design
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The Q Word
How we define quality, why we consider things to be good, bad, or ugly, and what it means for design.
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Surface, System, and Behavior: A Framework for Branding in a Digital-First World
This post is adapted from a presentation exploring the broader historical context of Upstatement’s brand through digital approach. It was originally shared at RISD in the spring of 2022. We create many different types of work at Upstatement,…
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Making Service Journalism into a Product
How we designed and made Up the Block, a new type of digital news product for underserved communities. For years, Upstatement has collaborated with The Trace, the premier newsroom reporting on American gun violence. We’ve learned…
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What makes a good website redesign RFP?
We all love to hate requests for proposals – whether we write them or receive them. But many companies still use RFPs, so let's make them work.
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When is a wireframe a waste of time?
Interrogating the value of the wireframe stage.
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How we built a contact tracing app — and galvanized a group of global volunteers
One of the fastest ways to reach consensus and inspire action is for everyone to see a vision for where we're heading.
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Interview with Charles Broskoski
Charles is one of the founders of our favorite inspiration and research tool, the weird, collaborative, wonderful Are.na.
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Make Tech Research More Fun (and Effective!) with a Little Design Thinking
How engineers at Upstatement design & facilitate workshop activities You’ve probably seen the aftermath of a design workshop — Sharpies and Post Its everywhere, walls covered in confetti colored paper. If you walk around the Upstatement studio,…
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Welcome to the Postdigital
We spent three decades becoming digital, what’s next? We’ve been thinking a lot about how to describe the work that we do, and the work we think we’ll be doing in the next few years. As designers and engineers, we’re…
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Discussing Data Visualization with Andrew Garcia Phillips
Andrew Garcia Phillips tells stories with data. After years at The New York Times and Wall Street Journal making graphics, he moved into data visualization for sports superfans at Chartball.com, as well as freelance projects for newsrooms…