Sites like Dribbble are great for showcasing and sharing visual design work, but what about all the design work that doesn't have as tangible (or as "wow" worthy) an outcome? User interface designers, UX folks and others doing more abstract design work have often struggled with this. What do you show when most of what you've done occurred in your mind and was documented in a Google Doc or boring low-fi prototype?

What are some ways we can better share with our peers, potential employers and others all the great design work that goes on outside of our portfolios and screenshots? Can we leverage a community like Dribbble to share this kind of work?

For me, some of my most creative work hasn't had a tangible outcome. This is one of the reasons why I've always enjoyed writing and blogging; it's a great way for me to talk about what I do every day. I'm lucky enough to have some decent visual design in my portfolio, and that helps me talk about the other stuff, but I still struggle. If a potential employer wants to do a portfolio review, for example, I'd have some anxiety. What should I show them? All the google docs I've created? The Jira tickets housing all the thinking and discussion that goes into my work?

What about sharing with peers? Blogging helps some, but it's still often hard to get across my day-to-day in the way that Dribbble does for visual designers. Ideas welcome! :)

Keith, I think this is an incredibly good question. As someone who's work is often "undercover," so to speak (ie: 'black,' under NDA or 'boring/not-wow-worthy'), I find that sharing what I'm doing in a broad community sense nearly impossible.

Might this be a simple realignment around what constitutes good or important design? I'm sometimes afraid that what we see on @dribbble only celebrates only the aesthetic, as opposed to all of the other important parts of design that make the world around us wonderful and interesting… does the functional receive love? Do the hard problems garner public respect? More importantly: does the public celebration/communication/information-loop even matter? Maybe those are different things, but I digress…

I've had the same issue Keith - how do you present work to a perspective employeer when you can't show them the type of progress only you, and the people you've confidentially worked with, have made? Does this type of interaction always result in a breach of NDA? I have a hard time believing that *any* designer wont present influential, critical yet NDA-laced work when forced with the decision to make ends meet :D

Geoff - I'm less concerned about breaching NDA and more concerned with accurately illustrating the work that's been done. But I understand how that could be a problem. And, yes, I think when push comes to shove, that work is presented. :)

You asked if public celebration/communication, etc. matters. I think that, yes, it does matter. For some more than others. I know I care quite a bit about how I'm perceived by my peers; both colleagues and co-workers. I want to feel part of a community, and like I'm doing good work and adding value. Part of that comes from having professional dialogue outside of work. I think that's why people turn to side projects; something I do as well, when I have the time and energy.

I care quite a bit too – I want to be part of the community, and to give back. Most often, the latter – I find that if I can't @dribbble my work, I can (like you mentioned before) blog about what I'm doing, or talk about it in a public setting - but only abstractly. My good friend @lkwds recently did this at @ga, and I think that the prevalence of venues to have open, honest and direct communication are making the future very intersting.

Honestly: I can't publish any of the "9-5" work that I'm doing, but I'm getting great feedback (via less public public means) on the side projects I'm working on. It is hard illustrating work in a case study though, when only part of the story is presentable. Perhaps this is a great product opportunity?:)

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In focusing on your opening post in this thread, I think that design is about the entire journey and not just about the bits and pieces we put on dribble or in our portfolios. It's about the creation of a story from a seed or a concept. It's about developing that story and following it through its twists and turns. It is my opinion that it's imperative for designers to be great communicators and it's unfortunate that this is not so often the case...

How many times have you seen a good design win over a great one? The difference? How it's sold. How the story is told. How it connects. How it skates along the razor edge of subjectivity and sound research, facts, and overall strategy. Maybe this is not ALWAYS the case but it sure could not help to shine the light of quantitative thinking where qualitative thrives.

To your point and your question. Bring the essence of the story out and share what you've learned from the beginning. Show off what you learned about the nuances and connect the dots way before dribble or anything pretty.

Chris, I couldn't possibly agree more. At @IDEO, storytelling is paramount. We often would put together the most intangibile aspects of the work that we would do into something that sold *the story* in entirety. Often video was the most effective means of illuminating the invisible aspects of complicated, systems-based design. But, a 5 minute vision piece may not be quite right for the @dribbble crowd - and most likely that's right. We should move away from talking about @dribbble, it's amazing for what it is. Maybe Chris, to your point, it's more about a perspective change in how we present our work, and perhaps the case study is most apt. When I'm looking to hire designers, the journey and the process is always what I ask most about…

Chris, I agree about selling and story telling. Totally. However, my question here is less about how to defend your design decisions (that's a whole topic unto itself) and more about how we can better illustrate good, less tangible design, work to a broader audience.

I think blogging, case studies and the like are probably the best answer, but I'm a bit hung up on the inherent "problem" there: people simply don't read. And they're hard to write.

But, to one of Geoff's earlier points, maybe that's not a problem. People who care to understand will realize that it's not as simple as posting a wireframe or screenshot; it's the story that matters.

Difficult work probably requires more work, and dialogue on both ends, to explain properly.

Along the idea of blogging and case studies: I wonder how well this works for illustrating the day-to-day, in the trenches work than many designers do. I'm thinking product designers like Geoff--Twitter--and myself at Desk.com. How do you showcase a year's worth of incremental improvements?! :) Maybe a topic for it's own Branch....

Geoff - Right on. And the journey is something I as well want to hear about from potential hires...or just anyone.

Keith - what kind of was a catalyst for my answer to you was based on a recent trip to Sydney. A friend introduced me to a very inspiring magazine called Dumbo Feather. I had seen their website, but when I held the paper in my hand and saw how they chose their type and paper, it all came together for me.

I agree completely with your sentiment about how to show a years worth of work to an audience who is reading less. Maybe it's because so much of what we read anymore is garbage. Is the pendulum ready to swing the other way? Are we really craving the well written piece like Dumbo Feather to get turn the world off to read?

Kieth - maybe it's a new way to articulate the journey. Like a series of snapshots. Or a timeline. Or a tree growing from a seed, all that accompanies the micro and the macro storie. Maybe you are onto something with a new way of story telling? It's my belief lately that we MUST communicate that journey. And that there is some re-learning to do for a society who is now trained to communicate in 140 characters.

Maybe another branch here. But the new buzzword of the day again is "story teller." I hate it. Everyone thinks they are a story teller yet so many cannot tell a story. Where's the new breed of storytellers? I gotta blog about that one.

There are a couple conclusions I like in this thread:

1. People love visual. @dribbble is fortunate in that regard. You can wander through that community in a way not many sites offer. It's hard to replicate that kind of engagement for the written word and blogging isn't doing it -- maybe @branch will reconcile this?

2. Making someone understand the story of the million great design decisions made before the mockup or demo is not only difficult and time-consuming, it assumes a captive audience. Most of our clients, don't care how the sausage is made, even though @roundedco, we care very deeply about the process -- topic for another branch, perhaps.

Keith - are we on topic here? Just curious how you think this is going.

L.O.V.E: Journey snapshot idea. The idea that each piece of the idea/design/thought came from a compilation of unrelated areas and becomes a cohesive end result.

Solo designers have a different threshold to cross. The start of this thread "seemed" to be How Do We Show - expertise, end result, talent without compromising the product or the clients we have. And, although it might be easier for groups (talent: writer, talent: design, talent: sales) the main person on that group gets the kudos. But being able to take snapshots (like above) would be a fantastic way to include ALL.

Having each person responsible for their piece that automatically gets added into the timeline - extending product and showing all effort? OUTSTANDING. :)

Chris - We might be diverging slightly, but I'm ok with that. I've never started a Branch, so this is a learning experience for me. Might have added too many folks, but it also seems like some people haven't responded, so I'll keep it open for a bit.

Feel free to branch this to a new topic if you think there is some meat that's too far from the original discussion.

Ok good. I don't think I yet have permission to branch or start a thread yet. You are the first one who has given me access to a thread and since I just registered yesterday it might just take time and participation from me.

I do think there are some good opportunities for branches though. Some good topics that are around the challenges creative people face today. We have a tall task. Someone once told me the only thing that does not fall fate to commodity is creativity. I agree but only to the extent that we are being innovative in our creative endeavors.

Ostensibly, Dribbble was created for designers, not clients. It's been a happy result that a lot of designers and small agencies find work through it. I think there is a way to create a community around the work of us invisible folk. I don't think you need attractive screenshots, but it probably wouldn't be as easy as uploading one either.

There is a need for a better place to connect. I know I want to know what others like me are working on and the problems they are solving. We just need the right way to share it. Maybe it's like the Storify method of collecting pieces of the story from different sources/mediums?

Keith - To your original question of how we can better illustrate good, less tangible design, work to a broader audience. I think the issue is complexity. Not only to the reader, but also to the creator. I could be wrong, but I think the process illustration and invisible interaction is relatively high level (but, does it have to be?). This is coming from a person who is just starting to learn about design. At a certain level I “get” the concepts, but don’t fully understand all the nuances (working on it). It takes time and effort on both ends to convey and comprehend the less tangible aspects and unfortunately a lot of the time people aren’t willing/don’t have to put in the effort to fully engage.

However, discussion boards like Quora and now Branch (so far, its been great) show that there is a broader audience out there that isn’t satisfied with a simple like button.
To solve the problem? Right now, I think the best way to show the intangible is breaking down your process through a blog. Not all people may appreciate it, but usually when I write out what I thought made sense in my head on paper, it doesn’t always fit. So, at the very least your helping yourself. I swear, there’s a product/service in this discussion somewhere…

@mattriopelle what kinds of problems do you regularly encounter? You seem to have a good approach -- be "annoyingly stubborn" about building a system correctly from the start with people who share that philosophy.

Maybe a better question: where would you begin to design a system for a better place to connect?

I might be lacking experience, but I also think that lovely snapshots arranged, for example, in Presi give quite a chance to represent the works in a humble yet stylish way.

I'm going to close this Branch up. Thanks for the thoughts everyone, was a very good conversation! I'm not sure there is any solid conclusion, but there's a lot in here to ponder over. Until next time!