Campfires, community, and code: Upstatement & HackBeanpot 2021

Community over competition. It’s both a codified value and rallying cry of HackBeanpot, an independent Boston-area nonprofit that organizes the self-titled hackathon each year. We’ve been proud sponsors for the last three, and when the event…

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…

Design for Non-Profit News: 3 Big Ideas You Need To Know

This week we’re re-launching Grist, the latest in our series of non-profit journalism platforms. It’s inspiring to watch the space mature with new publishing models and areas of reporting. From this body of work—products like PBS NewsHour,…

Your Brand is a Story

When we think about a brand, we might imagine things like logos, colors, symbols, maybe even ideas like “a cartoon mouse,” or “fast and cool electric vehicles” or “smooth white plastic computers.” But these are merely brand artifacts; either the clothes that the brand wears or…

Why Google Docs was the right CMS for doctors treating COVID-19 patients

When presented with some of the most important content of our careers, we found ourselves going back to basics with the most pared down CMS of all.

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.

Election graphics 2020: Land (still) doesn’t vote

News graphics continue to misrepresent the electoral college based on a state's landmass. It's not just misleading, it's inaccurate — but there's a better way.

How long should your website last?

Your website is an investment. But what lifespan are we operating on? How to think of investing in your site over different time periods and for different reasons.

When is a wireframe a waste of time?

Interrogating the value of the wireframe stage.

Design systems: The ultimate brand and style guides for higher ed

A design system is your brand in action. They help big systems not only stay on brand, but also provide the underlying technical infrastructure to ensure accessibility compliance and performance at scale.