo of any schedule or document containing date and time information. The elegant and user-friendly interface was meticulously crafted for a delightful user experience.
We successfully addressed the scheduling challenges of the digital era by introducing Calendia.ai. This innovative app, born from extensive research and user-centric design, exemplifies our commitment to transforming complex tasks into simple, efficient solutions. Calendia.ai not only
revolutionizes scheduling but also enhances the lives of users by allowing them to effortlessly manage their time and commitments. This case study underscores our dedication to crafting products that empower and delight users.
97% reduction in the time it takes to create 20 calendar events. 10 seconds vs 16 minutes!
Today’s online brokerages offer investors multiple ways to manage their portfolios— applications, web apps, mobile apps, and websites. With users switching between these platforms, inconsistencies between them can cause confusion—leading to losses and missed opportunities. TradeStation hired me to audit all of their trading tools and redesign them to be more visually and functionally aligned.
Services
Product Design
Visual Design
My Role
UI/UX Design
Visual Design
UX Management
Timeline
2 Months
Vonage, once a world-renowned telephony company, lives on today as a top player in the communications API space. In an ongoing cycle of user interviews, and design refinement, I worked with them to redesign their developer website, which was a big success, both internally and externally.
Services
Product Design
UX Research
UX/UI Design
Visual Design
Prototyping
My Role
UI/UX Design
Visual Design
UX Management
Timeline
4 Months
In the dynamic landscape of the communications API sector, Vonage encountered a mounting challenge as competitors such as Twilio, Pilvo, and Commio aggressively encroached on their market share. The urgency to maintain a competitive edge became paramount. Vonage had initiated a pivotal developer portal redesign to fortify their position and engage more effectively with their user base. However, this strategic endeavor faced a critical setback as key design leadership departed mid-initiative, leaving a void in the crucial alignment between company leadership and the internal design team.
Recognizing the pivotal need to navigate this intricate terrain, Vonage sought external expertise to serve as a Senior Design Manager. The mission was clear: bridge the gap, guide the internal design team, and ensure the seamless execution of the developer platform redesign. This challenge became a defining moment, requiring a strategic alliance between company leadership, the design team, and myself and the external experts to chart a course that would not only counter competitive threats but also elevate Vonage’s standing in the communications API arena.
Embracing the role of Senior Design Manager, I embarked on a collaborative journey with Vonage’s internal design team. The process commenced with comprehensive research, delving into user interviews and subject matter expert discussions. These insights laid the foundation for the creation of user personas and journey maps, providing a holistic understanding of the user experience landscape.
Confident in our general approach and direction, we advanced to the design and prototyping phase. Solutions were meticulously crafted, bearing in mind the insights gleaned from research. To validate and enhance the design, four rounds of testing with customers and potential users were conducted. Each testing cycle brought forth valuable feedback, steering the design towards a more refined and user-centric iteration.
Journey Map
User Testing Map/Miro board
User Testing Analysis
The culmination of this exhaustive process resulted in a powerful developer site, intricately designed and extensively tested to meet the evolving needs of Vonage’s user base. Desktop layout took precedence in the design, aligning with research indicating prevalent desktop usage among developers. The iterative design process, incorporating personas, journey maps, wireframes, and prototypes, was instrumental in shaping the final product.
Vonage witnessed a transformative impact, marked by a 23% surge in sign-ups and an 18% increase in first-time account funding. The strategic redesign not only fortified their position in the communications API space but also solidified relationships with developers, positioning Vonage for sustained success in a fiercely competitive landscape.
The case study exemplifies the power of strategic design management in overcoming complex challenges, ensuring the seamless execution of critical initiatives, and driving tangible results in a competitive business landscape.
23% Surge in sign-ups and an 18% increase in first-time account funding
When textbook rental giant and student advocate, Chegg, decided to venture into the job placement market, they contracted with me to design the user experience and interface for a website which would connect employers with students that were uniquely qualified for positions. I designed both the employer experience and student experience on desktop and mobile.
Services
Product Design
UX Research
UX/UI Design
Visual Design
Prototyping
My Role
Strategy
UX Research
UI/UX Design
Visual Design
UX Management
Timeline
18 Months
Ian’s been an amazing partner – from product ideation, to brand marketing, to visual design, to user experience research, to interactive design. Highly focused and committed to our success, Ian has been the most important partner I’ve worked with in product development.
Vikram Subramaniam
In recognizing its role as a trusted brand for students and recent graduates, Chegg identified a unique opportunity to extend its support beyond academics. Armed with specific knowledge about students’ studies and proficiencies, Chegg envisioned a significant role in helping customers navigate their post-graduation career paths successfully.
The ambitious goal led Chegg to conceptualize a revolutionary career matching website, a platform that would serve as a bridge connecting students with job and internship opportunities precisely aligned with their skills and aspirations. Seeking to transform this vision into reality, Chegg engaged our expertise. The collaborative process began with comprehensive market research, student interviews, and insights from subject matter experts within the company.
Working in close partnership with Product Managers and leadership, we delved into various testing options, drawing inspiration from meticulously crafted user personas and journey maps. The design process was iterative, undergoing multiple rounds of testing and refinement to ensure the alignment of the final product with the intended vision.
Site Architecture
Wireframes for pathway widget
The focus of the initiative spanned two distinctive user groups—students and employers. These user segments presented diverse motivations and workflows, necessitating the creation of two interconnected websites. One catered to students, offering a holistic suite of features such as exploring career paths, setting goals, posting resumes, applying to positions, and gaining insights about potential employers. The other, tailored for employers, facilitated seamless job management, candidate curation, and provided valuable macro and micro-level insights. Additionally, it served as a valuable resource for employers to set competitive salaries and benefits.
My design solution was a web application that not only bridged the gap between students and employers but also empowered individuals in their career pursuits. The website was designed to create a seamless bridge between students and employers in the professional realm.
Sadly, the company’s focus and priorities changed during the development phase, and the project was put on indefinite hold. While the product never saw the light of day, I’m very proud of the work that I produced, the problems we solved, and the relationships fostered throughout the course of the project.
One of the things I like most about Ian is his ability to iterate quickly. Unlike some designers, he doesn’t get too attached to one approach, but rather is able to step back, explore alternate options when needed, and integrate feedback quickly.
Elena Kohl
