Add Your Helpful Tips!

Tiperosity is a tip-sharing community for smarter living. It’s where helpful people share what they know to help make every day life a little bit better. At least, that’s how the people behind the idea see things. 

As one of those people, I’m really proud of the product we’ve built over the last year. Led by Nathan Preheim with the dev guys from Human Shapes, it’s been a focused side project that has come together well. A solid product of 7,000+ tips, 20,000+ Twitter followers across all accounts, and some great content continues to be added to our Tip Lists feature.  

Product aside, I’ve been very pleased with the process we’ve used to get to this point. We established a clearly defined product road map and then we just started designing and building. We utilized a milestone-based approach so we could easily reprioritize to solve issues or create features we hadn’t originally planned for. From requirements to design to development, there’s always been lots of back and forth with each feature being very team-created. And since this isn’t our full-time gig, we’re able to do only the work we think is really needed. We aren’t trying to fill time or find things to “fix” because we have a bunch of money to spend. Instead, we’re very scrappy and that keeps us highly efficient.

High level, in the mix of projects that can be going on at any given time; client work, community involvement, or artistic experiments, I feel it’s key to have a startup partnership included. The time percentages can be a little tricky, but working on a focused product requires a unique kind of thinking. It’s become the space to hone objective ideation skills and try to get better at recognizing what long-term success looks like from the vantage point of very early stages.

What long-term success looks like, we have some ideas on that. Though with any startup, there is a lot of steady uncertainty. For the time being, you can expect interesting lists on a variety of topics to go with our beautiful bits of wisdom. And if you’re so inclined, create an account to start adding your helpful tips to the site. Enjoy!

Visit Tiperosity »

To get better at X, you just have to do X more

To get better at writing, you have to write more. To get better at public speaking, you have to speak in public more. To get better at designing, you have to design more. To get better at anything, you just have to do it more. It takes work. Hard work. You simply have to put in the time. No short cuts. No pure talent right from birth. Just work. Always. If you want to get better, that’s all you need to do. 

Happy Pinning!

Pinterest is an odd beast. It is a lovely platform but it’s still low on my list of social networks to put time into, whether personally or for clients. I have started using it again periodically with a focus on it being a resource for JKDC. In my mind, Pinterest was really amazing in the beginning when mostly beautiful things were pinned to it. And then as it got more popular, it suffered overall as uninspiring brands and people without taste uploaded things that weren’t beautiful or just didn’t fit the overall platform vibe. Now, aside from adding my own inspiration when it comes to design, web, music, film, and books, it has been handy to catalog mood boards for client projects. And I even have a design portfolio section. (Oh dear God, not more portfolio pushing!) It seems like a good use of a board—to have a solid set of beautiful pins of my favorite work. Sort of like Dribbble, but more for the masses. Anyway, yeah, Pinterest. A thing again for me. Happily pinning over this way »

It will all snowball I guarantee it

In between periods of steady work when all is golden and you can do no wrong, there will always be lows. When nothing clicks. When everything just kinda sucks. When anything you do has some uncomfortable barrier of resistance. You won’t get the content you need, the process will seemingly fall apart, people won’t get the wireframes, or the designs will not be liked. Sometimes this will happen all at the same time. Then approval will get reversed and that project that didn’t come in will all-of-a-sudden need to be done faster than you originally thought. (Can you still make it happen?) That client still hasn’t paid you and now it’s tax time. The budget will get whittled down and then whittled some more. All the while more features will try to be snuck in for this and for that. Computer on the fritz! (Silence, silence.) You’re tired and frustrated and then, voila! It all starts to come together. It all moves in the right direction. It all feels right. And this is why you do what you do. For the thrill of it all. Aren’t you glad you stuck it out?

How to Stop a Pipeline

Our newest case study is on the six years we used design and development to help stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Design for one movement, across multiple platforms, for the long haul. Be ready at a moment’s notice for a quick response and make sure the campaign has what it needs to move people with a sense of purpose. Create the visuals to inspire action, to spark creativity, and to help fuel the determination of the people on the ground.

Case Study: #NOKXL »

Action Backed, Version 2.0

Experiences to move people to action. We collaborate with progressive organizations, agencies, and companies to move forward issues and ideas that make the world better. We do this by being experts in branding, web design, responsive web development, and action apps.

New Site Launch »