zamde zamde

An ensemble of design tools

Less mechanics.
More judgement.

Zamde is an ensemble of intelligent tools for product and experience designers. Each one takes a piece of avoidable friction off your desk, and leaves the decisions where they belong: with you.

Meet Scherzo See what’s next

Out now

The first app is in the room.

scherzo

Remote usability sessions

Available

Watch someone use it, from anywhere.

The participant shares a screen, window or tab from their own browser, with nothing to install. You and up to three colleagues watch live, follow the script and take notes that know the time. Voice stays on your usual call.

  • Tasks that travel. Each task floats on top of whatever the participant is testing, with Done and I’m stuck.
  • Notes that know the time. Stamped when you start typing, so a long note still points at its moment.
  • Observers out of sight. No row of watching faces. Colleagues take notes and can ask you a question privately.
  • Recording stays with you. Saved to your computer as it goes. The server never receives video, audio or stills.
Open Scherzo How a session runs
Course finder, round 5 · P07 Live Recording 14:32
Thursday

Task 2 of 5

Find a Thursday elective and add it to your timetable.

DoneI’m stuck

Notes

  1. Scrolled past the day filter twice.
  2. “Is this the same list as my timetable?”Confusion
  3. Found it through search instead.
  4. Hovering on Add

In rehearsal

Next in the ensemble.

Two more apps are finding their feet. What follows is our working brief, not a promise: the details will change once designers get their hands on them.

riffle

Exploring possibilities

In rehearsal

Deal out the options before you pick one.

Riffle is for the stretch of a project where the answer isn’t obvious yet. Give it a flow, a screen or a problem statement, and it deals out variations: different layouts, different orders, different first steps. You flick through them, pull out the few worth arguing about, and carry on drawing.

  • Sets a dozen takes on a sign-up flow side by side, with the differences marked.
  • Varies one thing at a time when you ask, so you can see what moved.
  • Remembers why you set an idea aside, for the next time someone suggests it.

From the Riffle family · curious, fluid, exploratory

rebus

Synthesising evidence

In rehearsal

Find out what the evidence is really saying.

Rebus picks up where a round of research leaves off. It reads your notes, transcripts and clips, drafts the themes, and shows the quotes behind each one, including the places where participants disagreed. Every claim links back to its source. We’ll draft the synthesis. You decide what it means.

  • Clusters 40 interview notes into themes, each traced to its sources.
  • Flags a finding that rests on one particularly loud participant.
  • Opens Scherzo sessions directly, with notes and timestamps intact.

From the Rebus family · perceptive, enigmatic, ingenious

recess recess

Somewhere to stop and read.

Recess is Zamde’s publication: essays, field notes and interviews about design and the work around it. It isn’t an app, and it won’t help you ship anything this afternoon. It’s where we think out loud, and where you can go between sessions.

First issue in preparation

Essay

The meeting about the meeting.

Why the work around design takes up more of the week than the design itself, and which parts to stop doing first.

9 min read

  1. Field notes

    Five participants, one loud voice.

    A usability round where the clearest finding came from the quietest person in the room.

    6 min read

  2. Interview

    Judgement is the job.

    A design lead on the decisions they still won’t hand to a tool, and the ones they gladly did.

    7 min read

  3. Notes

    Words we’ve stopped using.

    Leverage, unlock, supercharge: what we say instead, and why the plain version is usually the true one.

    4 min read

Working titles for the first issue. They may change before it goes out.

The families

Seven temperaments, one ensemble.

Families are sensibilities, not feature lists. Six of them make apps, and every app wears its family’s colour alone. The seventh, Recess, makes reading.

  • riffle

    Curious · fluid · exploratory

    In rehearsal

  • rondo

    Rhythmic · evolving · coherent

    Tuning up

  • rebus

    Perceptive · enigmatic · ingenious

    In rehearsal

  • scherzo

    Playful · inventive · irreverent

    Out now

  • quaver

    Sensitive · expressive · nuanced

    Tuning up

  • quoin

    Crafted · structural · composed

    Tuning up

recess

Reflective · unhurried · generous

The family that publishes. Essays, field notes and interviews, rather than apps. It sits outside the z, which keeps the six that started the ensemble.

First issue soon

How we build

Independent voices, held together.

Zamde (say it ZAM-day) blends zambra, a spirited collective performance, with duende, the elusive spark of artistry. It also sounds a lot like someday. We’d rather it meant today.

  1. 01

    Intelligence in service of craft.

    We’ll draft the synthesis. You decide what it means. The tools take the mechanics; the judgement stays yours.

  2. 02

    Independent voices, collective ingenuity.

    Each app is useful alone, and better when they work together. Pick up one without signing up for all six.

  3. 03

    A little mischief, a better day.

    Less copying between tabs, less timestamp arithmetic, fewer meetings about the meeting. More time doing the design.