2011 brought some new and exciting developments at Wyld Collective Ltd. After a transitional year during which we both worked “day jobs” while also getting Wyld Collective rolling, we were finally able to commit ourselves full-time to our own business. With this transition, we’ve re-vamped our website to show off some of our favorite projects and outline the kinds of services that we can offer to our clients.

Speaking of clients, we had some awesome ones this year! We were asked to lead the key early phase of User Experience design for Treatful.com, a web service that allows users to treat family and friends with personalized electronic gift certificates to excellent local restaurants. On a seven-week deadline, we made new prototypes weekly and conducted dozens of user tests. They launched a major update to their service, based on our specifications, in time for the holiday gift-giving season. It’s extra fun for us to work on a project that literally makes our mouths water!

Wyld Collective’s participation in P.o.E.M.M. (Poems for Excitable Mobile Media) also bore fruit this year, with Jason Lewis’s Vital to the General Public Welfare exhibition in Toronto last October. Wyld led the development of most of the interactivity behind these artworks, as well as the iPad and iPhone apps that let you enjoy them outside the gallery. “Speak”, “Know”, and “Migration” are free to download – check them out!

It looks like 2012 will be keeping us busy as well. Look for our article on “Research with a Hacker Ethos” in the upcoming March/April issue of ACM Interactions Magazine. If you’re going to be at CHI this spring, come to our panel on “Indy R&D”. And last but not least, over the next few months, we’re on track to introduce some hacktastic new products aimed at design-conscious DIYers.

At Wyld Collective we’re all about designing interactive systems. We combine years of experience in design practice and user research with up-to-the-minute knowledge of cutting-edge technologies. Our services include interaction design, prototyping, software development, and evaluation in both qualitative and quantitative flavors. Sometimes we even run workshops (bizarro game controllers, anyone?). If these skills sound like something you could use, drop us a line, tell us about your project, ask for an estimate, tell your friends. You know the drill.

Finally, we owe a big “thank you!” to the people who have helped make 2011 so successful for us: our clients, friends who’ve referred us, the people who have been willing and patient guinea pigs to our unfinished designs, and everyone who’s given us an opportunity to do something cool. We couldn’t do it without you!