The final countdown to the release of Foundation 5 has already begun around ZURB HQ. And we can't wait to hear what y'all think. Whether it's via email, tweet or Github, we enjoy hearing from those using our framework. We also love it when we can meet face-to-face like at our Foundation meetups. Which is why we're really excited that next year we'll be going on a World Tour. We'll meet with our global audience and learning how they use Foundation to solve product design problems.
For two months in 2014, we'll pack our bags and jetset to 15 or more international locations, such as Melbourne, Buenos Aires, London and Munich. We're taking product design on the road so that we can go where our customers are. And with the global attention Foundation has garnered since its initial release in 2011, we could no longer sit still in our comfy chairs from little ole Campbell anymore.
Something Magical Happens When Meeting in Person
Airbnb's Joe Gebbia told us a fantastic story once about the importance of meeting your customers. One day, Y Combinator's Paul Graham took a look at the plans for Airbnb and told Joe and his fellow founders that it wasn't going to work. Then he asked them a simple question, "Where is your market?"
The founders said New York. Paul then gestured wildly and said, "Your users are in New York and you're here in Mountain View. What are you still doing here?" So Joe went to New York and met with his customers, learning more about his own product than he could've learned sitting in Mountain View.
Meeting other product designers, whether individuals or large teams, gives us more opportunities to learn about the problems their trying to solve. We also want to learn how Foundation fits in people's workflows. And we've found over the years that when we go speak somewhere and meet people sparks even more ideas on how to improve our products. Magic happens when you can directly see how your customers use your tools.
On the Road Learning
We built Foundation and our product suite to help others build better products that work faster on any device. One aspect of our latest Foundation release is faster learning. We've rewritten the docs with more detailed and new code examples, a new Getting Started guide and a forum to get help from other Foundation users. Why? Because learning is very much who we are. It informs everything we do.
One of the reasons we're going on a World Tour is to have a product design exchange with other companies. We want to learn how other people practice product design, and show them how we approach it. We're also game for on-site product design training, including tips on Foundation, as part of our ZURB University efforts. Or if we want, we can tackle a practice three-day project that accomplishes design goal using our Design Process.
We'll also host meetups for both Foundation and our new responsive email framework, Ink. We'll chat about where we're going next and give tips on using our frameworks.
Want Us to Come to Your Town?
We've got a handful of cities already on our hit list, and we're looking for a more. We'd love to drop in. Tell us a bit about your company and the type of event you're interested in, so we can start planning our time together.