And just like that ZURB Wired 2015 draws to a close. We set some ambitious goals, and we’re happy to say not only did we accomplish them, but had time to even crank out some additional pieces. Let’s a take look back at everything we were able to accomplish.
Read MoreBelieve it or not, within the 24 hours of Wired, Downtown Streets Team and ZURB worked together to produce a new campaign and translated that campaign into a website experience as well as print collateral. In the video below, you’ll catch a glimpse of the shiny new collateral. To see how the team came to the designs, check out the Notable set.
Read MoreGrueling, grateful and honored are descriptors that don’t often appear together. When they are spoken together, the context is usually at the end of an epic experience. These were some of the phrases that the Downtown Streets Team gave to the camera after nearly 23 hours of ZURB Wired. Over the past day we’ve worked together to discover insights to grow Downtown Streets Team’s impact, and how to bring those insights to life. Stay tuned for the wrap up blog post where we’ll summarize the day’s collaboration and results.
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It’s either really late or really early here at Wired and apparently that means it’s photobooth time! It’s a magical time of night where uncontrollable goofiness due to lack of sleep meets props, a camera, and of course Flickr. Downtown Streets Team and ZURBians alike are cutting loose for a welcome break after over 20 hours straight of work. Our 24 hours are almost up, but it looks like we’re in really good shape and everything will ship on time!
Read MoreUp until this point, we’ve talked about our Progressive Design process and shown our work in various stages of completion, but we’d like to take a moment and shine the light on the men and women that make up the ZURB team. Without futher ado, meet the ZURBians:
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Last year was pretty wild when we were setting up the Wordpress site. We wanted to come in with a plan this year for Wired, which involves a coordinated approach to setting up Wordpress’ CMS alongside the front-end code. Both the engineering team as well as the designers handling the front-end code are working simultaneously on the same codebase to build from the outside in. They’re meeting in the middle to hook up CMS interactivity in phases as the site’s look and feel develops into its final build. Both teams are working together against the clock to meet in the middle and make that magic happen for the Downtown Streets Team!
Read MoreIn a previous post, we checked out how the visuals were evolving for print. Since then, the web team has continued this exploration few visuals of their own. In this clip, we share a few different visual treatments with the group to narrow down the website’s look and feel. Check it out:
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We’ve drawn up our sketches refined our layouts, now it’s time for prototypes. Even at this stage, we don’t stop iterating. Each round is a new opportunity to refine, tweak, and improve. We did three rounds of prototypes for the site before we came to something we felt really good about.
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The final print materials for the Downtown Streets Team are gone off to the printers! This is always a big milestone every year during ZURB Wired. We’ve previously talked about the initial three directions and settled on “See. Change. Fight.”
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ZURB’s design process begins with defining the problem and understanding organizational needs. This includes aspects such as the organization’s business needs, mission, culture, and target clients. Through defining the challenge, insights arise. These insights are pushed forward to explore opportunities. This exploration begins with sketching, and structure becomes more clear through wireframes and prototyping.
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Here at ZURB, the Sharpie is our best friend. Before we write a single line of code, we sketch out our layouts to ensure our flows make sense. The reason? There’s no faster or cheaper way to weed out bad ideas than good ol’ sketching! Through quick iterations on paper, we’re able to get to solutions quicker, edit on the fly and crank out tons of ideas.
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The operation of ZURB Wired involves a team of people filling logistical and marketing roles. Shawna, aka Mama ZURB, is probably the primary driver of Wired behind the scenes. We took a few minutes to catch up with her to learn more about how to keep a team going for 24 hours straight. The goal is to keep all of the humans, well, human.
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We’re now halfway through ZURB Wired 2015, and it’s been a rollercoaster of emotions. From unbridled excitement during our morning icebreaker to the nervous panic of trying to make our print deadline, Wired has challenged both ZURBians and the Downtown Streets Team in many ways. But we’re incredibly excited about how things are progressing and it’s absolutely thrilling to see the ideas we sketched out only hours early come to life!
Read MoreThere was definitely some nail biting, but we made our print deadline! The trifold brochure, mailer and small flyer have all been sent out to the team at Big Ink Printing and will be ready in just a few hours. They also finished up a gorgeous color poster to be printed by our good friends over at Zazzle.
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The content team has been hard at work finding a messaging direction that depicts the Downtown Streets Team’s mission and culture. They’re continuing to refine the core message, which will shape long and short form copy. Check out the team’s messaging brainstorming here.
Read MoreAlthough ZURB Wired has a pace all its own, moving at extreme speed is pretty normal for us ZURBians. As we enter the phase of Wired, working through visuals, content direction, and more, we wanted to check in with Downtown Streets Team to get a feel for what they thought of the work so far.
Read MoreWe’re now six hours into our 24-hour race to help Downtown Streets Team create an amazing marketing campaign. Let’s check-in with each of the teams to see where they are.
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We’re getting closer to a campaign direction for the Downtown Streets Team. So far, we’ve broken up our project into Content, Visuals & Print, Website and Social. We’re going through and tackling these individually as we work towards those end deliverables. We’ve taken five different directions, and cut it to three to make the message clean and clear. We’re now at the tail end of getting to the main direction that’s going to drive the rest of our teams and the content that they create.
Read MoreZURB HQ becomes a hive of activity during each Wired, and we stay on track by using our Progressive Design philosophy. We also use a method called timeboxing, which involves setting strict limits on the time we’ll spend on each activity. Decisions are made faster by reviewing design work, even if the work is not polished. It’s all about collaboration and continuous use of the feedback loop. By bringing in the feedback sooner, we’re able to iterate faster. This helps us achieve small wins, build momentum and get us closer to the best solution, faster!
Read MoreAs Bryan’s written about on the blog, getting started with a volume of ideas and then filtering down can really help build momentum. It’s critical in a project like this to get that momentum going early and carry it out through the day.
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