Are you dissatisfied with the design work you’re getting from your design partner?
It can be frustrating to waste precious time waiting on design recommendations when what’s finally delivered doesn’t meet expectations. We often hear from teams who have experienced this.
There are several reasons why it happens. Of course, it may be the quality of the talent you’re working with or the practices of the shop. But often, it’s a confluence of three factors:
The designers are not asking the right questions upfront.
You’re not providing complete information upfront.
The designers not capturing the information you do provide reliably.
When this persists, we see teams wasting time in iterations, or bypassing the design team altogether to make design decisions that aren’t well considered.
You may want to replace your design partner, but interviewing new options, negotiating contracts, and onboarding them can be a pain… and yet another risk.
The good news: you might not need to find a new design partner to get better results.
While you can’t always change their working style, you can change your own. Get better about providing complete information upfront, even if they don’t ask for it. And capture that information in a document, so nothing gets lost or forgotten after a conversation.
Before kicking off your next project, try drafting a design brief that captures the information, access, and resources your design partner needs to do a great job on this project. At a minimum, include these ten things:
Goals
Timeline
Audience/Users
Desired perceptions/feelings
Supported devices and anticipated technologies
Branding
Content (existing links, images, videos, etc)
Examples that may inform the design
Relevant historical insights (analytics, past decisions, etc)
Risks
Read more on how to start your UX project the right way.
A white-glove design partner like Slide UX is going ask the right questions, meaning that you don’t have to be particularly well-prepared. A mature design process helps answer many of the questions along the way. But no matter how equipped your design team is, they’ll still love a well-prepared client.
With a little bit of extra effort, you can ensure that your design team has all the information they need in one place. This can improve the quality of the design outcomes, and ultimately save you time. At the end of the day if the challenge really does come down to the quality of the talent or the practices of the shop, at least you’ll know that you gave it your best.
If you need help designing an experience that works for your users, we offer a range of flexible programs. Book a consultation to see if there’s a fit.