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Integrating Technology & Design People

We have been slowly refining the process and steps we undertake to integrate our web/technology people with our traditional design/creative group...Although we are making progress it seems to be like mixing water and oil. Does anyone have any interesting/innovative ways they've overcome these issues? Or are you even experiencing these issues?

D. Cummins

Knock-on-wood, our group blended well socially. But to enhance each others knowledge of each discipline's technology, we had them do lunch seminars. Company provided the lunch.

A person was asked to "volunteer" from each group to lead an informal seminar about what they do, with presentation material. It was very successful. Some of the presentations were wild. One memorable presentation was a streaming video, speeded up, with heavy metal tunes screaming in the background. The lights came on, the group was silent for a split second, then a roaring round of applause. Gave us a new appreciation for the use of sound and opened the floor for questions about how he used the applications. (Abused the applications would be more to the point...)

People do liking talking about themselves. Worked for us.

Roxanne Cowan

The only suggestion I have is to put teams on projects. Our traditional designers and web designers/IT people have gradually come together through teamwork. Giving them projects to work on together, rather than having them approach projects separately according to their individual expertise, helps them to appreciate the other's perspectives.

The art dept as a whole tended to view print jobs as belonging to the "traditional" artists, and web projects as belonging to the "Web/IT" people. Through slow integration of teamwork, we now have traditional artists assisting with web site design, and web creatives offering opinions and advice on other work.

This process has helped improve our designs as well as given our creatives a deeper appreciation for the the different skills involved in designing various mediums. AND, it's even kept them on their toes technologically, exposing them to software programs they wouldn't ordinarily use.

Kristi Long

Speaking from the technology side, I'm not 100% sure I understand what it is that you're trying to integrate...but we're only an 11-person agency, so it may not be as much of an issue for us. Generally the way we go about projects is that the layout and design is handled by the graphics department, then if interactivity needs to be added to a web site, email accounts need to be set up, domains need to be registered, technical support questions need to be answered, etc., they hand that piece of the project to me. Overall it works out pretty well.

Scot Robnett K.W. Powell & Associates

We have 10 people in our Creative Services area and 7 in our Engineering department. We assign teams to a job and make them work very closely together. Quite often, for us, there is overlap between the departments and we encourage it. Our designers are starting to know a little more about ColdFusion and our Application Developers know a little more about "good layout" of an application/user interface.

Other suggestions I would have are to really look for the "right people" when hiring your staff. We have engineers that write and play music. One application developer that is producing an independant film and designers that are taking on more technical development in their own time as well. We also promote monthly lunches, company happy hours, etc. It works! We've brought a few people out of their shell because they become a true member of the team.

Good luck.

Shane Ettestad Founder & C.O.O. Interactive Sites, Inc.
"The Online Hospitality Solution" www.interactivesites.com www.planitonline.com