December 2014 Inside Design Articles

  • Our top 5 blog posts of 2014

    Our top 5 blog posts of 2014

    Dec 30, 2014 — We had a great 2014. We launched LiveShare, TETHR, integrations with Photoshop and Sketch, and a lot of other awesome resources to help you become a better product designer. As the year wraps up, we wanted to sincerely thank you for making these things possible, and also share with you our top posts of 2014.
  • 3 ways to think more creatively about product design

    3 ways to think more creatively about product design

    Dec 29, 2014 — At first glance, many products may seem entirely unrelated. But, if you look closely, there is probably a point where their functions converge. Creativity lies at that intersection.
  • How to rock product copy on the fly

    How to rock product copy on the fly

    Dec 22, 2014 — While the tech world long ago acknowledged that content is king, many companies seem a little slower to admit they need content specialists like copywriters, editors, and proofers.
  • How to design your design team

    How to design your design team

    Dec 18, 2014 — For 10 years now, I’ve been focused on building and nurturing effective design teams. And while everyone has their own definition of success for a design team, in my experience, some elements must be in place for the team to truly be effective. With that in mind, here’s how I set up design teams, the tools we use, and the essential processes that ensure success.
  • Is design grad school worth it?

    Is design grad school worth it?

    Dec 17, 2014 — Peter Cho of Inkling spoke with several recent design grads now working in UX/UI and product design at places like Cooper, Flipboard, Amazon, and Google. He shares 3 high-level reasons to pursue a master’s in design and some useful advice for people entering grad school.
  • Design teardown: Help Scout is redesigning with the customer in mind

    Design teardown: Help Scout is redesigning with the customer in mind

    Dec 16, 2014 — Help Scout shares how they used customer feedback to place their needs front and center when they redesigned a big part of their product—Help Scout Reports—from the ground up.
  • 4 ways to get design direction from social media

    4 ways to get design direction from social media

    Dec 15, 2014 — Gathering feedback is crucial when you’re building a product. And while user testing is typically the best way to gather that feedback, you don’t always have the time or budget for it. Thankfully, the web plays host to millions of users ready to try a new product and share their input. With that in mind, here are some tricks to help you get design direction from social media.
  • How to collaborate with your product manager

    How to collaborate with your product manager

    Dec 11, 2014 — No matter their industry, designers take existing elements and combine them into tools and platforms that help people accomplish their goals. It’s no accident that you can apply the same lens to thinking about product design.
  • 4 tips for designing your remote process right

    4 tips for designing your remote process right

    Dec 9, 2014 — At Shopify, Serena has a close-knit team that relies on quick feedback and unplanned discussions. So, when the opportunity came for her to work remotely, she was both hesitant and excited by the challenge. Here, she reveals what she learned and her best practices for designing a remote process.
  • The role of art in product design

    The role of art in product design

    Dec 4, 2014 — Many people conflate visual art and design simply because of their many similarities. Art and design both require immense creativity, an acute sense of aesthetics and style, emotional intelligence, and the ability to tell a story through visual media. While these are compelling—and sometimes confusing— similarities, the application of these two disciplines is surprisingly straightforward.
  • How to be an amazing designer: apps every good designer needs

    How to be an amazing designer: apps every good designer needs

    Dec 3, 2014 — As a designer, you’re constantly pulled in a dozen different directions. Every phase of a project requires a different skillset and level of focus. So to get the job done, you need to grow your skills—and find and use the right tools. So, here’s my list of must-have apps to help you become the design hero you’ve always wanted to be.
  • Design Teardown: LiveShare—designing for many

    Design Teardown: LiveShare—designing for many

    Dec 2, 2014 — One of the most valuable outcomes of a challenging design project—besides the final product, of course—is what you learn about user experience design in general. By abstracting the specific solutions you come up with, you can arrive at general principles that help you get more done faster in the future. And since we learned a ton from building LiveShare, we thought we’d share a few of its most valuable lessons.

  • 5 ways to switch from maker to manager—and back again

    Dec 1, 2014 — Paul Graham’s “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule” popularized the idea of the difference between makers and managers, specifically how their schedules are—for the most part—incompatible. So, how can you carve out a maker’s schedule for you and your design team, or at least keep the manager’s schedule to a minimum?
Loading...
Loading...

Collaborate in real time on a digital whiteboard
Try Freehand