Vancouver User Experience Awards 2016

(guest post by Ziwei Wang)



(photo credits: VanUE and photographer Jef Gibbons)







Ainara’s Bio:

Alejandra’s Bio:



(guest post by James Mulligan, DD36)








(guest post by Mihaela Kandeva, DD36)

On a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, the DD36’s made their way to the office of one of the more well-known historical advertising and digital design agencies in the business, DDB. Once on the 16th floor of a typical business district building near West Georgia St, we were slightly overwhelmed to be greeted at the front desk by a very professional receptionist, who offered us a seat at their lounge area while we waited.

As we began to talk in hushed voices, afraid to disrupt the atmosphere, we were lead up a staircase covered in vibrant graffiti. Any first impressions we had begun to formulate went straight out the wall to wall, floor to ceiling windows: What a view overlooking downtown! The entire open floor plan was an amalgamation of meeting spaces, several bright kitchenettes, and modular computer desk areas, all done in minimalist fashion with a clean white and grey palette. Even the magnetic whiteboards covered in printouts and erasable marker somehow looked organized.

Doyle Dane Bernbach, also known as DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc, is mainly a marketing and advertising agency, but they have two subsidiaries: Tribal, the digital arm, and Karacters, their brand identity shop. Despite having over 150 worldwide locations (4 in Canada), the Vancouver location of about 65 employees somehow manages to keep a very comfortable, non-corporate vibe.

They’ve created some innovative campaigns for many major companies, including Netflix, McDonald’s, and locals like BCLC, BCAA, and Destination Canada. We had the privilege to see case studies behind three more recent projects, two for Adidas, the other for Canadian Dairy. The true value of this visit really came from the insights into their process and how they manage to leverage existing platforms in intriguing ways.

We were told they hold two things in the highest regard: creativity and humanity. Usually those are words which most companies list as obligatory values, but DDB actually lives them. Half the desks at the office sat empty, people being encouraged to go out and work together at coffee shops, parks, anywhere they can be inspired for a couple hours. Hardly anyone was head down at their desk. Those meeting spaces all around us were occupied by people collaborating. We started noticing things like the ping pong table being used to brainstorm on, the kitchenette counters stocked with endless Tazo Teas and Starbucks Coffee. Surely, the Stella Artois fountain and unlimited ice cream supply must get the creative juices flowing.

Our trip to DDB left us feeling like kids who’d just come from a brand new shiny toy and candy store all wrapped up in one, literally leaving with ice cream bars in hand, smiles on our faces, enjoying the sun on the journey back to VFS.

This could not have been possible without Louise Lee organizing the tour, Danny Chan, our fearless leader, and Jamie Moon, our accomplice. Many thank yous to Charisse, HR Director, Stéphane, Associate Creative Director, and Gabriel, Sr Designer, for showing us around and for the free ice cream.



(guest post by Crystal Wong, DD36)

Today, our DD36 class had the wonderful opportunity of visiting Vancouver’s very own, Axiom Zen. A lot of us went in knowing it was an interaction and product-based studio, but didn’t really know much about the company or what kind of work they do. Amy, their UX designer, was very pleasant and welcomed us to the studio and was very eager to show us some of their current projects. We were instantly intrigued by one of the staff’s dog sitting at the front desk… Oh, and we got some free swag as well!

Axiom Zen define themselves as a venture studio. But what does that really mean? It pretty much means they do a bit of everything and they’re always open to new ideas and new technology. They consider themselves a start-up, although the company as grown significantly in size since they first started. Despite the growth, the “start-up mentality” still remains within the company in a sense that there isn’t a real hierarchy, but everyone is able to tap in and out of different projects and help out depending on their interests and what they specialize in.

The office is tucked underground and holds a few different companies under the AZ hub. Amy showed us different areas of the office, each area was typically project-specific such as the ZenHub, Routific, Hammer & Tusk, and more. Routific, for example, is one of their many on-going projects. It was initially a personal project of one of the staff members where they created a website dedicated to route optimization, which AZ later decided to invest in and has now become its own logistic software company under the AZ network within the same office space. This goes to show how open the company is and they take on a wide range of projects.

It was great to hear the staff talk about their positions and how they got to AZ. Everyone spoke in passion about their roles and really emphasized on the element of collaboration at AZ which struck as a pleasant surprise. Although the level of responsibilities are demanding and many projects are juggled at a single time, we could tell the staff loved every bit of it and is what makes Axiom Zen unique to other studios.

Thank you to Louise Lee for organizing the visit, and Danny Chan and Jamie Moon for accompanying us. A special thanks to Amy and Axiom Zen for hosting us! Looking forward to our next studio visit!