Blog
8 Project Management Resolutions for 2012
It’s never too late for a refresher on project management fundamentals. To get our projects done right, we over-communicate, establish a clear schedule, and prepare to adapt to new circumstances.
Getting Better Feedback: Questions, Preparation, and Attitude
Get great at getting feedback. Ask the right questions, introduce your design to invite conversation, and have the right attitude.
Setting Goals for 2012: What Designers Should Ask For
Professional development goal-setting is challenging for designers who sometimes feel like they have no control over their destiny. Ask your manager for the right things, and you may yet achieve your goals.
Turning It Off: Eight Tips for Leaving Work at Work
Telecommuting demands strong boundaries between work-life and personal-life. These eight tips–like scheduling end-of-day meetings–help the modern workforce preserve those boundaries.
Efficient Sketching Studios With Remote Participants
How EightShapes uses an IPEVO camera to facilitate and record sketched ideas in design studios in a way that also enables participation from remote participation.
Group Health: A Major Milestone for EightShapes
EightShapes offers a group health plan to full-time employees. How I’ve longed to say those words. And now, on EightShapes’ fifth birthday, I can. In the five years since we started EightShapes, Nathan and I have strived to make it a comfortable place to work, especially with respect to benefits. From day one we offered [...]
Sharing Sketches Remotely
Over the past few years, EightShapes has embedded sketching into workflow to quickly generate ideas. Whether with our clients using formal scenarios, or internally to work through ideas ad-hoc, sketching is now part of our DNA, and reinforces our core value of “show, don’t tell.” Sketching Remotely is Harder EightShapes is a distributed team. We [...]
Desktop Zen: 8 Tips for Distraction Free Remote Collaboration
Screen-sharing is a reality of the modern workplace. These eight tips will ensure your screen is pristine for those who will be viewing it remotely.
How a Content Strategist and Information Architect Co-Conquered a Rapid Redesign
I recently participated in a project that offered a good opportunity to partner with a content strategist. Though I’ve been in the business for more than a decade, this was my first content-rich design project after becoming more involved with content strategy. The project was a particularly good testbed since it was a small effort [...]
Incorporating Rapid Prototyping into the Design Process
Rapid prototyping allow EightShapes to deliver a complete site in just a few weeks. Sure, it won’t work for every project, but we got some great lessons learned.