For years, we designers did most of our work in physical offices, talking, sharing ideas, and providing off-the-cuff feedback. The pandemic has changed everything. Now, many studios have gone fully remote. Weโre working with colleagues through text chat and submitting our designs for feedback to team members in different time zones. Can we retain that spark of creativity and collaboration even when spread apart hundreds of miles? The answer is yes. Hereโs how to master the art of remote design collaboration.
How Design Work Has Changed
Even with all of the tools and systemsย developed to facilitate remote work, thereโs no question that itโs been a difficult change. Many designers had specific routines, daily meetings, and activities that canโt now be replicated through digital screens. Some work in fear that being a member of a remote team makes you more expendableโout of sight, out of mind. Others are concerned that design work is becoming dull, more tiring, and less creative. Many now are locked into more heads-down work and have fewer opportunities to communicate and brainstorm new ideas. If youโre facing some of these challenges, youโre not alone. However, it doesnโt have to be this way. There are smart, practical ways to overcome these difficulties and build a positive, inspired remote design culture.
Remote Design Best Practices
Here at Matcha Design, weโve been doing design work remotely for several years (even before the pandemic), and weโre very familiar with the upsides and downsides of collaborating with distributed teams. Here are the best practices weโve learned that you can apply on your own team:
Keep Everyone On The Same Page
Use a work communication tool like Slack to organize your team, communicate tasks, and provide feedback. Set up specific channels for each project and assign team members. This allows designers to submit pictures and videos of their projects for instant feedback from other members on that project. Itโs also a good idea to create one or two looser channels that allow your team members to express themselves. Design is a creative process that requires us to chase down inspirations and explore new categories. Having a โVery Inspiring Thingsโ channel, for instance, could be a place for your colleagues to upload designs, graphics, and anything else they may have come across. This can be an excellent conversation starter.
Make Time For Face-To-Face Collaboration
You donโt want to choke up peopleโs calendars with 1:1s, but it is good to connect through Zoom or Microsoft Teams and see each otherโs faces. Team meetings where everyone gets the chance to introduce themselves are crucial as they help to reduce friction and make it easier to work together. This can be harder to do with geographically dispersed teams, but it is possible to record these meetings for anyone who couldnโt make it. Slack and other tools have a feature called a โhuddleโ where colleagues can quickly hop onto a voice or video chat and have a conversation. These one-on-one meetings can be great for brainstorming ideas and exploring concepts with other designers.
A Picture Tells A Thousand Words, But A Videoโฆ
In addition to video meetings, use tools like Loom to record videos, provide project updates, and share your ideas. Instead of just uploading pngโs your design to the Slack channel, upload a videoย where you walkthrough where youโre at and what youโre thinking with each element. This allows your team members to provide much richer feedback. Remember, these are just internal videos to describe what youโre doing; itโs perfectly okay if theyโve got imperfections. Donโt worry about editing them or anything, just crank them out and get them in front of your team.
Host An In-Person Get-Together
Some of the most successful remote teams host annual in-person events, where they try to get everyone in the same room together. Even if theyโre only rare, these in-person meetings can be fantastic ways to have fun and truly cement your core team.
The Ultimate GoalโCommunication
At the end of the day, the single most important part of smoothing out the rough edges of remote design collaboration is communication. You, and ideally everyone on your team, must prioritize digital communication. That means responding to critical emails promptly, checking your team collaboration tools frequently, and doing your best to provide feedback as often as you can.
Unfortunately, itโs all too easy for many remote design teamsย to become isolated. We start wanting to wait to share things until theyโre โready to be seen.โ Then, you share your work, and it hurts to see all these recommended changes coming in. Thatโs why itโs better to keep communicating each and every day. Share your works in progress, share your goals, and keep everyone up to date. As a team leader or business owner, create as many opportunities for this communication to occur as possible.
These are our ideas for improving communication and creative collaboration on remote teams. Whatโs worked for your team? Head over to our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagramย and drop a comment. Weโd love to hear from you.
