How to get the most from work with a designer

5th April 2009 Business, Design & Development, Industry

For most companies hiring a website designer for the first time can be a daunting experience, and for a lot of businesses a bad experience the first time around can either put them off working with creatives for life or turn them into a nightmare client for the next designer they work with. There are plenty articles out there informing designers how to avoid the pit falls of working with various types of clients and how hey can protect themselves against awkward ones,  but like most things its a two way street, so here is my list of 7 tips to help you get the most from your designer.

1. Don’t be too brief. (Get it ‘brief?)

Write your brief before you even consider contacting a designer. The brief is the blueprint for your project and is what gives the designer or developer direction throughout the job, without it projects can run miles over cost and more often take more time then they need to. It doesn’t need to be complex and if there is something you’re not sure about you can always ask, but a few badly written emails and a list of example sites from a CSS gallery aren’t nearly enough.

2. Choose your designer carefully.

When deciding which design agency or freelance designer to use, choose carefully. Take time to look through as many portfolios as you can and try to choose the one that best fits your needs, not just the quickest and cheapest. Try to find a designer that has worked in your industry before or that has a style of work that you think will work with your business and remember that they don’t necessarily need to be in the local area, you’d be hard pushed to find a designer or agency that can’t/won’t work remotely.

3. There is no such thing as a free lunch

It never ceases to amaze me how many clients try strike deals over the cost of the job by suggesting that they’ll promote my services or ‘promise’ more work in the future. After all they wouldn’t go into a supermarket and suggest that they take away a months shopping for half price in exchange for promises they’ll shop there again. Whether you’re dealing with a design agency or a stand alone freelancer understand that like all businesses they have costs to cover and should never have to give anything away for free. If you’re realistic about your budget and what you want to achieve then any designer worth their salt can help you get as close to your requirements as possible, but qualifying your unrealistic budget with promises and deals won’t wash and may end up loosing the designer or getting off to a bad foot.

4. If they tell you its not working, it probably isn’t.

The very fact that you’ve hired a designer should be enough to tell you that you aren’t capable of developing a website on your own, so if your designer insists that something isn’t going to work, then it probably isn’t. No one will debate that you know more about your business than the designer, but remember that you hired them because you need their expertise and skills. Its no good trying to drive a project forward on the basis that what you say goes, because the likely hood is you’ll end up with a end result that may seem perfect at first but lead to problems in the future.

5. Nonconstructive feedback is worse than no feedback at all.

Just as important as the brief is the feedback. Make sure that throughout the project everyone is reading from the same hymn sheet. If you’ve got a problem let your designer know and let them know early, the sooner issues are fixed then the less chance there is of a that becoming a bigger problem in the future. Also remember to try and put some boundaries in place before the start of a project on how and when feedback should be given, emailing your designer every 10 minutes is going to kill the job dead in its tracks and cause frustration.

6. Sign on the dotted line.

Contracts are there to protect both parties not just the designer. If half way through the project you’re not happy and the designer hasn’t kept to their side of the bargain then you need to be able to walk away from the project with minimal damage or cost. If your developer asks you to sign a contract, read it, make sure you’re happy and then sign it. That way everything is official and everyone involved knows what is expected.

7. Extras cost extra

If half way through a project you decide you want to add something to the original brief or even worse turn it totally on its head then don’t automatically assume that any additions will be at no extra cost. Before you sign the proposal make sure that everything you hope to get from the project is down in black and white and then be prepared to pay extra if you change your mind further down the line. What you consider to be a ’small change’ might in fact add an extra day to the overall time so ask the designer before hand to check, 90% of the time designers will make small changes for the quote cost.

That’s it. Stick to these points and by the time the project is complete you and your designer will be walking barefoot on the beach and drink mojitos in the sun.

As always I’m bound to have missed some glaringly obviously ones so please feel free to leave a comment and let me know.

(Photo by 713 Avenue on Flickr)