The Weekly Transmission 03/11/2022
Incoming…………………………
This week on the Satellite, the crew has been working hard as ever as we move closer to early access. The crew has been working incredibly hard to get group chats up and running on dev internally we had a demo of the process of creating a group and chatting in it. Meaning group chats are closer than ever to being live for you all to try out. As always, keep an eye on core.satellite.im to see every change the crew makes live!
Our crew is vigilant as ever finding and exterminating the bugs on the machine. You may notice that some bugs on the desktop UI are now gone. Some of the bugs that were affecting voice and video calls are now eliminated as well. Lastly, you may notice some minor changes and fixes to mobile.
We are also starting work on a proper mobile app that will be released after early access. Liz has already started making mockups of the UI for it. With the mobile app development starting in the near future comes an opportunity for you to potentially join our crew out here on the Satellite! We are looking for experienced flutter developers, so if you have a portfolio and like what we’re doing, let us know here.
Interview…………………………
K: Alright, I know who you are and what you do, but our readers might not so let's start with that. Can you give me your name and what you do around here?
L: Hi my name is Liz and I’m the UI/UX Lead. I kind of bounce around and do a lot, but I help Matt with the design process at Satellite.im. I work on the userflows, sitemap, web & app screen layouts, UX, and help make assets and graphics. I also help out the devs and marketing department and answer a lot of questions around here.
K: Sounds like a full plate, full of a lot of exciting things. What's something you personally are excited about here at Satellite?
L: I’m excited about a few things at the moment. I’m really excited to see how the brand develops once we get more designers on, and how the mobile & web app will look when it’s more fleshed out. We’re working hard to make sure it all comes together in the end, and I think it’s going to look really cool and make the users happy.
I’m also excited to see how users will respond to it once we roll out testing. There will be ups and downs, but we will all finally get to see our work in action and get very valuable feedback.
K: I’m also really excited to see how people respond to our app, I think it’s going to bring some much-needed change to the social industry once it takes off. With that in mind, if you could change one thing in the tech and social industries, what would it be and why?
L: Obviously privacy is a big issue at the moment, and I’m glad tech is finally moving in the direction advocating people to be aware of their data and how it’s distributed. However, I’ve noticed a lot of companies are being bought up by larger corporations over the last few years and I think that compromises the security people want to have. I’m not sure how to combat this exactly, but I think the current push for users to be aware of their data is very important and is helping lead the way to the next wave in tech.
I personally think some companies try to cater to too wide of an audience and their UX gets watered down in the process. If social industries would listen more to what users want rather than try to be trendy and try to be the next Facebook, there would be more apps that are distinguishable and community-based.
K: Take our app, for instance, though. We are trying to create a totally new user experience of totally free and secure communication and wrapping it in a very ‘industry standard’ shell. How do you think that affects our user experience?
L: Well we want to take the industry standard and build on top of it. Starting with the industry standard is a good foundation to build off of, but we want to differentiate our brand and ensure that are users feel safe and their data or privacy won’t be compromised. The app’s look-and-feel will heavily influence the UX of course, but we also want to improve the UX in the fact that users should feel safe while they interact or browse.
K: When you aren’t spending your time scrutinizing the look and feel of various apps and websites, or working on your own, what do you enjoy doing?
L: I really like to draw and color with colored pencils, cook cool meals, and I love going shopping or doing something fun outside. I mostly play the Switch or browse Reddit.
K: What is your single favorite piece of media (book, movie, tv-show, game, etc.)?
L: Hmm if it came down to one it would be Pokemon.
K: Alright, final question, if you could be any Pokemon which would you be and why?
L: Definitely Raichu, they’re so cute and my all-time favorite.
K: Thanks for agreeing to let me interview you!
L: Yeah you’re welcome. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me!
Outro…………………………
Sorry for missing last week's transmission. If you have any suggestions or questions, be sure to leave a comment on this article, post a message in our Discord, or send us a Tweet. Thanks for reading, and look out for next week’s transmission.
