Will Little @wclittle Subscribe

Managing Director at Prota Ventures.
I'm a bioengineer-turned-software-developer and venture builder/investor. Learn more about me professionally on LinkedIn, personally here, and check out the podcast I host, Ventures.

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Topic:   Visual Design
 Will Little

Aug 11, 2020
Blockchains Visual Design Will's General Newsletter Branding Web3

New podcast on startup branding strategies, plus a new screencast on crypto trading with the Ichimoku Cloud indicator system

I recorded a podcast episode with brand strategist Elisabeth Hass and visual designer Natalie Grummer on all-things startup branding, competitive analysis, naming, logo design. Also, in Q4 2017 I was introduced to a simple indicator system that has proven helpful through bear, horizontal, and bull markets, and I recorded a screencast this morning to share with you all.
Will Little

Aug 11, 2020
Startups Visual Design Ventures Podcast Branding

Startup Branding :: Strategy, Competitive Positioning, Personas, Naming, and Visual Design :: with Elisabeth Hass and Natalie Grummer

Most founders don’t pay enough attention to foundational branding processes, which often results in customer confusion, off-putting names/visuals, and/or an untimely death for new startups. In this episode, we dive into many aspects of branding a startup, from naming and competitive positioning to visual design and personas/values, including specific recommendations for designing a logo, mockups, and prototypes.

Will Little

Jan 12, 2017
Startups Visual Design

Serve customers faster: An introduction to rapid design prototyping with Style Tiles

Equipped with your brand foundations, name, and logo, a design strategy that saves an enormous amount of time when building a software product is creating and iterating Style Tiles.
Will Little

Nov 7, 2016
Startups Visual Design

How to build a brand foundation for your new startup

If you think you can design a nice logo, decide on some colors, put together a few mockups, and declare this as your new startup’s “brand”, you are profoundly mistaken. You need to think deeper.
Will Little

Jul 12, 2016
Startups Visual Design

Why writing a user interface spec (UI spec) is critical for startup teams

Building a software product is hard. While we’ve all heard stories of hero developers cranking out projects in a weekend that go viral, that’s obviously not the norm. For the rest of the world, a smart and diligent approach is needed to build something useful and keep their team (however large or small) on the same page to avoid wasting time.
Will Little

Dec 22, 2015
Startups Software Development Visual Design Product Management

Building a new web product: How to best setup engineers AND creatives for a win

Pre-launch startup operations are always chaotic. That being said, equipped with your idea, team, market analysis, customer personas, early validation via surveys and interviews, and a brief overview statement (yes, do all that first), there is something simple you can do to setup your engineers and creatives for a win.
Will Little

May 11, 2013
Startups Software Development Visual Design

How to work with a visual designer to efficiently build mockups for your app

Next up in our intro to web and mobile development series, here we'll discuss how to move from wireframes to more detailed images of your user interface (i.e. the “mockups”). This may sound obvious, but the actual creation of mockups should be reserved for the most talented visual designer on your team. If you don't have a legit person for this, recruit one before attempting to move forward here (seriously).
Will Little

Apr 5, 2013
Startups Software Development Visual Design

How to build and iterate wireframes for modern app development

Moving forward in our web and mobile development introduction series, here we'll briefly walk through the process of building wireframes based on the UI Spec and UX Flow Chart we put together previously. Wireframe construction usually goes faster if the designer is the one doing the work, but regardless it should be a collaborative process with the entire founding team of your startup.
Will Little

Feb 8, 2013
Startups Visual Design

How to create a user interface specifications document (UI Spec)

Continuing forward in our web and mobile development tutorial series, here we'll take a look at what to do next after you have created an Overview Spec and before you create a UI Flow Chart. Coming up with the UI Spec is an essential step for the product lead (usually the same person as the CEO/project lead in a small startup), as it forces them to visualize a rough draft of the app and put it in writing for the team to kick around.
Will Little

Jan 23, 2013
Startups Visual Design

How to work with a visual designer to quickly produce a logo

Moving forward in our web and mobile development tutorial series, here we'll take a break from writing code and get back to the branding and visual design aspects of our app that we'll be building step-by-step together. Specifically, we'll look at the process of coming up with a suitable logo for launch (i.e. it always changes later, so relax and trust your designer).