It’s already been 2 months since our team finished the Flutter Vignette project and gave a talk at Flutter Interact ’19. Throughout the project, we were able to maintain a healthy designer-developer relationship, which was the key to the successful completion of the project. I want to share 5 things that helped us build an effective and efficient collaboration between designers and developers.
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A few years ago, we shared some awesome reasons why you should come work with us. We are in a brand new office and hiring smart developers and designers, so we thought we would update the list.
We’re privileged to collaborate with notable organizations like Adobe, Microsoft, Google, Disney, National Film Board, and FITC (to name a few). We are tasked to prove concepts, explore new functionality, and create flagship experiences for announcements. We design and build world-class apps, experiences, installations, and games on a wide variety of platforms. This rich breadth of work offers constant engagement and opportunities to learn and grow.
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This is a raw idea I have for uses of Artificial Intelligence. We can already see good results coming from computer-assisted creativity. Given a few inputs, the computer can generate a ton of useful iterations.
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I’ve been exposed to a variety of corporate cultures. Some fill me with inspiration, fellowship, and support, where my co-workers are my best friends and I trust them to give honest feedback — knowing they want to solve problems, and help me produce my best work. Others, leave me exhausted: struggling with job satisfaction and feeling alone. At the root of this, is a feeling that surfacing issues or concerns to managers will fall on deaf ears. When managers listen and do not take action or follow up with action, I’m left feeling powerless to affect change.
If this sounds familiar — have hope. With a few insights about shaping feedback and some tips to cultivate an open, supportive, and candid culture, you’ll be on your way to creating an environment where you can thrive together. It all starts with good feedback.
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Hallowe’en at gskinner means two traditions:
The first tradition is our annual pumpkin carving afternoon. Earlier in the week, we announced some teams, and on Friday we brought in food, drinks, snacks, and some classic Tim Burton Hallowe’en movies. The day was punctuated with visits from Dodo, our office dog for the day, on loan from Chris K.
The second tradition is the design and development of our Pumpkin Voting App. This privilege falls on our newest team member(s). They manage all the project stages, from initial sketches and ideation, right through deployment! It’s a great opportunity to provide some training and practice with real deadlines.
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JAMJAM2017 was a team-building exercise we held here at the gskinner office. It was a time to learn about music visualization, have some fun, and build some demos!
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In September, we sent our design team and a developer (to keep the designers in check) to Calgary, Alberta for CAMP Festival. CAMP runs for two days, with 20 speakers sharing presentations on creativity and technology.
The best decision I’ve ever made was going to design school. Surrounded by talent, designer friends, and inspiring instructors, I was able to improve more than I could have ever imagined. After four years of amazing time in school, I received several job offers after our graduate portfolio show, and ended up working at a digital experience agency: gskinner.
Until the moment I started work, I thought I knew pretty much everything to succeed professionally, and there was no doubt in my naïve mind I would soon become “the SUPERSTAR” designer of the company. But I found the reality to be quite different from what I imagined. Transitioning from school to a professional work environment, I felt ill-equipped as there were many things I hadn’t been exposed to at school. It was like being thrown in the middle of the ocean and having to learn how to swim all over again.
