Responsibilities

• Create visual design elements for projects under the guidance of Lead Designer.
• Translating requirements and mock-ups into fully functioning features using HTML/CSS and JavaScript
• Participate in internal design reviews and stakeholder meetings

Requirements

• You confidently code clean, modern HTML & CSS
• Ability to work autonomously as well as collaborate in team environment
• Excellent communication skills
• Organization skills and attention to detail

Bonus

• Javascript skills: advanced or ambition to grow
• Experience with mobile app design

If you think you’d be a fit, send an e-mail to contact(at)nightowlinteractive.com with your resume and portfolio/sample work.

We look forward to meeting you!

- Ethan

The post Looking for a new Night Owl! appeared first on Night Owl Interactive.

We’ve always had talented hands-on members, but we quickly realized that in order to build a great company (not just products), we need a sharp business-minded person who also understands the inner workings and is a technologist at heart. We knew from early on that Ethan can be a perfect fit in our company. He will be involved in project and product management of most projects as well as play a key role in developing our new process, Bakery.

We actually met Ethan about a year ago as a client. We did a few projects for him and he even worked with us at our office for a few months. We worked extremely close with Ethan from the beginning. He was involved in many detailed aspects of the project, including database design and development. We had a great time working together and made some awesome products, but at the end we felt that Ethan joining Night Owl will make the strongest partnership.

Prior to joining Night Owl, Ethan has experience starting 2 tech startups as well as a consultancy for enterprise IT. We look forward to a new and improved working experience with Ethan on board, as well as bring Night Owl to a new level in the new year.

PS. On a separate note, Bas is now also a Partner at Night Owl. Congrats!

The post New Night Owl Ethan (and some other news) appeared first on Night Owl Interactive.

Responsibilities

• Create visual design deliverables for entire project under the guidance of Lead Designer.
• Establish style guide and work with developers to execute the design
• Participate in regular design reviews as well as stakeholder meetings

Requirements

• Minimum 2 years professional experience
• BFA or equivalent industry experience in related field
• Expert-level skill in Adobe Suite
• Ability to work autonomously as well as collaborate in team environment
• Excellent communication skills
• Organization skills and attention to detail

Bonus

• Experience with mobile app design
• Experience with user testing
• Front-end coding skills (HTML/CSS/Javascript)

For consideration, please send the followings to contact@nightowlinteractive.com.

1. Portfolio/Sample Work (Most Important)
2. Resume
3. Salary Requirement

The post Seeking Awesome Interactive Designer appeared first on Night Owl Interactive.

In the past year and half of business, we found that most of our friends, clients and prospective clients come to our office and usually leaves feeling very inspired. We think the main reason for that is because of our people, which is why we are extremely selective when it comes to choosing our “Night Owls.” There are 3 things we look for when it comes to hiring: they must be smart, have passion for technology, and of course, fun to work with. We believe Achilleas and Arjan have all 3 of these characteristics.

Prior to Night Owl, both Achilleas and Arjan worked as back-end application developers at a dev shop back in Netherlands. They’re fluent in various technologies including PHP (obviously), Ruby as well as .NET.  They haven’t experienced Zend Framework yet (which is what we use at Night Owl), but we since they are both experienced in Rails, we believe they will be up to speed in a matter of days.

It’s only been a year and half and we are proud to say we are kicking ass, we have no investors (and don’t plan on seeking one), no debt, and quickly grew to a team of 9 most talented people in New York City!

The post New Developers from Netherlands (again…) appeared first on Night Owl Interactive.

Working Prototype / Proof of Concept

Most startups we’ve been talking to start off by funding the project out of pocket and minimum bootstrap operation. At this point, we would recommend building a working prototype that will allow you (and maybe family & friends) to see if you can build a valid business by turning it into a product. We define a “Working Prototype” as a product with core functionalities without bells and whistles. The prototype also uses basic UI without any design elements in terms aesthetics. You may be able fool some angel investor to give you some money with a prototype, but no real tech investors will consider it, which is why most of our clients start out with an MVP.

MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

Many investors may require some sort of traction or results (at least in a test market) unless the idea itself is extraordinary. In this case, you will need to build out a MVP. At Night Owl, we define MVP by the following method:

1. All core functionality tested and bug-free.
2. Product branding and design.
3. Basic marketing features (such as FB connect).
4. Ability to administer the app by the stakeholder.
5. Ability to measure results.

With most projects, we’re able to see if the “core” of the product works or not after putting a MVP out there. After that point it’s constant tweaking to make everything work. At Night Owl, you can expect to build a MVP in about 3 – 6 months.

Version 2.0

V2.0 will make a significant upgrade to the original application in terms of both scale and features. Usually at this point, there will be enough users to make some of the decision in terms the type of technology/hosting infrastructure should be based on the cost of operating and maintaining the application.

At this stage, most companies will have at least one developers in-house, so most of the work we do are development in very specific subject-matter or consultation. If you’re at this point, hopefully you are busy raising your Series A and not really concerned about development scope. =)

As always, please feel free to comment/ask any questions!

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