Oh, and here’s another feature you’ll love: it’s completely free.

The Problem

If you’re a web designer, we’re sure you have to create prototypes all the time. They’re a great way of showing a client what your web or mobile app will look like and how the user interface will work.

One of the best ways of creating prototypes is in Sketch, a popular Mac app that gives you a range of useful editing and collaboration tools.

But even with the Sketch app’s powerful basic functions, creating eye-catching prototypes from scratch every time can be a complex and time-consuming process. Wouldn’t it be great if there were some way to extend Sketch? A plugin, say, that could give you a massive head start by allowing you to do things like importing pre-built blocks and screens into your project?

The Solution

The Envato Elements Sketch plugin is that solution.

It’s a free plugin that’s designed to speed up a designer’s workflow. Here’s how Aaron Rutley, Product Manager for the Envato Elements Sketch plugin, describes it:

“The plugin gives you access to a vast library of free and exclusive design assets that you can use to create amazing user interfaces in a fraction of the time.”

Using the plugin couldn’t be simpler. Just download it, install it in Sketch, and then you’ll see a huge range of templates, blocks and photos that you can browse and import into your project, without ever leaving the Sketch app.

Key Benefits of the Plugin

The plugin gives you access to a range of “UI kits” (more on that below). You can browse through them and then import just the blocks and screens you need.

So there’s no need to spend time browsing different sites, downloading assets, sorting through zip files, and adding everything to Sketch. There’s no need to spend time designing everything from scratch, when you can use these ready-made blocks as professional starting points.

With less time wasted on the grunt work, you can spend more time on the creative side of your project, so that you deliver the best possible designs.

All of that makes it a great boon for UI designers. As Aaron Rutley says:

“We’ve designed and developed this plugin with User Interface Designers in mind, people designing interfaces for websites and mobile applications for their clients.”

So give the plugin a try. You’ll be glad of the easier workflow, and your clients will appreciate the professional-looking end results!

Here’s the feedback from one early adopter:

“I just discovered your Elements plugin for Sketch – it is an amazing idea that can save me lots of time, thank you!”

What’s Included?

This free plugin gives you access to a broad selection of UI kits, all within the Sketch app. All of the UI kits available via the plugin are free, they are suitable for a wide range of projects, and it’s fine to use them in personal or commercial projects!

Web UI Kits

Choose from a broad selection of page templates to help you quickly create the common pages you need for a website, such as “About Us”, “Contact Us”, landing pages, and so on.

Or choose individual blocks to import, such as headers, footers, or hero images.

You can still customise the designs to fit your own needs, of course. But the kits give you a huge advantage, letting you start from an elegant and functional design instead of a blank page.

Mobile UI Kits

Similarly, you can design mobile apps much more quickly by using the fabulous mobile UI kits available within the Envato Elements Sketch plugin.

Just import some of these creatively designed dashboards, menus, settings pages, login screens, and more. Then you can get to work on making them your own.

Stock Photos

If you’re an Envato Elements subscriber, you can also import photos directly from the library of 790,000+ premium stock photos.

If you’re not a subscriber, don’t worry—you can still enjoy all the other benefits of the plugin, completely free of charge.

Other Envato Extensions

This plugin was created by a fairly new team at Envato who’re responsible for the wildly successful Envato Elements WordPress plugin and the super-useful template kits for Elementor.

Rutley says that one of the goals of his team is to “help users get to done”—in other words, to help you complete your creative projects more quickly and easily than ever before, without having to switch between half a dozen different applications. The Sketch plugin is the perfect example of this philosophy:

“By bringing UI kits and photos directly into Sketch, we think designers can spend more time focusing on the design and less time dealing with asset downloads.”

Rutley can’t share exactly what’s coming next, but does promise that the team is “working on a few big ideas”, so watch this space for future launches.

Start Saving Time Today!

You can visit the plugin page to learn more about it, download it for free, and start using it.

This new Sketch design tool really is very simple to use, but if you need any help, you can find a walk-through of using it over on Envato Tuts+.

In reality, though, your most pressing problem will be deciding what to do with all that extra time you’ve saved.

The post Discover the New Envato Elements Sketch Plugin appeared first on Envato.

Envato’s Famous 5 is back! If you’re wondering who’s been using Envato items, you’ve come to the right place! This series showcases Envato items that have been used by big name brands, influencers and celebrities.

Mixtape – Music Theme for Artists & Festivals by Select-Themes

Envato WordPress theme, Mixtape, by Select-themes has been used on an iconic music influencer’s website. Available to download from Themeforest, this theme purpose-designed for recording artists, bands and festivals provides a starting point for any music-related website. It’s fully customisable, with no coding knowledge required, so it’s easy to use and highly versatile.

Slider Revolution by themepunch

CodeCanyon author themepunch has had huge success with Slider Revolution, an innovative, responsive WordPress Slider Plugin that has been used by numerous recording artists.

Drumstep Rock by RockLab

One of the world’s leading tech brands used Audio Jungle track Drumstep Rock by RockLab in an advertisement for one of their products in Taiwan. The unusual rock track would pair well with any high-intensity video and is also available in the Drumstep Rock Pack, which provides three additional variations on the original track.

Animated Letters & Numbers with Motion Elements by MotionFlowMedia

MotionFlowMedia’s Animated Letters & Numbers with Motion Elements, which can be found on VideoHive, was used in a Christmas video for massive soft drink manufacturer. The video template is customisable to your project and easy to use with drag and drop functionality. You’ll also find a video tutorial included with your purchase so you can pepper your project with text that’s a little bit special.

Quantum HUD Infographic by Pixflow

Finally, Quantum HUD Infographic, by Pixflow can be found on a television series exclusive to CBS. Available to download on Envato Elements, our subscription-based library full of thousands of digital assets, the After Effects template pack includes 350 items, from infographics to 3D objects and warning displays.

Items We Used

Everything used to create this video (templates, music, sound effects and more) is available to download with Envato Elements. Check out the item links below and get your subscription today to start creating without limits.

Templates

Neon by marcobelli

Neon Light Effect by Erigonn

Modern Lower Thirds by snowcake

Neon Titles by flikmotion

Audio

High Energy Powerful Rock Intro by OlexandrIgnatov

Neon Light Static Buzz by Sound-Ideas

Extreme Racing Challenge by Antarctic

For EDM Party by LoopsLab

At Christmas by kornevmusic

Ambient Cosmic Soundscape by AllenGrey

Hybrid Percussion Creative Intro by guitarsstate

Check out the previous episode of Famous 5:

The post What David Guetta, Tom Jones, Coca Cola and More Made With Envato | Famous 5 S6, E1 appeared first on Envato.

So it is probably no surprise that we leapt at the chance to host our own Code Camp during the most recent July school holidays! 

Established in 2013, the school holiday program gives kids the opportunity to design, problem-solve and code their own apps and games in just three days.  More than 80,000 participants have taken part in the camps since their inception. 

“We were motivated to support Code Camp because it looked like such a fun and educational initiative for our kids, equipping children with the foundation skills to succeed in an increasingly digital future,” said Office Manager Claire March. 

“We will definitely look to host future Code Camps here at HQ as the last one was such a success. “

Chief Experience Officer Justin French said that while his daughter wasn’t sure what to expect, she was a very happy ‘camper’ by the end of the first day. “We’ve tried to get her engaged with code a few times, but it hasn’t really stuck. This time, she was filled with excitement and enthusiasm by the end of day one, so I think they’ve designed the course in a way that helps them feel like they’re making progress quickly with visual editing tools, then tackle some bigger challenges towards the end with custom code.” 

“Over dinner at the end of day two she was telling me all about variables, collisions, if/else statements, boss levels and fixing bugs!”

Office Coordinator Ruth Crespo arranged to have her nephew attend and agreed that the course design was well received by the participating children.  “He learnt how to create a six-stage game and give instructions like applying gravity to the game so the characters aren’t floating, assign music, design his character, add obstacles and create a point system.”

“The shiny gold medal he got to take home and will be taking back to school to show all his friends was a definite highlight of the week…and he tells me now when he grows up he wants to work at Envato!”

The post Coding by the digital campfire appeared first on Envato.

While other Instagram linking tools do exist, the Milkshake app enables you to build an Instagram website on your mobile device for free. This site, made up of ‘cards’, is not only stylish and sophisticated—with multiple ‘looks’ to choose from—it’s the source of truth for the modern, multi-faceted entrepreneur. You can include links to your latest work, as well as a bio and much, much more.

Say More. Share More. Sell More

Milkshake’s mission is to help people, predominantly women, to build their personal brands online. Targeted at “movers, shakers, creators, and game changers”, the platform acts as an extension of your Instagram brand, where you can say more, share more, and sell more.

Madeleine Rochecouste, Product Marketing Specialist for Milkshake, said, “We want to empower Instagrammers to promote everything they have going on, and we believe Milkshake is an easy and personal way to do that. Women have so many dreams and aspirations that Instagram is helping them to achieve by providing an audience. We want to help them further establish their brand on Instagram or turn their ideas, hobbies and ambitions into a business by commercializing their social presence.”

Milkshake can be a launchpad to your existing website, podcast, blog, or ecommerce store. It’s a simple solution to promote all you have to offer on Instagram. You can use your Insta website to introduce yourself, share links to your content, products, and work, share your top picks, must do’s and must-haves and, importantly, launch your latest business venture to your followers.

Made for Mobile

The Milkshake team worked with local Australian influencers to develop the app. They invited potential users in early to test prototypes and establish a need within the Instagram community. The result? A mobile app that offers a seamless experience from your Instagram bio.

Milkshake Insta websites are designed to look super slick inside Instagram’s mobile web browser. Madeleine explains, “We wanted Milkshake to complement Instagram. To keep your followers on the platform and engaged with your content. We also wanted to make the experience of making an Insta website as easy as posting content on Instagram.” With the functionality to swipe between cards that’s similar to Instagram Stories, followers won’t feel as if they’ve left Instagram when they’re consuming content on your site. The experience is beautiful and consistent, and it feels native to Instagram as the app is made for mobile and is very visual.

You can make and update your Insta website on the go, wherever you are, with the Milkshake app. It’s ideal for time-poor entrepreneurs or those with limited design and technical capabilities.

Insta-Worthy

Speaking of design, each ‘look’ is what Madeleine describes as “Insta-worthy”. She said, “We found that typical website builders were quite dry. The landing pages, colors, fonts, etc. are mostly aligned to a tech aesthetic. We saw a gap for a product that makes building and interacting with a website fun. Fun, easy, beautiful is what we live by. And the fact that everything can be done on your phone is a big bonus as it enables anyone to get involved at any time.” As one of Milkshake’s user testers told the team, “’If I can’t do it on my phone it won’t get done.”

Making a Milkshake shouldn’t be daunting. If you want to update the look you’ve chosen, you can quickly shake it up whenever you want. Content is structured in the same way across looks, so you don’t have to update your copy, images or links when you change your Insta website design. For each card, from the About card to the Links card, there are multiple looks to choose from, with more added all the time, so you won’t get bored of your Milkshake in a hurry!

The Milkshake Brand

The brand itself is also a feast for the eyes, thanks to Brand Designer, Sophie Dunn. Sophie was thrilled to join Cyan, Madeleine and the Milkshake team as she saw an opportunity to “create a fun, youthful brand.” She describes Milkshake as “a brand that is built on the characteristics of our audience: fun, bold, confident, and gutsy”.

Anyone who has been following Milkshake on Instagram and subscribed to the brand’s School of Instagram program would have to agree that it’s packed full of personality. So we’re thrilled that it’s now live and launched in the app store. Follow our lead and be one of the first to use Milkshake, now.

Find out more at milkshake.app and download Milkshake for free!

Recommended

The post Shake Up Your Social With Milkshake, Our Instagram Website Maker appeared first on Envato.

What sort of event could Envato run that would prompt this hopeful reaction from Developer Team Lead Ray Grasso?

Our inaugural Back to Base week!

Envato has a long-standing tradition of encouraging and supporting flexible work, not just for our HQ-based staff in Melbourne, but also for the almost 40 remote workers who live around Australia, from Western Australia to the Blue Mountains.

While these staff travel back to our Melbourne office up to four times a year to connect with their teams and catch up with friends old and new, these trips don’t always cross over with their fellow remotes. To rectify all those missed opportunities, Back to Base week would see many of Envato’s remote workers coincide their trips at the same time!

For Perth-based Ray, Back to Base week was a chance to meet face to face with everyone on the Envato Market team, though he confessed he would miss “…scrolling through Slack while listening to music from my speakers while wearing Ugg boots and eating breakfast cereal.” Fellow West Australian Glenn Tweedie echoed Ray’s ambitions for the week: “Lots of face to face time, lots of coffees and beers, some whiteboarding and random in-depth discussions on the beanbags”

“And if I don’t get sick in the process, it will be a total success!”

Senior Developer Lauren Glina said the personal connections created in visits to Envato’s HQ were invaluable. “This is my first job working remotely full-time, and while I like the flexibility of working from anywhere, I’ve realised I also need the in-person experience at HQ every now and then to keep me motivated and connected.”

“Whilst I’m pretty chatty on Slack, and I love to get involved in remote-friendly events it’s even better to be able to get out to lunch or a coffee with someone IRL.”

This opportunity for informal interaction was also high on the list of Angie Gove, one of Envato’s Site Reliability Engineers. “It is nice that there are so many events and opportunities to connect with people I wouldn’t get a chance to otherwise…and most importantly, sampling the delicious coffee and lunch choices around the office.”

While working from the Melbourne HQ – and surrounds – was an exciting proposition for many remotes, it can never beat being at home with the family. “I think I’ll miss the peace and quiet the most when I’m in Melbourne,” said Ben Askins, a Site Development Team Lead, adding “but I’ll also miss the familiar 3:15pm sound of feet stomping up the stairs that signal’s my youngest kids have arrived home from school.”

For Lauren Glina, she had a different plan for coping with the time away from the family. “My son is just starting to get his words together, and when I told him I was going to Melbourne for a few days, he said, “don’t go Mummy!”. But he loves Hey Tiger chocolate though, so hopefully, if I bring some of that back with me, all will be forgiven!”

You can read more about Envato’s flexible work practices here.

The post Back to Base appeared first on Envato.

For seven years, the team at Twenty20 have been helping leading brands and agencies get a fresh, authentic alternative to traditional stock photos. The library of millions of images is by turns, beautiful, bold, candid, raw, and natural. That’s why creatives from companies like Google, Hulu, Vice, and more have been regular clients of Twenty20 for many years.

Later in 2019, we’ll be making the Twenty20 subscription a part of our market-leading Envato Elements creative subscription – an offering that has just passed 1,000,000 templates, project files, and stock media. Supplementing our signature Envato Elements photo collection with the Twenty20 authentic media library will give Elements subscribers even more ways to get their creative projects done.

Ready to see some photos? Head over to Twenty20’s Discover to explore hundreds of collections of amazing images.

Introducing Twenty20 to Envato’s ecosystem also means we’ll be welcoming a whole new cohort of creative photographers to our community. Many of Twenty20’s photographers have joined through their Instagram presence, are users of the Twenty20 iOS app, and shoot both royalty free and editorial photography.

We have an immediate earnings boost for Twenty20 photographers and the prospect of much more to come as they join the cohort of creatives earning from Elements’ subscriber-share revenue model.

“At SmarterTravel we have loved our experience with Twenty20 as one of our main stock photo sites. The selection of diverse, relatable, and inspiring photos is the perfect visual complement to our expert travel content.” ~ SmarterTravel, A Tripadvisor Company

“What I like best about Twenty20 are the photos – since they are user-generated, they feel extremely authentic, they are not primarily staged and they feature real people. This enhances our brand identity making the execution of our marketing channels more relatable. I would highly recommend Twenty20 because their wide range of images appeal to our audience, they continue to increase the supply of photos, and the cost associated with their stock photography is affordable, as compared to other stock photography companies I have worked with.”  ~ 24 Hour Home Care

“Great quality photos combined with accurate search. I almost always find the photo I need. I love the inclusion of diverse groups of people without looking hyper staged. They have a great collection of abstract photos – the “Insta” aesthetic translates well to slides and sales enablement.” ~ Coursera

That’s the announcement, now here are the details!

For customers, you’ll be able to log in to Twenty20 as before. We have an updated set of Envato terms and privacy policy to accept, but otherwise, you should see no interruption to the service. As soon as we’ve developed our Envato Elements <> Twenty20 integration, we’ll be back in touch to give you the low-down on how to access not only your regular image library but all the Envato Elements creative assets (at no extra cost – yay!)

For photographers, this month, we’re paying out an additional bonus equivalent to your earnings for March as a “Welcome to the Envato community”. Additionally, next month onward we’re doubling the portion of revenue going to photographers on Twenty20 to create a nice sharp bump in earnings for all of Twenty20’s community!

Next time you log in to Twenty20, and before your first payment, you’ll need to review and accept the updated set of Envato terms and privacy policy, and update your details so that we can process payments. You should see no other interruption to your service.

Aside from doubling the commissions for photographers, we’re aiming to bring a lot more customer dollars into Twenty20. Envato Elements has well over a hundred thousand subscribers and we expect they will bring a dramatic increase in downloads (and a corresponding surge in earnings!) This will happen once we merge the subscription access later in 2019.

Finally, the Twenty20 team in Los Angeles is continuing on with Envato, and we’re excited to welcome some fresh faces to our growing company.

We hope you’re as excited as us to see Twenty20 joining Envato!

Curious to hear more about Envato’s vision and performance?  Read our 2018 Public Impact Report

The post Twenty20 Joins the Envato Family appeared first on Envato.

However, while crocodiles aren’t known for being particularly empathic, for a designer, empathy is crucial.

Finding empathy through experience

Books or running on-screen interviews aren’t the only way to establish empathy. As a designer, I’ve found the best way to do so is through experience, which means working with a broad range of people, including people outside the design community. Most of all, you need to experience uncomfortable scenarios and put yourself in situations that may be way outside of your comfort zone.

The true value of design is found through experience

I’m a UI designer with a background in visual, branding, and graphic design. When I started at Envato, I was so far out of my depth I was bordering on drowning. I had no tech or product references to draw on – but it was the experience from my design career and the somewhat daunting role at Envato that ultimately shaped the way I now work on product interfaces and guidelines.

I had previously worked in local government, which moves at a fraction of the pace of a tech company. However, in government I learnt how to design for brand, wayfinding, digital, print and even experience design, for audiences who, no matter their background or situation, should be able to experience our services equally.

Working with community, indigenous and disability groups allowed me to design with respect and sensitively for the region and users of the services, meet accessibility requirements, and still strive to maintain high quality and creativity.

All design experiences impact how we make our critical decisions, how we structure our feedback and think about design as solving legitimate problems for everyone, as well as being beautiful to look at.

Design is allowed to be beautiful

Design should be delightful. People respond to good design. It communicates passion, inclusion, coherence and clarity of brand. Beautiful design shows that we care about our brand, our products and how our customers perceive us.

Aesthetics play a huge part in a designers process, just as much as interviews, budgets and business needs. It’s the aesthetics that attract people in the first place, and by balancing beauty with informed research we are able to create something attractive without detracting from our purpose.

It’s not all about you

Designing is not just about you or your customer. Design is finding the balance between what the users wants, what our authors want (in Envato’s case), what the business wants, what our design standards require, as well as the limitations of technology and timelines.

As a designer you need to learn to accept that most decisions are out of your control and that designing is a negotiation process, one that you can own and influence or one that you can shrug your shoulders at and just roll with – its important to instinctively pick your battles.

There are plenty of projects where days or even weeks of work have been wasted once the creative disappears up the corporate chain of no return. It’s these jobs that make you feel like a hack, constantly questioning design decisions no matter how much insight, feedback or research you have. But these are the projects that create resilience and build the designer instinct where with or without the insights you learn to trust your own decisions. In the end, design is about standing by your work and owning the results, whether award-worthy or dumpster fire.

Projects that create resilience and build the designer instinct where with or without the insights you learn to trust your own decisions

Muddled methods of a hack

Double diamonds, design sprints, lean startups and all the rest of the formulated design processes may never fit your mould. (I for one only learnt about these frameworks at Envato – furiously reading a stack of books after miraculously getting through the recruitment process).

Design doesn’t have to mean a prescribed process. Understand them sure, but establishing your own way of working is where you find your true happy place. Working next door to a pub like I do is also a designer’s place but anyway… Defining your own style and path will allow a greater understanding all aspects of design, not just tech or product or UX.

Design can be fluid, design can be messy and design can rub people up the wrong way. Hack, sticky tape and bleed your way through various jobs, experiences, styles, mixed teams and clients. Make a lot of mistakes, break things, drink more than you should and a lot of the time wonder why you’re doing it in the first place.

Somehow I’ve scraped through 20 years adapting and applying a mix of loose processes to what my current project requires. Its made for a hell of an interesting journey and I’ve been able to learn equally from terrible bosses who crush your creative spirit and from inspiring industry-leading mentors who make you love what you do. It comes down to learning what not to do as much as what to do. And I’m still learning.

Instinct won’t get you all the way

At Envato, we use a design framework that relies heavily on research, and with a massive community of customers and authors, why wouldn’t you? Our UX team create stories and research documentation that within the UI team, we use to inform style guides and libraries with the intention of reuse of core patterns between products.

Without the research and ability to test ideas and concepts with our community, we would base a lot of decisions on gut instinct which relies on biases, both emotional and cultural. I’ll admit, trusting your gut isn’t always the right decision, but I believe a balance of instinct and research will get you further than either alone.

Future designers

How will designers adapt to future design challenges? How do we think about designing outside of pages and screens? How do we take the experience we have in interface, UX and visual design and apply them to voice, VR or ever changing social platforms and still create beautiful and inclusive design experiences?

We swim, crocodile.

The post Why Good Designers Are Like Crocodiles appeared first on Envato.

Placeit’s former headquarters was revered for its character and charm, as only a former nightclub-turned-tech hub can be! As a result, it was a challenge to recreate and expand on that character in a new location, but what better way to do it than with a generous splash of colour?

Enter the in-house design brains of Envato Mexico. From photographers to graphic designers, digital artists to painters, the team in Guadalajara are a talented bunch of creatives! A crew of 15 colleagues assembled to plan and design a series of six murals around the new office.

“We let the imagination of the creative people run free,” says Manuel Lopez, who coordinated the project. “The only guidelines were that the pieces had to reflect the creative nature of Envato and Placeit, and be related to Mexican culture.”

We think the results speak for themselves.

Not a bad transformation for a former 1970s design shop for architects, designers and painters!

“The actual collaboration between the original artist and the helping hands of others across the business was a real highlight,” said Lopez. “Afternoons and weekends of beers and chips, and the good time’s everyone shared was fantastic.”

“The outcome is so awesome. Everyone loves the murals, they make all feel that it’s their space, personalised and close. A more intimate place to work and have fun!”

“It reminds us all that we have a creative family and we should have fun in the office.”

The post Artistic expression at Envato Mexico HQ appeared first on Envato.

Content-first design is exactly what it sounds like: thinking about what content will be required and how it will be structured before launching into visual design. Content, in this case, means copy, images, videos, etc. basically, all of the textual, aural and video components that will be on the page of whatever you’re designing.

Despite the general agreement that Lorum Ipsum is now obsolete, copy is often the part of ‘content’ that usually doesn’t get the love and attention it needs early on, causing major problems further down the track.

Dangers of not putting copy first:

1. Your message will get lost

People only read around 20% of the text on a webpage. If you haven’t thought about copy before you start wireframing, you won’t be clear about what the key messages are or their order of importance. By considering this early on, the key messages will dictate the hierarchy and are more likely to get seen and absorbed by the user.

2. Voice and tone won’t be consistent

Even though the brand voice should always be the same, the tone must adapt to the context. By leaving copy until later in the design process, you stand a good chance of misjudging the tone of the design. At best this leaves the user with a vaguely weird, disjointed experience, at worst it can lead to offense and misunderstandings.

3. Just because changes can be made, doesn’t mean they should

How many times have you heard or said, “don’t worry about the text, the developers can change that later.”? This is usually said when referring to CTA’s, button text and other microcopy. It is just a good excuse to not think about something at that moment and often ends up either being forgotten or left to a developer to figure out.

4. Translation will be difficult

Visual design can cross language barriers, words often cannot. Leaving copy until late in the day can lead to issues with formatting and context. This will cause low-level issues for users who have the same first language but will be a nightmare for people who need to translate the copy themselves or use translation software/apps.

5. Content will hold up delivery

Leaving copy until later in the design process will slow things down. Agreeing on the key messages and the order of importance at the outset of a project gets everyone aligned and leaves less room for disagreement later down the track. This means that the focus can be on UI, branding, functionality, usability, visual design and all the other good stuff when it should be.

6. User testing will be less accurate

Copy provides context, direction and tone. You can’t expect accurate results when user testing with placeholder copy as a huge part of the experience is missing.

How to put copy first

Major caveat: this is still very much a work in progress at Envato and we do not claim to have all the answers (yet). However, here are some things we have found to be useful in the quest for content-first design perfection.

How we put content first at Envato

• Have a content brief that is quick and easy to fill in collaboratively with your key stakeholders.
• Get wider stakeholder agreement on the brief before proceeding.
• Instead of launching straight into wireframes and prototypes, we start with a very basic spreadsheet which lists the page functionality, user flows and first pass at the copy. This lo-fi approach keeps the focus on the copy and the functionality in the early stages.
• Move on to early-stage visual design, e.g. wireframing/prototyping.
• The copy is user tested and updated based on feedback (hopefully, just small changes).

Looking for more advice from the Envato design team? Check out part 1 and part 2 of the introduction to our Design Framework.

The post We Need to Talk About Copy appeared first on Envato.

A former marketing and communications specialist for organisations like the University of Melbourne and the State Library of Victoria, Sunni initially had reservations about how her work experience would apply in a such a different setup in her role as a Digital Producer.  “I’m a language person, and I originally wasn’t sure how much of a good fit I would be. I even explicitly asked that question at my interview – I said I have a background quite different to a lot of your employees and how will that pan out?”

“The chats I had with people around the business made me feel a lot better and very comfortable with the decision to shift into tech. There were people from a lot of different backgrounds, but like me, they all wanted to work for a place where people do exciting and positive work.”

A fairytale come true

Sunni is just one of a handful of new starters at Envato in the last six months, part of a new generation of ‘unicorns’ in the tech sector who are choosing to take their skills and apply them at one of Victoria’s fast-growing startups. It’s part of a wider sector-push lead by LaunchVic to attract talented professionals from a diverse range of career backgrounds into a career in the local tech sector.

Concerns about not having the right skills for a job in tech were also front of mind for Envato’s new Author Communications Coordinator Steve Lamattina. “I guess my journey was never aimed squarely at working in tech, it was just an environment and topic I was interested in more generally. I’d never really considered tech at all before, as I didn’t believe I had the skills required for a tech company.”

“My fear was that I wasn’t qualified to work within tech, as my skill set was focussed on communications and media more generally. I thought that you either had to be a product manager, a developer, or a CEO.  And although I technically had a taste of CEO-life in a small arts organisation, I definitely did not consider that path!”

It took working for a small Barcelona-based startup who focussed on mobile apps and email tools to open up the door. “After working with people who have a passion for technology, I realised that this was also where one of my interests lay. These interests roam pretty far and wide, as my work history can attest, but I decided to follow this thread and see where it led.”

For Steve, the change has been a positive one “I love the people I work with and have found most people to be good collaborators who are easy to talk to. There’s a level of trust and agency that can be hard to find within other workplaces. I also find it very accepting, and being part of the queer community, I’ve felt super welcome and have joined the LGBTIQ+ committee which has a bunch of passionate, friendly members.”

What’s in a name

Envato’s name in the local tech sector also appealed to Product Manager Richard Burke. “(It) has a good name in the Melbourne tech community. After my role in the State government, I was looking to move to a more tech-focused and nimble organisation that has a history of delivering good products.”

“Envato is actually a bigger organisation than what I was thinking of joining, but after talking with the team I felt I had a lot to offer in terms of my Government experience and being at Internode during their growth phase.”

And Richard says he has joined at a perfect time. “Envato is investing in growing its product practice, so it’s an exciting time to join and be a part of that. I can see that my career is following a similar path as I want to focus more on the people and ensuring good product practice, and as the company grows there will be other opportunities.”

On the path of growth

Professional growth was also high on the priority list for Product Marketing Specialist Madeleine Rochecouste. While no stranger to the startup scene, having co-founded the company behind portable coffee machine NowPresso, Madeleine was keen to boost her experience and skills by working within a larger tech company.

“The first thing that attracted me to Envato was the ‘Working for Envato’ video. I was really inspired by the team members and CEO, the culture, values and work environment, and what they are looking for in someone who wants to work there. I just knew Envato was going to be an awesome place to work and grow.

“It’s turned out exactly like the video, but even better as I am now, fortunately, a part of it! From the moment I joined I have felt so welcome, respected, included and encouraged. I love the agile work culture, clear communication and our productivity working together as a team. I am so grateful for the guidance and growth I have already experienced working at Envato.”

For more information about the unicorns of the local tech sector, check out LaunchVic’s ScaleUp campaign.

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