You spoke, and we listened. While working in Slack, there’s always a lot going on: you may be added to a new channel, mentioned by your manager in another channel, and direct-messaged by a colleague – all while more unread badges multiply in your sidebar. It can be tricky to tell what’s urgent and important …| Slack Design
Remember when you first heard that soothing music while joining a Huddle? Or watched the catch-up animation dance across your mobile app? Maybe you’ve been charmed by a friendly message and quirky emoji after clearing your unread messages, or enjoyed the ability to have full conversations with colleagues via custom emojis alone. These aren’t happy …| Slack Design
With an impressive 80% participation rate, one thing we attribute to the wild success of Slack Design’s mentorship program is simplicity. We’ve designed it to be easy to engage with, striking a balance between structured guidance and the flexibility to evolve based on the needs of participants. Next? Accessibility. We believe that mentorship is a …| Slack Design
Design that is inclusive and accessible almost always works better for everyone. But once in a while we reach a genuine dilemma — the more technically accessible choice adds friction or breaks expectations for everyone else. In these moments, someone inevitably asks: Can we just make it a preference? “Make it a preference” is sometimes …| Slack Design
If you work in design, you’ve probably already heard of design engineering. It’s not a new concept, and similar roles–such as Design Technologists, UI/UX Engineers, and Creative Technologists–have existed in software development for decades. These roles typically involve individuals with high proficiency in both design and engineering, tailored to meet organizational needs. At Slack, we …| Slack Design
Think about your experience using other products. What made them feel good to use? With the launch of Recap — our new Slack AI feature that provides daily summaries of channels you want to keep tabs on but aren’t active in — we knew it had to go beyond just working as expected. Functionality is […] The post Prioritizing craft in Recap, our newest AI-powered feature appeared first on Slack Design.| Slack Design
Let’s face it: besides “let’s take this offline,” the word culture is one of the most overused pieces of corporate jargon. And if you’re in any sort of people operations role, it’s practically written in your job description to uphold a strong team culture. But how exactly do you do that in a way that …| Slack Design
In software design we have all heard the phrase “well-crafted user experience.” It may have come up in conversation, in an article or in a job interview. Indeed, conversation and debate about craft, what it is and why it matters, has been a through-line during my 20+ years in tech. I’ve worked at companies that …| Slack Design
Grace Sunnell is a Lead Product Designer formally for Slack Connect and now evolving the experience of Slack AI. Jeff Robke is a Senior Product Manager focused on Slack Connect for Enterprise customers. Think of a time at work where things felt effortless. You felt like you could do anything, climb over any obstacle. Now, …| Slack Design
Let’s face it: AI technology, especially in the workplace context, is a sensitive topic. On the Slack design team, we know that no matter how large a deadline looms, it’s important to keep humans at the center of the experience. This sentiment is well-worn in a space crowded with well-meaning tech types, so we got …| Slack Design
Charting the crit terrain Critique—or, to use its more casual truncation, “crit”— is one of the most powerful team-powered tools that can contribute to a designer’s growth. The merits of a forum in which a designer’s work is evaluated and discussed by their peers at length seem obvious, to say the least, but often, many …| Slack Design
Does this look familiar? With more types of work happening on Slack, teams becoming larger, and new features like Canvas expanding what Slack can do, our UI was becoming congested. Keeping track of the most important stuff was no longer easy or straight-forward. As designers, we felt this problem too. New features had to be …| Slack Design
Just like the world around us, Slack has grown and changed significantly over the last decade. What started out as a simple chat tool is now a multi-modal product that allows for more meaningful collaboration with features like voice clips, video clips, huddles, canvases, lists, Slack Connect, Sales Elevate, and so much more. But with …| Slack Design
As we embarked on the largest evolution to Slack’s information architecture, us designers believed it was the perfect opportunity to evolve Slack’s iconic look and feel. While the undertaking would be no small feat, we were inspired to make Slack even more pleasant, more personal, and easier to understand. Make it more Slack-y. We decided …| Slack Design
The timing was right. We were adding in new features like huddles, canvases, lists, and others into a UI system that was originally designed solely for messaging capabilities. Meanwhile, research showed users on the biggest and most active teams were struggling to stay on top of the basics. Our product navigation was reaching its limits. …| Slack Design
I’ve spent the past five years at Slack building both the Slack brand and the Slack creative team. While I’m immensely proud of both accomplishments, the latter takes the cake. While it’s important to hire the right people, set clear expectations and develop seamless processes, we wouldn’t be one of the most collaborative and wonderful …| Slack Design
While Slack fields many requests, the creation of a feature to add people to a direct message was something our design team heard frequently. When we first started to roll up our sleeves and explore how to build this feature, it didn’t seem that difficult. After all, you could already add people to channels. It …| Slack Design
When Slack’s new website launched in 2017, I felt like a kid in a candy store. As a brand designer, there’s nothing more exciting than having new brand fonts and an entire library of illustrations at our disposal. However, this creative freedom was short-lived and replaced with frustration. Much like a sugar crash! Our new …| Slack Design
It may be weird to say my life changed because of an app most people use to fall down multi-hour rabbit holes to watch people dance or try out a viral recipe like NyQuil chicken, but it did. My name is Lucila Hernandez Del Carmen, I’m a Year Up alumnus-turned-Slack Design Operations intern for the …| Slack Design
Hi, my name is Stella, a designer working on the Slack platform administration experience. My job is to take care of a special group of users, our Slack administrators. While many think of Slack as a “people product,” we’re also a robust enterprise product. According to Okta’s 2022 Business at Work report, the average number …| Slack Design
Hey friends! MJ and Sheila here to talk to you about Design Ops at Slack, our passion for the field, and the guiding principles we live by in our day-to-day work. For anyone not familiar with the Design Ops function, we hope this read gives you a glimpse into what we do, the teams we …| Slack Design
A huge international campaign. A compelling headline on a city billboard. A viral video. They all have one thing in common: they started with an idea. And it’s likely that the journey to come up with The Idea behind them all was filled with many moments of delight, frustration, and self-doubt. I know this because …| Slack Design
Slack’s accessibility team recently launched a series of changes to make navigating around Slack more reliable and efficient for keyboard-only and screen reader users.| Slack Design
When you’re looking for an internship, there can be pressure to have all the right stuff—enrollment in a design program at a prestigious university, prior internship experience at big name companies, completed case studies of real world projects, and more. However, if everyone had these same things, it would be pretty boring and make the …| Slack Design
We all get our work done differently. Some of us are at our desks from 9 to 5, while others work more flexible hours. Some of us commute to work, while others work from home (or do both). Regardless of our setup, we are always connected and available, either through our desktop or our phones. …| Slack Design
Slack is primarily designed for team communication in channels. Channels are where work happens: It’s where teams exchange ideas, get feedback, and share files. It’s a constant stream of conversation that keeps everyone on the same page. But plenty of important information in Slack exists in formats other than messages. Think about how often you …| Slack Design
Hi, we’re Alison and Zoe, Associate and Junior Designers, respectively, and we just joined Slack in fall of 2021. Our first project here: building guidelines for onboarding emails. If you’ve ever joined a Slack workspace, you’ve gotten one of these. In fact, every person that interacts with Slack as a product will receive onboarding emails …| Slack Design
How Slack invests in big little details through Customer Love Sprints Most businesses say they love their customers. Slack is no exception! But what does that mean practically? How do we actually express that love? One way is to add big, new features. These are effective, essential, even, when it comes to how enterprise software …| Slack Design
Close your eyes and imagine yourself using Slack. What are two phrases you’d use to describe that experience? Whatever your phrases are, hopefully they’re at least somewhat synonymous with “Don’t make me think” and “Be a great host.” These are the two of five organizational product principles that we live by when it comes to …| Slack Design
Fostering a sense of connection with your team is probably the hardest part of working remotely. When you work in an office together, you can walk by someone’s desk and give them a friendly “hello,” ask if they want to grab coffee later, and even share a joke with another colleague when you realize you …| Slack Design
Being immersed in Slack’s highly collaborative culture and an even closer-knit team, saying no to meetings used to be slightly terrifying. But when I realized my calendar wasn’t always working for me, I had to make some adjustments to my thinking and my RSVPs. Whatever’s at the heart of your own “meeting decline guilt”—the patriarchy, …| Slack Design
There are plenty of comprehensive pieces on the practice of product design out there—our own Kyle Turman has written an excellent post on the Pillars of Digital Product Design—but there’s a crucial layer of thinking that can sometimes elude the design process itself, partially because it’s so obvious that it’s hiding in plain sight. “Of …| Slack Design
Learn the five copy principles that help us write great Marketing copy in the Slack voice and tone. Part 1 in a series Words give meaning to your marketing materials: if the brand is the lifeblood of your business, words are the atomic structure that make up that lifeblood. When copy—that is, the …| Slack Design
Glad you asked! This question is especially relevant to me right now, as I’m currently learning a new prototyping tool here at Slack. 🙃 Whether you’re trying to learn a technical skill, a new industry tool, sharpening your visual design chops, or leveling up a soft skill like public speaking, the only way to get …| Slack Design
As someone who used to teach design at an online code and design school, I’ve answered this question many times. That tells me many people wonder this—so if you’re one of them, you’re not alone. Short answer to the first question: YES. It’s 2021. For better or worse, you can learn and do (almost) anything from …| Slack Design
I wish I could tell you that I had a flowchart to show you precisely when you should switch to management. There’s no simple answer — in my career, I’ve transitioned between roles as an individual contributor (IC) and a manager four — four! — times. Yep, that’s IC to management to IC to management …| Slack Design
This is a really good question—without any right answers! It depends on what you want right now in your career. Ask yourself: What kind of impact do you want to have, be it on products or people? Would you prefer to gain deep expertise in one area, or broad expertise in multiple areas? How much …| Slack Design
If you’re thinking about this question early in your career, good for you! As a young designer, you’re likely eager for a job that pays you well and lets you do what you love, all while building your portfolio and design skills to set you up for more exciting opportunities in the future. The dream!| Slack Design
Slack Senior Product Designer Weili Shi shares unexpected ways her theater degree has helped her work as a designer.| Slack Design
A conversation between two Slack designers Nikki Nolan and Vivian Urata on why inclusive design should be the new normal. Audio version provided above. Nikki Nolan: I’m glad we’re having this conversation around inclusive design. To get started, I would love to know who you are and what got you interested in …| Slack Design
We recently announced the rollout of audio and video clips in Slack, which allow anyone on Slack’s paid plans to send audio, video, and screen share messages. With clips, you can quickly capture an idea, celebrate team wins, or present your work in a more personal way. Clips are transcribed, captioned, and searchable, so they’re …| Slack Design
