Collaboration tools

At Studio Wolf, we are constantly on the lookout for great tools that can enhance both efficiency and quality. Below, I will discuss three key collaboration tools that we use on a daily basis.

Dropbox (for business)

One important tool for us is Dropbox. It ensures that all our files (PSDs, proposals, images) are stored in one place—and that’s essential.

Shortly before Kris joined our team at the beginning of 2012, we faced the following challenge: how can we continue working on a project immediately if the responsible designer is on vacation or otherwise absent?

A file server is not a viable solution, as it is fixed in one location and requires setup. At the time, we decided to choose “Dropbox for Business,” which provides you with 1 Terabyte of space (Fair use policy) for $750 per year for up to 5 users.

Thanks to Dropbox, we have never experienced the problem of missing files or being unable to locate them. Additionally, you immediately have a solid backup, and your files are accessible from anywhere.

Side note: Not all our HTML/CSS is stored in Dropbox; our code resides in GIT repositories at Bitbucket.

Flow

Things, Wunderlist, Doit, Nirvana, Orchestra—these are all task managers we have tried. Unfortunately, none worked as efficiently as Flow.

The great thing about Flow is that you can quickly create tasks—within projects, by date—and you have the option to delegate tasks within the team. Various overviews are very handy, such as the monthly overview when planning projects.

Flow has become indispensable, especially because nowadays we have so many tasks that it’s hard to remember them all. Forgetting to call someone back is both a shame and a hassle. Discipline and the ability to estimate time (as well as people can) are essential qualities.

Flow also offers an iPhone, iPad, and Mac app (no Android or Windows Phone, but that doesn’t matter in our case). I even use Flow privately through these apps, as I sometimes forget to vacuum. ;-)

A new version of Flow is on its way, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Hipchat

We have been using this application since Tom joined the team. We knew in advance that with more people in a room, distractions could easily occur.

With https://www.hipchat.com/, we prevent everyone from joining every conversation, allowing each person to stay in their own flow. In other words, you only chat with the people you need to ask questions.

Hipchat has a very good https://www.hipchat.com/mac (beta) and is free for up to 5 users. Thanks to @Tomdev for the suggestion. ;-)

More

Soon, we will be introducing additional workflow tools including Photoshop CS6, Sublime Text 2, LiveReload, iTerm, and more.

— This post was originally written on the Studio Wolf blog.