Stephen Martin

Get Dropbox, Encourage Collaboration

Dec 28

Stephen MartinWeb Design collaboration, design, Dropbox, file sharing, Growl, Mac, web 1 Comment

Several months back I stumbled across a great start-up: Dropbox, getdropbox.com. The service allows you to store files and share them across multiple computers. The files are stored with revisions and you’re able to retrieve deleted files and go back to previous versions. Dropbox totally put my thumb drive out of business. What I didn’t realize about Dropbox is how well it would encourage collaboration with other designers.

Dropbox Growls at You

If you’re on a Mac, Dropbox installs Growl (if you don’t already have it installed) when you install their client. This means that whenever you connect to your Dropbox folder, Growl notifications will tell you how many files have been updated, deleted, etc. It will even notify you when you join new shared folders and the files are available on your computer.

These notifications display for all members of a shared folder. So, if I update MyFile.psd in a shared folder, when one of the other members of that folder fire up their computer, they will see that MyFile.psd has been updated via a Growl notification.

This is the key for encouraging collaboration. By adding a few colleagues as members to a shared folder, they will be notified every time I update my in-progress file.

The Friendly “Snoop”

Shortly following a few updates to a work-in-progress Photoshop file, I started to receive emails from one of my colleagues. The emails pointed out some items in the design that they thought needed some work. At first I was taken back – “hey, I’m being snooped on…” But then I realized that the unsolicited feedback was good feedback. This led to a much more polished final design.

By adding a few colleagues to my Dropbox folder, I encouraged them to peek in on what I was working on and do what designers do… provide feedback. We’re curious by nature and we all have different eyes. I’m always throwing the “What are you working on?” question to people I know in the industry.

I most likely would have kept designing, building and then launched the site. A few weeks later, I would have mentioned it to a fellow designer and there’s no doubt in my mind that at least one response would be a “you should have” comment.

Try Dropbox with Fellow Designers

Dropbox is a free service that can allow your friends and collegaues instant access to what you’re working on and in turn, get them to provide feedback early in the design process. Encourage collaboration and polish your good design into a great design.