Remember dingbats?

They’re the fonts that come preloaded on most computers, made up of hand gestures, zodiac signs, and tech dinosaurs like floppy disks and cassette tapes. (Windows’ version is called Wingdings.) They were used for…actually, I have no idea. Sending secret messages in code, maybe?

Well now, dingbats are all grown up. And believe it or not, they’re an important part of any modern web designer’s toolkit.

Say it with icons

We’ve talked a lot about responsive design here. But there’s one piece of the puzzle we have yet to address: how to deal with icons. The most obvious move might be to upload an image of the icon you need—say, a shopping cart to represent your online store, or a gear to link to your settings menu.

But image files are clunky. They get pixelated on larger displays. They don’t always size correctly. One option is to use a vector to ensure consistency across screens—but these tend to be large files, and can slow down your site if you have lots of icons to display.

So, what’s the solution? Over the past few years, many web designers have made the transition to icon fonts. Says The Next Web, think of icon fonts as a grown-up version of dingbats—with an actual purpose. These font faces are made up of the symbols we see all over the web every day: tiny speech bubbles, which we now associate with commenting features. Lock icons meant to suggest security. Miniature trash cans that allow us to scrap whatever we’re doing and start over.

Without even meaning to, we’ve all learned the “language” of these icons. When we see a picture of an envelope or a calendar page, we know what to expect. And fortunately for web designers, you don’t have to start from scratch when you need icons to use for your own site. There are plenty of font libraries out there—some of them available for free. Many of these fonts even contain logos for social platforms, like the Facebook “f,” Twitter bird, and Google “g.”

Good for users, good for you

Why else do icon fonts trump images? Chris Coyier at CSS-Tricks gives a great explanation. With just a few deft change to your code, you can change icons’ size and color, add shadows, use transparent knockouts, rotate, and more.

Plus, icon fonts’ minimalist, no-frills look is right in line with what’s popular in design right now (think Windows 8 Start menu icons or Apple’s new iOS).

Getting started with icon fonts is pretty simple. Download the font packs you want, then use the “data-icon” attribute to tell your CSS how you want icons to behave. You can take this a step further to be sure icons are interpreted correctly by screen readers—more on that here.

You can also use a service like IcoMoon, which allows designers to create one-of-a-kind icons (or use IcoMoon’s own), then store them remotely on IcoMoon’s servers. Then, you can swap out icons easily, without having to change your CSS.

This might sound complicated, but once you get the hang of using icon fonts, you’ll wonder why you ever bothered with pesky jpegs and vector files. Your site visitors will see faster loading times and great displays on any screen.

Sometimes icons speak louder than words. Need help integrating them into your site? Give Atomic a call today.

Last year, I talked about a few must-have skills of great project managers. They should maintain focus and build trust among clients and those whom they manage. They should communicate well and empathize with others.

But how exactly do you do that? This month, I want to share a few project management ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’—specific actions to stick to (or avoid) if you want to win your charges’ respect. Here they are:

Do share progress with your team.

You might think it’s better if your team can just work without interruption. Or that designers don’t really need to know what coders are up to. Think again—being up-to-date on all aspects of a project can help teams really understand their roles and work toward a common goal. Don’t have time for a sit-down meeting? Try an email recap every few days, or keep everyone in the loop using an online project management tool.

Don’t shy away from sharing bad news either, like negative client feedback or a tightened budget. You can’t expect your team members to give you the results you need if they don’t know what’s going on. And who knows? Someone might come up with just the solution to get you out of a bind.

But don’t ask for updates nonstop.

While you want your project to be completed correctly and on time, you don’t want your team rushing to you with every little issue. One part of being a good manager is helping people learn to solve problems on their own. And you can do that is by not peering over their shoulders, watching their every move.

Set up a timetable for checking in with your team—say, twice a week, or as soon as a task is completed. In between check-ins, give everybody some breathing room. (If you really do need up-to-the-minute updates, a project management tool can help out here, too.)

Do involve others in decisions.

It’s tempting to keep decision-making responsibilities to yourself. You might think this will make others see you as a leader or make things easier for your team. But like sharing progress, it’s important to loop others in to project-related decisions, big and small.

Sharing decisions is a great way to earn trust among your colleagues—after all, they’re much more likely to buy in to a new idea if it’s one they helped come up with themselves. They may also have important knowledge that could help inform a choice. You’ll never know until you ask.

Don’t pass off all of the grunt work.

In any project, there’s always a task (or a few) that nobody wants. Whether it’s taking notes at meetings, photocopying files, or preparing invoices, it’s snooze-worthy work, but somebody’s gotta do it.

I’ve found the best approach is to trade off who’s responsible for these less-exciting tasks. And don’t you’re in the clear, Project Manager—show a little empathy for your team and do invoice duty yourself every now and then.

Do clearly define project objectives.

Have you ever worked on a project where no one really seemed to know what was expected of them? When people don’t know whether they’re on track or what their manager is hoping for, things don’t tend to end well.

It’s okay to give creative teams some freedom of expression. But be clear about what success looks like—before starting a project. And be prepared to repeat yourself if a new team member comes aboard. Especially when it comes to client work, project expectations can never be too clear.

Following these steps doesn’t have to mean making big changes to your project management style. But it does require commitment. Give these tips a try, and watch your team’s responsiveness improve.

Got project management dos and don’ts of your own? Let us know what you’d add to the list.