How to Get the Most Out of Your Designer

For many of you who will hire a designer, participating in the design process can be an unfamiliar or mysterious experience. When ill-prepared, working with a designer can be unproductive and frustrating, erroding both confidence and comfort between you and your designer. On the other hand, with proper preparation, the design process can be an invaluable tool, lending you new insights into your business and its strategies, and giving your designer the necessary understanding of the challenges at hand.

Let's assume you are entering your first meeting together. How do you ensure you gain the most benefit for the time spent with your designer? For starters, don't put the cart before the horse and try to formulate any actual design solutions. Instead, come ready to talk about your business or organization. Successful design begins with a thorough understanding of your business, and its strategies, goals and challenges. Regardless of the final design execution, if it doesn't harmonize with the real needs of your business, then it won't be of much use. So your first step is to talk about your business.

In turn, an experienced designer will be an excellent listener. He or she will have also done some preliminary research about your business, industry, and perhaps, competitors. They will be able to guide the discussion, asking appropriate questions, to ensure they gather the information and insight needed to make critical design decisions. So like any worthwhile relationship, success is born of good communication.

The following is a short list of key talking points to start any design-related project:

  • Description of your business, its services and/or products
    Beyond basic descriptions, what makes your business, services and/or products a superior choice or unique? Do you have an interesting story or narrative that can shed light on the nature of your business?
  • Business goals, objectives and strategies
    A critical talking point. Are you trying to sell widgets? Are you trying to inform your clientele? Do you want to direct customers to your website? Or do you need to improve the visibility or perception of your organization? Be specific and prioritize.
  • Target audience(s)
    Define with whom you are trying to communicate with: ages, gender, vocation, economics, interests, habits, characteristics, nuances...
  • Design considerations
    The level of success of a given design solution can often depend upon whether or not project-specific considerations are addressed. What issues must be taken into consideration? Language(s), culture, sensitivities, internal challenges, complex subject matter, industry-specifics...
  • Design and technical limitations
    Are there any material, technology or other limitations or restrictions that must be considered? For example, aging audiences often mean larger, high-contrast, typographical choices and certain computer users may be restricted to particular operating systems and browser configurations.
  • Project budget
    Whether or not you divulge your budget up front, knowing your budget can help reduce or eliminate scope creep.
  • Previous work
    Providing previous designs may or may not be helpful. While it is often helpful for the designer to know what is in current or past use, some designers do not like to be influenced by previous work. Discuss with your designer first.

Getting the most out of your designer starts with giving him or her enough of the right kind of information. Without a proper understanding of the needs of the project and business, you're bound to run into costly revisions and executions that fall short of the intended mark. Being prepared will give your project the greatest chance of success before you've even begun.

Oct 17 / 10     How-To