In 2006, Dan Brown co-founded (with Nathan Curtis) EightShapes, a design firm based in Washington, DC. EightShapes designs responsive web sites and establishes design standards for clients Marriott International, Yahoo!, and Cisco Systems, among others. Most recently, Dan has conducted user research for Sewanee (The University of the South), prepared a mental model for the Advisory Board, and lead the design of a web-based responsive dashboard for software company Sonatype.

In 2006, Dan published the first edition of Communicating Design, a book describing essential artifacts for the design process. Widely considered part of the web design canon, Communicating Design’s second edition was rewritten from the ground up and released in 2011.

In 2012, Dan released a self-published game, Surviving Design Projects, as a tool for teaching designers about conflict resolution without having to do role-playing.

In 2013, Dan published his second book, Designing Together, a book on collaboration for design teams. The book deals with long neglected topics in design–team dynamics, conflict, and effective collaboration.

Prior to EightShapes, Dan was an information architect with USWeb, marchFIRST, and in the US Federal government. Outside work, Dan likes playing board games and cooking for his family.