DC55 interview: Sam Ng on the Optimal Workshop

Tim interviews Sam Ng from New Zealand's own Optimal Usability about the design and development of Optimal Workshop. This UX design suite combines three applications, including OptimalSort which we talked about in DC42, and we hear how a UX research and design consultancy becomes a product developer. What's it like to walk the UX talk we tell our clients when they create products? Listen up and find out!

Optimal Workshop is at
www.optimalworkshop.com

Optimal Usability is at
www.optimalusability.com

New Zealand isn't just about cool accents, great UX practitioners, and beautiful sights, though. No sirree. There's a whole tradition of innovative and very top-quality music from this small country at the bottom of the world.
Hear ye! We close this episode with a full song from a great New Zealand musician, Phil Judd. His self-published "Novelty Act" album in 2006 is still the best album Tim has heard in a very long time. Phil Judd co-founded Split Enz in the mid-70s with Tim Finn, was the driving force behind later bands The Swingers and Schnell Fenster, and has done terrific soundtracks as well. "Falling Off A Cloud" is one of Phil's more upbeat numbers, but the amazing "Novelty Act" album is full of classic Judd variety: fun poppy weirdness, hard-rockin' weirdness, sensitive and tragic ukelele weirdness... just catchy, infectiously complex pop genius.

http://profile.myspace.com/philjuddmrphudd

www.PhilJudd.com