We use a lot of digital products in the information age. There are over seven million apps available in 2023, and some estimates claim we will hit the 200 million downloads per year mark by 2025.
Of course, mobile-friendly products don't appear out of thin air. Nor are they simple to create - even if a well-designed app is easy to use.
There are thousands of product designers creating these digital tools on a daily basis. While it may be a crowded field, though, there's only one brand that is producing many of the most recognizable digital products on the market: MetaLab.
Who Is MetaLab?
MetaLab is no stranger to the digital product space. The company launched in 2006, two years before Apple even launched its iOS App Store.
Since then, it has spent the last 16 years developing a unique formula for app and digital product creation. This has resulted in an impressive number of simple, beautiful, and easy-to-use mobile-friendly products for an impressive roster of name brands.
Who Has MetaLab Worked With?
If you have a smartphone or tablet, chances are, you've already interacted with multiple MetaLab products. In fact, your home screen wouldn't be the same without MetaLab. The digital product team has created unique, user-friendly interfaces for many of the internet's most well-known products.
Metalab helped Headspace pivot its platform from a simple product marketing site to an educational hub that specialized in all things mindfulness. The company helped Uber separate its fast-growing Uber Eats service into its own, independent product.
MetaLab also works with startups. It helped Slack's founding team turn its fledgling vision of an online workspace tool into reality. It equipped the document app Notarize to become a modernized trend-setter within its industry.
The list of notable MetaLab clients doesn't stop there. In its nearly two-decade run, the product developer has worked with Google, Insider, The Athletic, Tempest, Waking Up, Pitch - the list goes on.
During this time, MetaLab has developed a reputation as a brand that knows how to carry a digital product from concept through to a successful launch.
What Is the MetaLab Process?
In Apple-esque style, MetaLab's business model has always been to do more than create a high-quality product. The company has made its vision clear from its inception: to push product forward.
MetaLab's team designs its products to create positive, memorable experiences for end-users. To this end, the company has created a comprehensive, end-to-end product development process that can take an idea "from napkin sketch to real shipped product."
Each project for each client receives a meticulously chosen team assigned from a talented and diversified global staff. As they work on each product, this group ensures that they flesh out an idea into a fully functioning and bug-free application that immaculately executes the actions for which it exists.
Throughout this development process, MetaLab prioritizes both design and functionality. Along with the aforementioned attractive and easy-to-use interfaces, the company builds its products to scale and perform for any size audience. Apps shouldn't be overwhelming, complex pieces of software, no matter how many people they serve, which is why the MetaLab design team emphasizes products that "do one thing well."
MetaLab is also known for its desire to stay lean cut and mean in its product design activities. The initial stage of development focuses on exploring options, ensuring the individuality of the product, and then creating a roadmap to turn that vision into reality as efficiently as possible.
The design process itself is similarly stripped of unnecessary frills. MetaLab's designers aren't interested in drawn-out development timelines and costly pitch decks. They build prototypes as soon as possible and test them with their clients and focus groups. From there, they implement the feedback, rinse, and repeat.
Once a product is complete, the team takes the time to engage in a progressive hand-off. Careful hiring and training ensure that clients retain in-house ownership of their products in the long run. From start to finish, the average development of a new product takes 30 weeks.
MetaLab: The Name Behind All the Names
MetaLab is the director on a movie set. It's the conductor of the orchestra. It's the unseen face that makes the magic happen.
The company isn't a household name on its own. However, through the compelling design work and products that it has created over the years, the brand has indirectly made its presence known, one way or another, in countless households, hands, and pockets around the world.
