The vision is to build The Dots into the biggest professional networking platform for the future workforce of ‘No Collar’ workers globally. This has never been about just helping people create better McDonalds ads; this has always been about empowering our community to create better work and a better future for themselves and for society—with diversity at our core.

The Dots was launched in 2014 as a web platform. By late 2017 the company had a vibrant and diverse community hungry for an app. We were more than happy to oblige and in just 3 months too!

The future of work is today. Our research (as well as research by Deloitte and NESTA) shows that Millennials and Gen Z care more about things like purpose over paycheck, job hopping rather than climbing a job ladder, developing creative skills over purely managerial ones, etc. They need more out of a professional network than just the ability to find work. They also need to be find inspiration, promote their brand and work online, and connect and network with other creatively-led professionals.

Articulating research-validated experience principles from the onset is a great way to get executive by-in AND guide the team throughout the process. Before we hit the ground running we wanted to give ourselves some criteria by which to judge the work. When we were talking about the sort of experience we wanted to create internally and with our community, a number of sentiments came up over and over again. In brief we wanted the app to be:

Immersive: Projects are at the heart of The Dots experience. We wanted to create a feed and flow that people could use to get lost in the great work shared by our community. We’ve got some terrific tweaks in the pipleline to really deliver on this point. 

Elegant: We serve the creative industries. Our community is made up of some of the most respected and talented digital designers, art directors, creative directors (and more!). We wouldn’t be serving them to the best of our ability if we didn’t meet the same sort of exacting standards they hold their own work to. 

Simple: The app is full of useful features and great content but we didn’t want that to make things complex. We also didn’t want to distract from conventional functionality like messaging, notifications, etc. with needless bells and whistles. This is our first release and we’re taking a “slow and steady” wins the race approach to some things. 

Blank canvas: This was a two-fold sensibility. We wanted our own branding to be knocked back and get out of the way of awesome projects, people, and jobs on the platform. We also wanted to let people create projects however they wanted.

With The Dots iOS app members can share projects & credit the whole team, find inspiration, and land their dream jobs. It’s a great way for us to test new features before rolling out to the broader community.

25x

boost in key engagement metrics

4.6

rating in the App Store & numerous features including App of The Day

2019

Apple Entrepreneur Camp alumni

Role

Head of Product Design & Brand

Skills

Creative Direction, Product Design, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, Strategy, UX Research, Copywriting, Branding, Staff Leadership & Development

Team

Joyce Li, Nadine Grant, Raquel Sacristan, Harry Harrison, Hugh Waldren, Chris Pritchard, Gosia Palys-Dudek, Michal Palys-Dudek, Paul Weralds, Robin Sian Cusworth, Brendan McKnight

COMPANY / Launch

The Dots / 2017 ​— Ongoing