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Interactive Agency - Haneke Design

How do real design studios develop mobile apps? What kind of skills are employers looking for? In this first episode of In the Wild, Allison interviews the designers and developers of Haneke Design in Tampa, Florida. She finds answers about their mobile development process as well as what kinds of skills employers are looking for in a new hire.

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[In the Wild] 0:00

[Allison] Treehouse is officially out in the wild. We've made our trek to Tampa, Florida 0:03

where will be visiting Haneke Design studio, an interactive agency. 0:08

Let's go! 0:11

[? music ?] 0:14

[Jody Haneke - Haneke Design President] Welcome to Haneke Design. It's pretty much the open plan, if you will. 0:20

The majority of the work all happens right out here in this big room. 0:26

[Allison] Yeah, this is a great space. Do you have the designers and developers all working in this common area? 0:29

[Jody] We do, primarily, and it works out pretty well. 0:34

People are able to collaborate on the fly—get up, walk right over— 0:37

designer and developer can really do some innovative work working this closely together in the big room. 0:42

The company was founded in 2002, so we're in our tenth year. I founded the company pretty much by myself. 0:47

I started just working on contracts, and it just snowballed from there. 0:55

[Jesse Curry - Development Director] I'm predominantly self-taught. 0:59

I've got a long list of majors that I switched through in college—everything from biomedical sciences to philosophy, 1:02

chemistry for a little while. 1:12

And I tried computer sciences for about a semester and it was way too slow, and I realized I could just learn the stuff on my own. 1:14

[Jody] Projects are varied as far as the starting point, if you will. 1:22

We have large companies with technology departments and business analysts, 1:27

and they'll put together detailed requirements that say, 1:32

"Hey, this is a mobile application that we need built. These are all the features and functions that need to be in it." 1:34

[Jesse] And then we have people that come in with a really vague idea, and they just say they want something that deals with photos. 1:39

We'll actually do a consultation session. 1:47

We'll sit down with them and really make them sharpen their idea and actually develop the entire product during that. 1:51

[The Development Process] 1:57

[Andrew Thomas - Designer] It's always going to start with a client kickoff meeting— 1:59

sitting down, strategizing with the client on what the requirements of the projects are going to be, 2:01

what type of features will be involved with the application. 2:06

This particular project was from a start-up. It's called TieTheKnotApp.com. 2:10

It was a group of people that came together and thought it would be a really great idea 2:17

to be able to put together a mobile app for brides and grooms and wedding parties and wedding planners 2:22

to have a certain central location where they can communicate about events and things going on with the wedding. 2:29

We generally just try to give a working idea of what the navigation would be like, some of the content on the page, 2:37

any content entry text fields, buttons, and things like that. 2:45

So we're really just calling those out and getting a general idea of what the placement and functionality on that page might be. 2:50

This outfit didn't really have an identity when we started, so we wanted to give them a visual identity and strategize around that. 2:57

So we worked on developing a logo for them along with all of the color palettes and everything that would help give this website a brand itself. 3:05

[Jody] When we look to hire anyone, whether it's designer or developer, one of the most important things in my book 3:16

is not necessarily—yeah, it's great to have the prerequisites as far as the technology is concerned, 3:23

but technology is moving so quickly on both the design and the development side that it's really important 3:28

that the folks that we hire are passionate about learning. 3:35

[Jesse] Reading books about things, visiting user groups locally, it's a constant process because the industry's always in a state of flux, 3:40

and if you're not keeping up with it, you're stagnating and you'll eventually end up working on dead technology. 3:50

[Andrew] A lot of the designers here are always sending back and forth different links that they find for tutorials or different online classes 3:57

or, "Hey, I found this today. Check it out." 4:07

[Allison] So what can a new developer expect to make as far as salary goes? 4:10

[Jesse] It really depends on the skill set. 4:16

I could see an entry-level developer walking into a $60k job, or I see them walking into a paid internship or a free internship. 4:20

The skill set is really going to be what matters. 4:30

[Andrew] Going and looking at job descriptions out there, a lot of them are going to tell you to have knowledge in HTML or even Flash. 4:32

They may not be looking for you to do that, but as they say in the job descriptions, it's a plus to have those. 4:41

[Jesse] We don't want people to be too needy. 4:47

If somebody encounters a problem and immediately asks for help, they're always going to do that. 4:50

So we like people to be able to try to solve problems on their own. 4:55

[Andrew] Coming into it with a really good knowledge base of what types of codes are being used, 4:58

a basic knowledge of how to wireframe up a website—just some of the current industry standards that are being used. 5:05

[Jesse] In general we want each developer to know one native mobile framework or STK— 5:13

really know either IOS or Android. 5:21

We have some people that know some Blackberry as well and some Windows phone, 5:24

although we're not really getting too many requests for either of those. 5:28

[Andrew] There's always a variety. You're never working on the same thing. 5:30

In some cases you're not always working in the same role. Sometimes your job role will change from project to project. 5:35

Every day working at an interactive agency is different. 5:43

[In the Wild] 5:46

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