Tag Archives | design

Why your design will never be complete…

By on October 15, 2010 in Articles

With all the good intentions in the world, you’re setting yourself up for a big fall if you think that thing you’re in the middle of designing is ever going to be complete.

A big shift.

Don’t get me wrong I’ve been in the same position, in the early days. Way back when we were designing static websites with just a few pages it was quite easy to work through the process of designing and building. Over the course of a year we might only have to add one or two things but probably nothing which would change the physical design of the templates we had already constructed.

We as designers no longer design websites. FACT. Whenever someone asks what I do, I generally say that I produce the DIBI Conference because avoiding answering the long drawn out answer for what I ‘really’ do is just easier. Answering ‘I design stuff’ just doesn’t cut it anymore and if the person you’re talking to is non-design and non-technical they look at your completely blank anyway. Websites are old news, they’re the 5 pager you designed for your local cleaning service. Due to the huge array of content creation systems like WordPress / ExpressionEngine / Joomla, we as designers could in essence create some templates and then let the user develop the content. That is all well and good if creating content is just what your client wants.

A website is no longer a website. It’s a business, I’d go as far as saying that 90% of websites are predominantly the main money earner in most businesses. Whether that be direct revenue like advertising, product buying or the lead in for a sale. Within every business things change, and when things change adjustments have to be made. Designers need to listen, look, analyze and improve our designs on a constant basis. Just because things might work for the first few weeks after a design has launched doesn’t mean it will in a few months.

Iteration, Iteration, Iteration…

We don’t plan, sketch, wire-frame, structure and architect for nothing. We need to listen first and act, if something needs to scale, it needs to scale! If it’s going to scale then you had better get it in your head that the design will change over due course. Iteration is key, if you’re designing and building something, get it out of the door early and sit back and watch. Analyze how users are using it, what can be made better and just because it is live don’t ever think that its done and dusted.

Tell your clients…

Clients tend to think that once they have their ‘website’, web app or system that everything is finished. They find it hard to understand that just because it is live it’s not actually finished. I’ve tried to explain this multiple times and have ended up with that cold blank stare. I’ve since figured out a much easier way to discuss why the design and development of a system is never complete and this is what I say.

You buy a brand new house, it’s very big and strong. It’s made of bricks, has a sturdy waterproof roof and you’re all ready for moving in. The removal men help you move in putting all of your worldly belongings in the right place. Two weeks later you notice some cracks appearing around the door and window frames. Not because the house is breaking, but its settling in to its foundations. Nine out of ten times these little cracks just need filled over. Over more time you’ll realise that you need a lampshade, carpets and a new colorful wall in the entrance area to the house. Your house is never finished, in the same way as your new system will never be finished.

Take Note

Your design will never be complete because it was never meant to be in the first place. It can only ever be great as perfect is only ever in the future and you’re not there yet.

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Call To Action Buttons

By on July 15, 2010 in Articles

Call to Action Buttons

I’m one for looking further in to design more than just the surface aesthetics. I like to know the reasons why things have been done in a certain way. I regularly ask myself questions like;

  • Is that there for a reason?
  • Would I read and take note of that text?
  • Does that color affect my decision to do something?

I’m currently working on a set of projects which are all linked. Each project is pretty epic, not because of sheer size but more because of the importance of the data they present. I’ve been asking myself the three questions above every time I sit back and look at the design. I’ve been researching persuasive text and the theories behind what text people read against text that people glance over and take no notice of. These theories are easy for me to understand as I have a huge interest in psychology and neuro-linguistic programming anyway.

Placement and content organization/structure is another area which I understand very well, if you want to read more about the subject you can find a great article on Web Designer Depot.

This leaves me with Call to Action buttons, the one area that I’m not expertly knowledged in. I’ve always wanted to be, I’ve always wanted to test designs by doing A/B testing but have never been in the situation to do so until now. Just the other day I tweeted about the subject to get some clarity from my twitter followers. I’d sat playing with the same call to action button for about an hour, working the right color in to the design I was creating. I sat back and thought, “What happens if this color doesn’t invoke the action I want?” I wanted to know if there was a specific color which converts more than any other. I was greeted with a series of links, specifically from @JohnONolan which said that the color red has a higher conversion rate. I was taken back as I would have took a wild guess that green would have been the better color as it’s usually linked with ‘go’.

Evidently there is something behind a green call-to-action button as the likes of 37Signals Basecamp website and Squarespace use green. I couldn’t even think off the top of my head who uses a red call-to-action button so went on the hunt and found Carelogger who were showcased in an article and Performable.

There is definitely something behind this red call-to-action but though, out of the tests that I could find the red button could out do the green button by anyway near to 20%. That’s a huge number of extra conversions for whatever type of service you’re offering.

I will test this myself when we launch the current project and split test against using a green / red call-to-action button, it would be great to hear your own thoughts about test you’ve done or case studies you have read. Below are a few articles which I found on the subject.

If you want to hear more about the subject in the future, be sure to follow me on Twiter.

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It’s all in the detail

By on July 13, 2010 in Quotes
Comments { 2 }

How to collect design requirements from a client

By on June 6, 2010 in Design, Logo Design

One of  the things when you’re starting out in a design career is how to collect design requirements from a potential client. Granted it seems easy enough to sit with them and write down everything they say but you’ll get back to your desk and feel yourself staring at your notes without a clue of what the job entailed.

There are a few valid reasons as to why you need to collect designer/job requirements in an effective manner.

THE THEORY

Understanding the Job

A client meeting is the time for you to impress, and one way of impressing a client is to show a complete understanding of what they require. You can do this in various way or simply by listening and asking pertinent questions that you get clear answers back for. If you sound like you know what you’re doing then the trust built in that one meeting, might be enough for you to win the job all together.

Understanding the Client

All of our clients have their own expectations, whether it comes down to design or function. If we can ask all the questions we need, at least then we’ll have the information to work from. It doesn’t matter if we as professionals know better, at least we can discuss their points with them. We can ask for favorite color schemes, we can inquire about ‘look and feel’ aesthetics that they like. All of this information can help in setting up a mood board.

Being able to Quote Correctly

Collecting detailed requirements of a job enable you to quote more effectively as you will have all of the information to plan out time and resources that will be required to complete the project. It is important to quote correctly for both you and your prospective client. Clients certainly don’t want to be surprised by an over compensated quote, after all you’d like to take on the work you’re quoting for and you want to make sure you quote exactly for what is entailed within the job requirements. Not quoting correctly will mean that you’ll be doing a lot of work for little reward.

PRACTICALLY COLLECTING REQUIREMENTS

Various designers use a different means to collect requirements. Below are a few hand-picked designers showing how they collect information.

Sam Brown (Massive Blue)

Sam Brown uses an online form on a contact page for prospective clients to input a minimal amount of information including a potential client budget. This helps to narrow down and possibly ween out any unwanted clientele.

Massive Blue

Sarah Parmenter (YouKnowWho)

Sarah goes in to a lot of detail asking a list of specific questions to potential clients. These are all initial questions as Sarah also provides a website worksheet for you to download, fill in a upload back to Sarah.

Andy Clarke (Stuff and Nonsense)

Andy Clarke goes for a smaller amount of questions with the addition of a ‘Work requisition sheet’ which can be downloaded, filled in and sent back. Andy adds a project budget drop down on to the contact form with general budget guidelines.

David Pache (Helvetic Brands)

David Pache’s primary work is branding, and the rules certainly don’t change for the way requirements are collected. David’s primary way of collecting the design/job requirements are via his website using an online form. The form is quite extensive but asks all of the relevant questions that will aid in writing the correct quote.

HOW DO YOU COLLECT REQUIREMENTS?

If you don’t have an online form on your website you can use services such as Wufoo.com and Icebrrg.com, online form creators where you can build your own form. They have various memberships that allow different various additional perks like being able to upload documents etc.

Of course you can do the same as some of the above by using downloadable word documents, every business will need a different worksheet depending on the work you deliver however I’ve put together a rough outlined document which is free to download and use. All you need to do is add in your own questions, company name and contact details.

Download PDF / Download Word Document.

Is there anything you would add in or change? Let me know in the comments below as I’d like to update this from everyone’s feedback.

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter for more upcoming interesting articles.

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