When you click export, all the files and comments are quite simply packaged up into a zip file for you to download. You can do this at any time during the project – which makes project archiving simple and easy. This function allows you to easily export a project, archive it locally and delete the live project on Allworkedup. Remember  – you get 14 days to restore deleted projects – so there’s no need to fret.

• Managing client feedback
• Managing design versions
• Presenting designs quickly and consistently to clients

When we built the system initially it was hard coded – a page of designs with a simple navigation – but this became hard to manage so we saw the need to have an internal system that worked for us and for our clients. Allworkedup has grown out of our need to provide our clients with a consistent, easy to use interface for leaving feedback, managing design versions and bringing a project together.

There are other systems out there – but in our experience they don’t really achieve the aims of a designer or design agency effectively. We know that Allworkedup works, we have used it in one guise or another for many years and so we decided to release it to the design community at large.

The system is still growing, there are many functions that we want to add to enhance the experience, but we are happy that it will make the day to day life of any designer easier and will give your clients confidence in what they are looking at.

Go ahead and get started with a free account and feel free to leave feedback – we do actually listen!

The new interface is slicker, faster to use and more intuitive – with the added benefit of being able to see all the functions you need from each page.

The dashboard

Having a central hub for each account is key to the success of most applications and successful dashboards show the user what they need to see – so that’s what we did. The dashboard gives you account information, project information and the latest comments. Everything you need to get started post login.

Project pages

The main difference with these pages is the sidebar available next to the project feed. This gives you access to info on all the designs, all the versions of those designs, all the members, all the project file attachments and (a really useful feature) all your other projects. This on-top of the quick nav under each design make the project interface simple and easy to navigate around an use.

The viewer

To us this is the key area on the site – it is the place that your designs get shown off to your clients (or maybe other audiences). We have not radically overhauled it or changed it dramatically – the prototype version served it’s purpose well – so why change it. We have simply added some functionality by allowing comments to be added and viewed without having to leave the page by way of a nice little pop up widget. We have also made it clearer which designs are archived versions by denoting them with an opaque yellow band. On the functional side the viewer can also be used to flick through previous versions of the design – not just all the latest versions as before.

User interaction

Part of the first system we liked was the ability to control some of the elements of the page at a user level. We have continued this theme making the feed collapsible and expandable, the project sidebar collapsible and expandable and the by only showing the latest designs within a project by default. It heightens the experience overcomes a few of those unusual – but annoying issues which come up either in lager projects or for heavy users.

We are really happy with the way the site looks and feels. We hope you share our experience – but if not please feedback to the team.

Firstly let’s deal with account managers/project managers. The users that need to add projects, manage projects and who will be some of the most active uses on the system. After all – it may turn out that as the subscriber you have little contact with the system if you have a team of project managers and designers working for you. So in the case of account managers and project managers we need to give them the ability to add projects on your account. Here’s how to do it:

1. Purchase a subscription
2. Log in to your new account and set up the first project
3. Add some members to this project (you might want to set up multiple projects and add the relevant project managers to each)
4. Go to your profile drop down (top right of screen) and select ‘Account Managers’
5. Select the users that you want to nominate as account managers from the list (users have to be members of your projects to show up in the list) and submit the form
6. Now you have nominated your account managers these users will be able to add projects (and manage those projects) from your account. They cannot see any subscription info or change the account settings, but they can to all intents and purposes manage the account as you would.
   Note: Account managers are not automatically introduced as members of all your projects – just the ones that they create or that they are members of. Unless account managers have added projects themselves their project permissions work in exactly the same way as normal. The benefit of nominating account managers is focused upon allowing them to add projects on your account.

Secondly you want to add in your team of creatives so that they can upload and manage their designs on the system.

1. Go to the relevant project (ie – a project which the designer you are adding is working on)
2. Add the designer as a member (remember to specify them as a Designer when creating their account)
3. This user is now in the system and can be added to any project
4. They will always assume ‘Designer’ status in each project they are added to by default – however this can of course be changed in the project permissions

• You can now add a comment from the design viewer without leaving the page. A comment box simply pops up and allows you to add the comment there and then.
• When adding a comment which relates to a design we have positioned the design preview pane next to the comment form so you can use it for reference.

On top of these features we also have some nice additions to the design viewer which allow you to see all the comments relating to that design version.

All in all we believe that the problem has been solved. Of course there will be more to come – adding comments to specific parts of the design is one thing that we will be looking at in earnest.

The benefits to providing archiving like this are that you can take a record of the project to a face to face meeting where you are unlikely to have internet access or archive a project prior to deletion for your records (if it’s finished). I’m sure there are more uses out there – but these seemed to be the main ones.

Archive away!