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Do you hear the Slack bots sing?
TL;DR–we created a Slack Starter Kit and released it to the Figma Community for all to remix! Duplicate it now and get started building your very own Slack apps.
It was a crispy fall afternoon when Paige and Lucy, Foundry’s newest product designers, started figuring out how to design some Slack bots. The previous week, a couple of teams kicked off some new internal projects the way Foundry always kicks off projects: with a workshop. Ideas were swapped, problems were framed, assumptions were defined. Newly armed with insights from the Foundry folk and a slew of resources from Slack, the two designers were ready to plan out the bots. All they had to do was brush up on best practices for designing a Slack app to get started.
Have you ever read Les Misérables by Victor Hugo? At 1,456 pages, it pales in comparison to the amount of documentation Slack has for app building. It is a veritable mountain of information. While it is well written and laid out (we’d definitely give it a Dundie Award), it can be difficult for visual learners to parse through. To assist with the visual design aspect, Slack created Block Kit UI, a Figma Community resource. (Figma is a popular digital design and prototyping tool that enables creators to share and remix design files.)
Slack’s Figma file is older, and it doesn’t utilize some of the newest features, such as auto-layout and variants. It is also missing Slack’s full interface frame and built-out components that can be useful for remixing. These absent features presented an opportunity to update and design a better user experience for both Foundry internal projects and the Figma Community.
Paige focused on updating the UI file, building out the Slack interface design, and defining a style guide. Meanwhile, Lucy devised the planning kit and storyboarded ideas to communicate the vital aspects of app planning. The Slack Starter Kit community file is the result of their collaboration.
This kit was created as a companion to all of the excellent documentation provided by Slack. It is a space for ideation and creativity (and tree appreciation). For Foundry, this file helps accelerate our ability to create Slack apps. As a bonus, we had the opportunity to publish our first Figma Community file - something we have wanted to do for a while now.
Duplicate the file from our Figma Community page and brainstorm, storyboard, and design your own Slack App and let us know what you create! And keep an eye out for future releases to add even more functionality to your Slack app-building lifestyle.
Winter Biking
Year-round mountain biking on metro-area singletrack trails!
Luminary Loppet
Luminary Loppet at Theodore Wirth Regional Park. An annual event as part of The Great Northern Festival, it’s a fairly magical celebration and a great way to interact with the great outdoors during winter.
Winter walks in Chicago
One of the best parts of moving to a new city is exploring it by foot. This is the Riverwalk in Chicago.
Birthday Ice-Fishing
We had no idea how to ice fish, but you only turn five once so we bundled up and had an adventure.
Ice fishing on Lake of the Woods
Our shanty was at this spot on the lake. It took us 30 minutes to drive out to it. And we almost didn’t make it because our guide was the polar vortex equivalent of a Mad Max character and he insisted driving 60 MPH. We were riding in a Prius so it was difficult to keep up.
Iceskating, Fetch, and Snowmobiling
2021 Winter (so far) has brought the following…
1. Many hours of iceskating with a shiny pink cast on the wrist of my 9 year old
2. Lots of playing fetch for our lab
3. My first time snowmobiling! (I’m hooked)
Frozen Lake Biking
No greater way to enjoy Minnesota lakes in a new way than biking on them while frozen.
Geocaching
Winter geocaching is a great way to stay warm and explore favorite places around the city in a new way.
Benke
This is Benke (pronounced ben•kuh). He's a one year old rescue. He's afraid of big bags and loves cuddling on the couch.
- Travis Meyer
Kuri (Maori for dog)
Kuri acts more like a dog than a cat. She once found her way into a drywall resulting in us having to cut through our wall to get her out. She has lived in several countries, and 9 different houses/apartments with me.
- Per Kvanbeck
Flynn or Flynnigan
At the first glance, he may appear a tad dopey, but once you get to know him you see that his charm is that he is a love-able lug that just wants to be a part of the pack and please his humans. Getting up there in years, you will find him asleep in whatever room the rest of his humans are in.
- Leana Stone
Lou and Winnie
This pair of energetic pups love to bark at seemingly nothing. With kids around and a constant need to eat anything that hits the floor, you will often find Lou with food somewhere in his fur or Winnie with the occasional popcorn bag on her head.
- Joe De Jarnett
Nori, Dee, and Janet
Here’s my cool, calm, and collected bunch. This is Nori (a Norfolk Island Pine – left), Dee (a Bird of Paradise – back), and Janet (a Dracaena Janet Craig – right). Despite their tropical roots, they seem to have adjusted nicely to their Minnesota home.
- Kelsey Schwalbach
Cabela
Cabela enjoys long walks in the park, hunting for pheasants, grouse and crumbs off the floor. She can nap just about anywhere but she is a champion dock jumper. Flying through the air at the ol’ age of 10 just makes makes her feel like a young pup!
- Sarah Bruss
Groucho
This is Groucho, my adopted stray cat (we checked for previous families.) He started following me while I was walking our dog. We fed him for a winter, a summer, and another winter, and only then he finally decided to let us bring him inside. This is a particularly glorious BLEP he gifted me that lasted several minutes.
- David Middlecamp
Jerry
This is Jerry. I mean what else can I say? We love him and are glad he is faring well, even while at our Foundry office.
- Foundry Office
Hunter
Hunter was found alone in the middle of a freeway when she was 8 weeks old. She’s a year and half old german shepherd/chow mix. She enjoys attention more than anything: from dogs, cats, people, you name it, she wants to be your friend. Her favorite toys are extra small...preferably cat toys.
- Mika Albornoz
Franny
Meet my dog. She makes no effort to help around the house, and gets depressed on car rides. Her Olympic level shedding is world renowned. When she’s not trying to get me to play instead of work, she sleeps. And sleeps. Her hobbies include barking at people we pass on walks, removing her toys from the bin and evenly distributing around my office, and tricking me into feeding her dinner twice.
- Robert Nelson
Hamlet
As much as I hate to admit it, he runs the house. He even has his own bedroom and sleeps all day on his queen-sized bed. When he’s awake, he wrestles with his brother, but it’s hard to tell whether or not he’s having fun. He also yells at his humans constantly for food when his bowl is clearly full. He won’t eat if he even sees a speck at the bottom of the bowl. You know, cats.
- Ashley Kim
Europa
Together with Io and Callisto (Europa's cat siblings) they almost complete the set of Jupiter's four Galilean moons. We Just need Ganymede...
- Nils Hansen
Rachel and Oliver
When they’re not chasing each other in circles around the apartment, Oliver enjoys sitting on laps and Rachel enjoys biting feet. Rachel uses her extra thumb to get an exceptionally good grip to scratch furniture, while Oliver prefers to serenade us in the middle of the night with a variety of his greatest hits, including “Mrreeeeww” and “Brrrrwwoowww”.
- Claudio Rivera
Podrick
This is Podrick. He’s a happy, smart, and stubborn corgi with a passion for blueberries (and anything that his grandma sneaks him, really.) He prefers humans over dogs, but he’s pretty good when it comes to the ladies. In his free time, he enjoys destroying toys, harassing his brother, napping on the couch and borking at nonexistent sounds.
- Ashley Kim
Emerson and Noodle
No introduction required.
- Evan Kearney
Baymax
This is Baymax. We have tried multiple times to grow our favorite herbs and have failed miserably... To our rescue is our new buddy, that helps us grow our herbs and vegetables. With Baymax’s help, we hope to have cilantro to add to our dinners!
- Andy Stone
Pudd’nhead
