Hello again.
Today I want to talk about why design projects are so painful. They are often plagued with endless iterations and stakeholders who are “just not feeling it”.
It has proved such a reoccurring topic with the teams I work with that I have decided to do a workshop on Running Successful Design Projects. It would be great to see you there.
Because I am creating the workshop, the whole subject has been rattling around in my head a lot. So in this email, I thought I would do something a little different. Instead of my normal rambling, I thought I would share 10 quick tips for ensuring your design projects run more smoothly.
In no particular order, here goes.
1. Present Design Concepts in Video Format
Instead of handing across your initial design concept as an image or putting it online, record a video of you explaining the design. That means if your client shows it to other people, they will have the full context of the design instead of just being asked what they think.
2. Ask for Structured Feedback
Never ask stakeholders what they think, as they will fall back on personal opinion. Instead, ask structured feedback such as “does the design emphasise the content we agreed to prioritise?” Be specific about the kind of feedback you want.
3. Question Feedback
Stakeholders will often give feedback asking for a specific change to be made (such as a change in colour). In such circumstances, ask why they want the change. If you understand the underlying problem, you may find a better solution or gain insights into what the stakeholder is really after.
4. If in Doubt Test. It’s Easy.
These days, there are so many great tools that it is often easier to test when any disagreement arises from debating it endlessly. Testing also brings some objectivity to the design process and avoids bruised egos.
5. Start By Defining Emotional Keywords
If there is no strong existing brand identity, agree on a list of emotions that the stakeholders want users to feel after visiting the website. You can then easily test whether users feel those emotions on seeing the design, to avoid disagreements over whether the design works.
6. Agree Prioritises
Start any design project by establishing some priorities around audiences, calls to action and objectives. This will establish the visual hierarchy of a design much easier and provide something to test against.
7. Involve Stakeholders Often
Many designers tend to want to exclude the stakeholder from being involved in creating the design. However, the more you involve the stakeholder, the more ownership they feel over it and the less likely they are to criticise the final result. This is where design workshops are invaluable.
8. Avoid a Big Reveal
Your design will often come as a surprise to stakeholders as it is not inline with their expectations. People rarely respond positively in those situations. It therefore makes more sense to show stakeholders work in progress so that the final design does not come as a surprise. It also gives you a chance to pivot the direction early if you are going down the wrong road.
9. Avoid Scary Approval Processes
Designers often seek to get stakeholders to sign off a design. Although there is nothing wrong with this in principle, make sure you minimise the significance of this by allowing some changes post sign off. That is because the bigger the approval process, the more stakeholders will agonise over it, and you will find yourself stuck in revision hell.
10. Don’t End the Project Plan at Launch
Too often, design project plans end when the website or app goes live. It shouldn’t. It is only then that you see real users interacting with the website. Instead, include at least some time to tweak and improve the design post-launch based on analytics.
So Much More
I could go on… and on. After over 25 years of running web design projects, I have become very opinionated on this subject. Obviously, in the workshop, we will cover a lot more ground and talk through the practicalities of the above suggestions. However, if you start with even one or two of the above, you will find that projects start to run more smoothly.
Whether you can join me for the workshop or not, I would love to hear what pieces of advice you have for running a smoother design project. It would be great to include them in the workshop, so drop me an email. But, no, you will not get a commission if I use your idea! ;-)
Thanks for reading, and until next time.
