Today, we’re launching ReadyForZero, a startup dedicated to helping people manage their credit card debt.

When I decided to join ReadyForZero last November, I was burnt out.

Not that life was bad, but my work as a freelancer had left me unsatisfied. A year of subcontracting interaction design work sapped me. The projects I worked on were awesome, but I had about as much ownership over them as I do over clouds in the sky: here one minute, gone the next. Lengthy release cycles, strict NDAs, and end-of-project handoffs meant that I could hardly even talk about the products that saw the touch of my hand.

Don’t get me wrong – the projects were interesting and the people were fantastic, but one needs something more.

That’s why, with the launch of our site today, a page has been turned. This startup has put the spirit back in my step. I own my work. It owns me too. I care so deeply about it that I forget about stuff that doesn’t matter, and appreciate tenfold the stuff that does. I feel… effective.

ReadyForZero is a product designed to solve a real human problem: credit card debt. It’s not something that wants a lot of your time, but a productive and focused tool with a single real goal. At least, that’s the hope. We’ll get trolled, no doubt, and hopefully get some love too. We’ll probably help a few people get out of credit card debt, and that’s what matters.

Be warned: I’m gonna blog it up.

So get your comment buttons out, polish up that unsubscribe link, or just keep on flipping through Google Reader, but don’t think for a second that I will go ten months without posting again. (Sorry about that).

Engagebig.com v2 PrototypeThis redesign was not too complicated – we wanted to present a more professional, modern site, focused on delivering a single point at a time, while keeping it all relatively simple. The small video clips of us were inspired by (and use an API to) robo.to. They are a fun way to get a better idea of who we are.

The main Axure lesson I’ve taken from this prototype is that we can use opacity gradients to “fade” scrolling elements in and out of the screen. Note the left and right sides of the carousel animation in the prototype. This effect didn’t go into the final design, but it was fun to develop.

Also note the nice browser chrome. Unfortunately I can’t redistribute the .rp file itself because it uses the very-awesome but for-pay Konigi icons.

We’ve just launched our company site over at EngageBIG.com.  Our efforts at Breakthrough Innovation Group are paying off with some exciting projects that I can’t wait to see online.

This was my first chance to play with JQuery, which makes Javascript a breeze.  Inspired by the fantastic “foliage-o-meter” at Rogie King’s Komodomedia, I’ve added the “Advanced Breakthrough” mode on the contact page.  Does it do anything?  If “being sweet” counts as doing something, then, absolutely.  Shoot us an email!