Cross posted from The Visual Lounge Blog

I 'met' Chris Petescia, the VP & Director of User Experience at Carrot Creative, on Twitter when he was talking about Jing. I don't think I've heard from anyone using Jing more than Chris and in some very creative ways including creating a whole site dedicated to something he calls 'Jing Art'! I love all the different ways he and Carrot Creative are using Jing and I had to share that with you!

I sent Chris some questions and here's what he shared with me...

1. How have screenshots and screencasts changed your own communication at Carrot Creative for the better?

Shortly before we stumbled across JingProject.com (the debate rages on here as to who gets credit and whether it was guidance from an Obi-wan at Hoth-like spirit vision, or just plain luck), we used another (now defunct) screenshot-to-web service. While the ingenuity of auto-uploading any screenshot taken- to a URL & clipboard- amazed us, we soon learned there was a far more vastly-featured and elegant tool to do this and more: Jing. The day we installed Jing was for Carrot, the day we landed in Oz and opened the door into so much vibrant possibility. We'd been living in the dark ages and didn't know it until then... one click onto the yellow Brick Road pop-bubble and there was no looking back. Jing immediately became valuable to us in all departments, especially to me with frequent travel and need to review/ communicate/ share visual ideas at odd times. iChat screen share never really worked anyway, so Jing made sharing easier across all needs, particularly those we hadn't previously identified.

2. Are your screenshots used internally or externally? What is the viewer response to them?

We use Jing internally, externally and if there was a third option, that way too. Internally we share anything from financial notes among my partners and I to notes on mockups and code/CSS bugs during project QA... and of course humor (see: JingArt.us). Externally, it has quickly become a favorite way for us to communicate with clients during all steps of a process. Some clients are very hands on and involved: regular walkthroughs with screencast videos (including voice notes throughout) allow us to demonstrate and clarify. There is very little confusion regarding client perception and expectation of a project, when we can walk them through a workflow or design. Many of these clients have adopted Jing to communicate back to us as well, and with their other persuist I'm sure, as is the case with our friends at MLB.com. Other clients are only involved where milestones of a project are concerned, but for them Jing is a great way for us to send individual screens and video overviews. We use it to demonstrate usage and get feedback about their experiences before launch. Additionally, Jing is a great tool for reporting analytics and data to clients. Whether for a formal weekly report or just to illustrate user engagement on their site, page or social feed, Jing does it for us.

3. What do you use Jing for primarily

Because we use Jing daily for so many things, I actually had to check my Jing "History" to get perspective on where it is used most. As the head of our design and production team, my History is flooded with design mocks: my review thoughts on our team's work with suggestions, as well as my own design work with video or text notes and questions to get feedback and guidance for our developers as they build it. Jing has smoothed this entire process of design concept to tweaking to producing to reviewing production.

4. Anything else we should know? How did the idea for Jing Art come about?

Aside from the day-to-day work of a digital agency and production shop, Jing has been useful for the unplanned pitfalls that come with our field: Photoshop or Illustrator locking up or most recently a plague of sporadic crashes that Snow Leopard has blessed us with. In these times, Jing has more than once allowed us to quickly grab a screenshot as the pinwheel of death spins it's cheery and spiteful rainbow, signifying an impending crash. If nothing else, we get a reference copy via quick Jing'ing to refer to as we re-build (:grumble:) Jing Art came about by chance, as one of our creatives was taking a web-browsing (info snacking, we call it) break and came across a photo of a Russian Developer... or, as our Creative saw it, a potential Jing-Jedi Knight. One Jing arrow added to his perfectly posed hands and internal Jing humor was born at Carrot Creative. While we certainly don't mock clients by any means, the variety of projects and circumstances we deal with allows us to laugh and enjoy our jobs a lot, and Jing has become an integral part of sharing that among ourselves. I think there was one day when we were Jing'ing one another's Jings and adding comments until it just got out of control :)

Chris Petescia is a co-founder of Carrot Creative, located in the Digital District of DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY. Chris works as a mix of Art Director and Designer, focusing on the User Experience side of Carrot's projects. He is enthusiastic about Star Wars, gets excited about pixels and enjoys a good lolcat photo as much as the next web geek. When he's not attending a live show at one of NYC's numerous music venues, you'll find him scrabbling to last.fm/dmbpride, posting to chrispetescia.tumblr.com or tweeting from twitter.com/chrispetescia

I was also lucky enough to meet Mike Germano, the President of Carrot Creative at the Blog World Expo and he shared with me how they are using Jing at Carrot Creative. The video runs less than 2 minutes. See why Mike is 'mad' at his team for using Jing! Quite the funny story!

Big thanks to Carrot Creative for sharing with us how they're using Jing.

I hope you'll submit to Carrot Creative some Jing Art of your own! Here is the Jing Art I'm going to submit. What do you think?