Well, the year that felt like it may never end is finally coming to a close. Over the last 9 months, a global pandemic caused the world to stand still; remote work became the norm; a new antiracist movement blossomed in response to the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others; and technology turned from an important part of our lives to an essential way to stay connected.
These pivotal moments caused a lot of organizations to rethink the ways they’ve always done things. A wealth of new ideas and trends surfaced in response. As a company committed to learning and improving every day, we’re excited about the ideas that emerged this year and how they’ll help us continue to change for the better in the years to come. And we’re also being thoughtful about the ones worth paying attention to.
So we caught up with our Design, Content, Technology, and Project Management teams to go beyond the trends of 2020, and learn about the ideas guiding their perspectives as they head into the new year. We hope their ideas will help you start 2021 with a fresh outlook.
From the Design Team
Our Design team goes into the new year mindful of design’s role in supporting mental health, and advancing social change. While they’re exploring emerging functions like variable SVG shapes and creative use of movement, they’re also focused on cutting through the digital noise by keeping information easy to engage with. Especially as technology becomes an even more essential part of our lives.
- SVG Design Tools
- How to be an Anti-Racist Designer
- Design’s Role in the Mental Health Crisis
- Testing Design Concepts Ethically
From the Content Team
Drawing upon the racial justice movement seen across the country this year, our Content team focuses on ways to deepen their understanding of narrative change and expand notions of what makes a “good” story. Similar to the Design team, they’re mindful of content overload and look to focus on clear content design in the new year.
From the Technology Team
Stripped of most face-to-face interaction, the world became more reliant than ever on technology to connect them this year. As we look ahead to 2021, our Development team is assessing emerging technologies like Gutenberg and PHP 8 to understand if and how they might improve the sites we build. Above all, they continue to incorporate ways of building accessibility into our process, so everyone can engage with the experiences we create.
From our Project Managers
For our Project Management team, the shift to remote work this year put our internal processes to the test. For them, the new year will bring a renewed focus on content-first approaches to website design as a way of standardizing project North Stars across our now geographically-distributed team. They also expect the increased focus on resourcing and planning to carry over in 2021.
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Check out our other Curated Resources such as 7 Ways COVID-19 is Transforming the Social Impact Sector and 7 Ways to Be Antiracist through Design and Communications.
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