Although we work for companies of different sizes and on vastly different kinds of projects, there are more similarities between our QA reviews than there are differences. A QA is a process that every designer implements as the project comes closer to completion, as a designer you need to check everything is good to go for your launch date. Hitting snags at the end of a project is common, we discuss how we’ve evolved our design QA process to get the best results.

Jonathan has worked with companies like Lego, Twitter and even the UN, running sprints to make design decision making easier. Following on from our recent topic of design decision making, we ask Jonathan to tell us more about how we can get out of busy work and instead, spend time creating through easier, faster and more collaborative design decision making.

AJ&Smart

The Workshopper Playbook

As designers, we make a lot of decisions. From moving something two pixels to the left to redesigning an entire website, our decisions range in difficulty. Today on Design Life we talk about how we go about making these decisions and how to overcome decision paralysis.

Join the community on Patreon

Check out our online store

Design reviews can seem a bit like a holy grail but using them to the designer’s advantage to create a successful project is key. We dive deep into the processes in place for formal and informal design reviews and crits where we work and share what we have learned from giving and receiving feedback. 

On this episode of Design Life we are talking side projects. You might have a few ideas bouncing around in your mind of late, that keep coming back to you. Maybe you want to see if your idea would spark interest in the audience you have in mind, but you don’t know where to start. Using our own side projects as examples, we talk about how you can bring your idea to life and avoid potential pitfalls along the way. 

Burger bun recipe

In this week’s episode of Design Life, we have a timely discussion about our motivation while working from home. These are unprecedented times we’re living in. Trying to find and stay motivated while also building a new routine when working from home is a challenge. We discuss our levels of motivation as it changes from day-to-day and why it’s important not to give yourself a hard time if you’re feeling less motivated than usual.

Femke's video: Temporary workstation setup while working from home (Desk Tour)

Join our community!

Many people find themselves working from home at the moment as workplaces play their part in helping to slow the spread of the Coronavirus. For those of us who are working from home for the first time, or returning to remote working after some time in the office, we use this episode of Design Life to chat about the benefits of working from home and how we stay productive in our new environment. We also share the struggles we face as we miss our colleagues and how we use technology to stay connected.

Join the community on Patreon!

Get yourself a Design Life pin!

In this episode of Design Life we discuss how to build your network. Over the course of your career, how can you build a strong, supportive network? We talk about taking the organic approach to creating your network so you can you successfully leverage the support of your colleagues online and IRL.

How to network as an introvert

116: An alternative approach to networking

107: Advice for networking

Giving and receiving feedback can be tricky. In this episode we talk about performance reviews, which is quite timely as both of us have just finished or are in the process of having ours. We discuss how feedback works on our teams, how this helps us and what we plan to do with our feedback.

Join our community!
Buy a Work In Progress pin!

As designers we have very high expectations of our own portfolios. Try to take the pressure off. Don’t overthink it. Build a system so you can easily and quickly publish work and keep it up to date. Identify your own barriers and then build solutions to overcome them. 

The temptation to redesign your portfolio can make you lose sight of your goal. Stick with an old design if it means getting the new work up. At the end of the day, that is the most important thing. Schedule time to come back to the design at a later date. 

If your work is covered by an NDA, you might feel like there is no way around it - you just can’t build a portfolio. Instead of this mindset, could you consider sending a password protected link to share your work? How about blanking out information that is private? Or send through a password protected pdf. Remember your goal is to get an interview, so you need to share just enough to interest the company and give you a chance to present your portfolio in more detail at an interview. 

If you are really short on time, create an archive. Even if you have a portfolio, creating an archive which you can reference at a glance is a good idea. Keep it simple. The information can be sparse to begin with, the year, the project, the company and a holding image is enough. If you want to host your archive on a platform, try using Dribble.