There are many successful partnerships in the world; Lennon & McCartney , strawberries & cream, Fred & Ginger, beef & horseradish, Bremner & Giles. So why have the two halves of design & build become so separated and problematic? Surely these two activities should fit together like hand & glove.
When the associated talk to this article was given the audience were asked to comment on their previous experience. Did it: take too long, was too expensive, had too many issues, and not deliver what they expected. Not surprisingly many hands were shown for all of the above.
What follows, based on 17 years of experience with design and build, are ten tips to stimulate better co-operation and partnership throughout the process, to help deliver faster, better, easier and with greater value.
1) Dovetail your user and organisation goals together
We love user centred design, but it’s not the answer to everything and it certainly doesn't guarantee success. Personas, goals and user journeys are important but they are just tools to help create a better, more user-friendly design. Make sure your audience's goals are aligned with those of your own organisation, if they don't stop, rethink your strategy and start again.
2) Understand how to influence behaviour
Digital communications, online services and Internet tools are now ubiquitous in modern life; and as a result the majority of websites now exhibit much better usability. However what we digital experts also need to be doing is to use our skills to influence audience behaviour. The design process needs to develop meaningful choice architectures, to be more persuasive, even seductive. So our audiences' behaviour changes; so they pledge more, save more, walk more, smoke less, buy more, earn more, use less, drink less, learn more, invest more, run more, talk more, cook better, kiss more… not just complete a goal on a website.
3) Ask how your technology team can influence the creative process
Too often the technical team in big projects are used to control scope and sanitise risky thinking. That's plain wrong. They are there to help deliver innovation, enhancement and success; being involved in the creative process from the beginning. Suggesting ideas, contributing innovative ways to implement those ideas and influencing the actual build process long before it starts. This might be the inclusion of cool features, efficiency saving approaches and new software development techniques. Always ask your tech team to contribute at the start of the project not in the middle.
4) Distil to 5 key requirements
The requirements capture of any reasonably sized project will amount to a considerable list. These requirements then have to be prioritised, understood, documented and continually referred to. The problem with the weighty tome it produces, is it’s seen as a hindrance rather than help. To combat this ensuing forgetfulness, ensure your entire team really know and understand what the key (no more than five) requirements are. Keep them high level so they're easy to remember and more importantly action. Reiterate these at regular points and make team members explain how their decisions relate back to them.
5) Ensure the team know the key experience principles
If the key requirements tell the team what the build must do, then the experience principles tell how the build needs to work. Experience principles define the overall user experience; embody the creative idea and audience engagement model. They're not complicated, wordy or clever, and if you're struggling to define them, you've probably got a generic, bland design. The entire team should know these principles. Crucially they need to understand by the build partner, to avoid decisions destroying the required experience when technical challenges occur.
6) Start with an idea-led visual design
It’s all too easy to start creating a visual design based on a wireframe that has the main creative decisions inadvertently baked in. The navigation model, content hierarchy, content delivery and interaction approach, shouldn't just be derived by best practise, the creative should drive them too. So don't put visual design after your experience/information architecture phase. Run them in parallel; think about how the brand might look online without constraining it to specific functionality. Get a real feel for the character, personality and brand expression early on. Tie it to an emotionally engaging idea, then pick out the key interactive elements and share with the entire team. Commission other members of the team to deliver against this visual vision, carefully blending as you go.
7) Prototype & sign-off together
To ensure better partnership, prototype key aspects throughout the entire design process. This rapid design-build-iterate approach, well practised in product design circles, helps establish the real 'feel' for the design and as you quickly see the static designs come to life. Creating functioning prototypes will swiftly highlight any potential experience or technical problems early on. Moreover it will help dictate the direction of the project, helping it chart a successful course to completion. Get the team together to sign-off each step; this helps bind the group behind the combined goal, where success is shared and the challenges understood.
8) Stay involved through the build process
Just as the build team should have involvement in the design phase, so should the design team be involved in the build process. Being on hand to provide insight into design decisions, relay what's important, and ensure any potential build compromises don't divert from the vision. Adopting a release often approach will help the team, see progress and provide meaningful feedback in a prompt manner.
9) Always leave time to optimise
Often the reality of a design and build project means working right to the deadline. Adopting the aforementioned tips will help your project, but some deadline stress is unavoidable. However build deadlines have to include a period of optimisation, ensuring things don't just work, they work properly when under strain. It's the good behaviour, in these abnormal situations that make things feel right, solid and believable. Any design can be made better, so having time to optimise should be a non-negotiable part of any project plan.
10) Deliver your next improvement soon after launch
To avoid falling into the always coming, but never arriving phase 2 dilemma, make sure you deliver improvements soon after launch. This helps keep the team focussed, keep the pressure on and demonstrate it’s a living, breathing, successful build, that you're paying attention to and have a real investment in. Make it a key question you ask during build: how do we deliver a noticeable enhancement once we launch.
Better Blending
At LBi we believe in collaboration between experts, who work as part of a blended team to achieve the very best outcome for a client. This often leads to disagreement, discourse, justification, creative exploration and reconsideration of accepted norms. But ultimately it leads to commercial success; delivering best of breed solutions, faster, better and more efficiently. We don't profess to have all the answers, but we are continually striving to deliver real value and challenge ourselves to do better. Although we're Europe's largest digital agency we strive to be entrepreneurial and as Felix Dennis recommends 'always act small, think big'.
Simon Gill
Executive Creative Director
LBi
www.lbigroup.com
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