Analyse design needs

Confirming communication objectives with a client is crucial to ensure alignment and clarity in your messaging strategy. A design brief establishes effective communication between the client and the designer. It goes beyond verbal discussions and provides a written document clearly stating the project requirements, expectations, and constraints. This level of clarity minimises the chances of misunderstandings and eliminates ambiguity. If there are any questions or decisions to be made, the design brief can be used as a point of reference.

Having good communication skills indicates that you have confidence in your abilities. As designers, you should possess the knowledge and experience to understand the user’s needs while having the craftsmanship and expertise to interpret these needs into practical and aesthetically engaging solutions.

To demonstrate your understanding, you must be able to articulate a considered design approach without reservation. It demonstrates respect for others. You need contributions and ideas from others, as you need to understand different perspectives.

Good public speaking and communication skills also allow you to present new ideas and designs to key stakeholders and get them on your side early in the game. By presenting your process to them in advance and showing that there’s thought behind every decision, you are giving them insight into how their project will progress while demonstrating the amount of work involved.

The difference between a sound designer and a great designer is their ability to solve problems and articulate how their design solves them. The ability to offer thoughtful communication about a problem you are solving is at least as important as the ability to design the perfect solution every time. As a designer, you can create an environment where everyone is on the same page, where reasoning and justification align both design and business goals and unite everyone involved through coherent thinking.

Good communication goes beyond articulating your reasoning and design processes. Beyond oral presentation skills, it is also critical for you to be able to write well. Writing is not just about putting words on paper. Good, clear, well-considered writing represents clarity of thought. By taking the time to improve your writing skills, your vocabulary will improve naturally, which in turn will benefit your verbal communication.

There are certain steps to follow when communicating with your client. These are:

Initial discussion

Start with an open discussion to understand the client’s needs, goals, and expectations. Ask questions to gather information about their target audience, desired outcomes, key messages, and any specific requirements they may have.

Document the objectives

Take detailed notes during the discussion and summarise the agreed-upon communication objectives in a document. This document should clearly outline the goals, target audience, messaging, tone, channels to use, and other relevant details.

Share the document

Share the document outlining the communication objectives with the client for review and approval. This allows them to confirm that their expectations have been accurately captured and provides an opportunity for any necessary adjustments.

Seek feedback

Encourage the client to provide feedback on the documented objectives. This could involve asking specific questions, such as whether the objectives align with their business goals and whether additional information or changes are needed.

Refine as necessary

Refine the communication objectives document based on the client’s feedback until both parties agree. This may involve multiple rounds of revisions to ensure clarity and alignment.

Finalise and confirm

Once the client has finalised and approved communication objectives, confirm them in writing through an official agreement or email. This serves as a reference point for both parties throughout the communication process.

Regular check-ins

Maintain open communication with the client throughout the project to ensure the objectives remain on track and address emerging needs or challenges.

Following these steps, you can effectively confirm communication objectives with your client and set a solid foundation for successful communication strategies.

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It is how miscommunication happens and how to avoid it. (4:32)

Communication skills don’t always come naturally. For some, they take time and practice to develop and maintain. If you’re wondering how to build your communication skills, here are a few steps to help get you started.

Click on the following headings to explore how to improve your communication skills.

Dos and don’ts of effective communication

You can use these strategies when communicating with your client in person or virtually. You must also be professional and observe these recommendations, as not being fully engaged when communicating with your client on any online platform can cause issues.

Do	Don't
Use multiple communication styles.	Interrupt your client.
Spend time practising these multiple communication styles.	Jump to conclusions without letting the client finish.
Practice active listening and paraphrase what you hear to avoid misunderstandings.	Overcomplicate your message.
Observe non-verbal cues and use your body language to convey a message.	Show negative body language, including facial expressions.
Tailor your communication style to suit your client.	Send a written message to your client without proofreading it first.
Use simple, concise language.	Talk at your client; instead, try to have a two-way conversation.
Be open to receiving constructive feedback.	Assume your client understands what you’re saying – ask for feedback to ensure they’ve understood the message correctly.

Communication skills are fundamental to success in the workplace. They pave the way for effective collaboration, quick problem-solving, and positive colleague relationships. Mastering effective communication takes time and practice, but they’re skills worth developing when working with anyone.

Active listening is an important part of effective communication – but it takes practice to master. When talking to someone, pay full attention to them, avoid distractions (like your phone) and don’t interrupt. After they have spoken, paraphrase what they said, asking questions if you need clarification. Active listening is a skill that develops over time, so the more you practice it, the more you will improve.

A design brief is a statement a client gives a designer outlining what they want their product to be like, e.g. 'Design a drinks bottle holder for use while riding a bicycle'. The designer could also produce a brief on behalf of the client, as the client might have a problem but not know how to proceed. A design brief is a document that outlines the core details and expectations of a design project for a brand. This document should be an easy-to-understand plan for executing the project. An effective design brief aligns the company and designer’s goals to satisfy everyone with the final delivery.

Why do designers need a design brief?

There are many advantages to having a design brief when starting a new project. It gives you time to understand the nuances of a company and its audience truly. A design brief also reassures the client that their opinion is valued and that all parties have the same end goal.

By using a design brief, you can:

• Create a more trusting designer-client relationship.
• Gain insight into the brand and target audience.
• Invite the client to be more involved in the project.
• Align on a reasonable timeline and budget before the project begins.
• Set a standard for the quality and types of deliverables needed.

What to include in your design brief

Design briefs come in many forms, but certain aspects should be included each time. Once you have included the basics, the design brief can be customised depending on the type of project or client.

Start your design brief with context about why you’re making your creative choices. The context should also clarify how your creative choices will contribute to the client’s goals. Finally, your design brief should include all of the necessary information to outline a project from start to finish.

This image illustrates the elements of a design brief.

Source: asana.com  

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It is about what makes a good design brief. (11:02)

Project scope and overview

Once you’ve written out a brand overview, it’s time to describe the design project being executed. This description summarises what you’ll be working on, why this work benefits the client, and everyone’s roles and responsibilities.

This is also an opportunity to clarify the project scope, which outlines exactly what is needed to accomplish a project. Both parties should agree on the project scope to avoid confusion or tension throughout the design process.

Questions to ask can include:

• What designs will I create?
• What issues am I trying to solve with these new designs?
• What are the client's expectations of this project?
• What is within scope?
• What is out of scope?

Design goals and objectives

After an overview of the project and company is complete, it’s important to explain the goals and objectives for a project. This section should focus on the design problem to solve and your steps to fix the issue.

In this section, you should also outline the purpose of the project and lay out concrete steps for how you will reach the goal in mind. This section should give a clear path for how the project will be executed—make sure to keep it as specific as possible.

Questions to ask can include:

• What will make this a successful project?
• What steps do we need to take to accomplish our objectives?
• What are our project goals for this design?
• What metrics will we use to measure success?

Target audience

Understanding a client’s customers is critical so you can create designs that speak to the people they’re trying to target. To do this, create a design idea board to clarify and contextualise your client’s audience. This board allows you to consider the client’s customers and build a persona with them in mind.

Your client might already have a persona that your designers can use. If they don’t, you can create one based on your client’s target audience, demographics, psychological characteristics, and hobbies. All of this helps to form an image of who your design work is catering to.

Questions to ask can include:

• What are your customers’ favourite hobbies?
• What are your persona’s demographics and psychological traits?
• How will your product or service help your target audience?
• What does your target audience want?
• What important characteristics impact your target audience’s behaviour (age, sex, region, etc.)?

Budget and timeline

All of the information you’ve filled out and the research you’ve done to create a plan for their design is essential for explaining the project deliverables. This, essentially, is what the client will receive and what the end product will be.

Project deliverables will vary depending on the size, scope, and budget. Setting clear standards and writing out the deliverables will help ensure no misunderstandings at the end of the project.

Questions to ask can include:

• How long will this project take from start to finish?
• What is the budget for this project?
• How long should it take to receive feedback?
• How frequently will you and your client update your project timeline tool?

Project deliverables

All of the information you’ve filled out and the research you’ve done to create a plan for their design is essential for explaining the project deliverables. This, essentially, is what the client will receive and what the end product will be.

Project deliverables will vary depending on the size, scope, and budget. Setting clear standards and writing out the deliverables will help ensure no misunderstandings at the end of the project.

Questions to ask can include:

• What will the result look like?
• What are the deliverables for this project?
• What are the major project milestones throughout the process?

A well-written design brief will help provide shared clarity surrounding your project goals and deliverables.

Design practice

Design practice focuses on developing conceptual designs in response to a brief. Knowledge of design practice includes understanding that designers identify the qualities and potential of design ideas in terms of the broad principles of design (aesthetics and function) and sustainability and that they are influenced by societal, environmental, historical, and technological factors.

Questions to ask can include:

• How does design practice combine design elements and thought processes to initiate and develop ideas in response to the client brief?
• How do design and design thinking create new solutions to meet the needs of the client?

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It is about building your design brief. (8:03)

The following image illustrates in further detail what a design brief should cover.

Source: Asana

Design specifications

A design specification or spec is a list of criteria a product needs to address. Using the brief as a starting point for research, a specification can be written when more facts are known. Information needs to be found through research to help produce early design solutions and improvements. If the criteria are measurable, it will be easier to measure later how effective the design ideas are, e.g., 'How much will the design cost to produce?'

Design specifications should include:

• Aesthetics
• Function
• Materials
• Environmental issues
• Performance
• Target market

A key objective of producing design specifications is to explore, develop and extend design ideas by integrating specialist visual communication and design knowledge and techniques in response to a brief.

There are specific do’s and don’ts in design specification creation. Design specs are all about improving designer-developer communication and collaboration while streamlining the process to help save time, effort, and money efficiently. To make this happen, you must ensure there is no room for errors when creating design specs. Let’s see how this can be done:

• Do keep your design specifications document complete in every aspect.
• Keep the document easy to read and understand. You can use image references, hand-drawn sketches, etc., to convey specific requirements.
• Continuous updates and iterations need to be done in the document so that last-minute requirements do not trouble anyone.
• Don’t give a range of values/colour options. You should be as specific as possible to avoid any rework.
• Design spec docs can be created during the research, analysis, design phase, or even validation testing phase, so it’s never too late to have one.
• Communication and collaboration become easier when there is a common reference document.

Your design specification document should be detailed but without unnecessary repetitive information. Support each of your thoughts with facts or numbers. This will give confidence to your design specification document. Check your design specification document several times to ensure no open-ended questions or poorly described parts.

Writing design specs can be a powerful tool for ensuring the success of your project. A little thinking and planning can make the actual implementation of a project a lot easier. To evaluate particular specifications of a design brief effectively, consider these steps:

Understanding the Brief

Thoroughly read the design brief to comprehend the project requirements, objectives, target audience, deliverables, and constraints or limitations.

Break Down the Specifications

Identify and list each specification mentioned in the brief. This could include design style preferences, colour schemes, branding guidelines, technical requirements, deadlines, and budget constraints.

Assess Feasibility

Evaluate the feasibility of each specification based on available resources, expertise, and time constraints. Determine whether the requirements are realistic and achievable within the given parameters.

Identify Key Priorities

Prioritise specifications based on their importance to project goals. Determine which elements are critical for meeting the client’s objectives and which can be flexible or negotiable.

Evaluate Alignment with Objectives

Assess how well each specification aligns with the project’s objectives. Consider whether they contribute to fulfilling the client’s vision and addressing the target audience's needs.

Consider Creative Interpretation

Evaluate whether there is room for creative interpretation or innovation within the specified parameters. Determine how to leverage the requirements to produce unique and compelling design solutions.

Address Potential Challenges

Anticipate any potential challenges or conflicts arising from the specified requirements. Identify proactive solutions or alternative approaches to mitigate these challenges and ensure project success.

Seek Clarification

If specifications are unclear or ambiguous, seek clarification from the client or project stakeholders. Understanding each requirement is essential to deliver a successful design solution.

Communicate Any Concerns

Constructively communicate your concerns to the client if certain specifications seem unrealistic or impractical. Suggest alternative approaches or adjustments that align better with the project’s objectives.

Document Decision

Document your evaluation process and decisions regarding each specification. This helps ensure transparency and provides a reference point for future discussions or revisions.

By following these steps, you can effectively evaluate the particular specifications of a design brief and develop a clear understanding of what is required to deliver a successful design solution.

Design constraints

There are considerations to make when producing a design solution for your client, commonly known as design constraints. These are limitations on the designs and products you create or the processes you use. They can significantly help you develop ideas — and they come from customers and stakeholders or are even self-imposed.

Within these limitations, it’s possible to be inspired to find great ideas or solutions and to narrow the possibilities for entry points into the design process while allowing for quicker work production with fewer options. These can help focus the design work and process. With no limits, there are unlimited possibilities, similar to the effect a blank canvas can have. Consider the infinite canvas of a blank sheet of paper or an empty frame in a new design file. When there are no boundaries, sometimes it becomes a boundary itself. Constraints can be a significant forcing function to remove these creative limits.

The most common constraints designers face are the problems they are trying to solve for specific customers, timelines or deadlines, and budget or financial resources.

The different types of design constraints can be:

• Deadlines
• Budgets
• Brand Guidelines
• Laws and Regulations

There are always limitations based on the materials that you are designing for. Print materials may constrain you from using a particular colour spectrum or have requirements relating to the margin and bleed of the physical paper. If you’re working in the print industry, there are likely file format requirements for your deliverables and software that you may have to use that are specific to printers and their colour profiles.

You often choose constraints on your own, such as time, assignments, and perhaps some accountability within an online community. The brief or scope of work is in itself a constraint. It may state that the solution to your customers’ problems may need to have specific capabilities or features. Whatever a constraint is, view them as a positive and constructive framework for designing, as they help you find faster and better solutions that meet your client's needs.

Reviewing design constraints can influence how you approach these in your design work. Looking at design constraints as positive rather than negative can help in future projects.

Negative view of design constraints	Positive view of design constraints
Resources are limited	Resources are like clues
Ideas are disqualified	Ideas are linked to the design problem
Creativity is stifled	Creativity is pushed past the obvious
Therefore, design solutions are weak	Therefore, design solutions are innovative

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It is about open and closed design briefs. (11:02)

In graphic design, creativity is often celebrated as the key to success. However, with great creativity comes great responsibility. Graphic designers have a unique power to shape public perception and, as such, must carefully consider the ethical implications of their work.

One of the most important ethical considerations for graphic designers is honesty. Ensuring that any design accurately represents the product or service it is promoting is essential. In addition, designers must avoid misleading or false advertising. In today's diverse world, graphic designers must be mindful of the many different cultures and identities. Avoiding stereotypes and offensive imagery that can perpetuate harmful biases is crucial.

With climate change and environmental concerns becoming increasingly urgent, designers must consider the environmental impact of their work. This can involve choosing sustainable materials and minimising waste, and designers are responsible for positively contributing to society. This can involve designing for social causes, promoting inclusivity, and advocating for social justice.

Designers must respect others' intellectual property rights. This includes avoiding plagiarism and ensuring that images or content are properly licensed. In today's digital age, designers must be aware of the potential risks of data breaches and other security threats. It is essential to prioritise the privacy and security of users in any design work.

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It is about who owns your graphic design work. (1:18)

When evaluating legal, ethical, and contractual information for implications to design work, consider the following aspects. Click on each heading to explore more.

By considering these factors and staying informed about relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards, you can ensure that your design work is conducted ethically, legally, and in compliance with contractual obligations.

Legal issues

You should have a contractual relationship when you create something for your client in exchange for payment. Although verbal contracts are valid and enforceable, writing your terms down is always better. A basic contract or client agreement for graphic artists and web designers would include the following:

• The names of the parties involved.
• The scope of the project or work you were engaged to do.
• How and when will you be paid?
• What happens if your client fails to pay you or if you fail to deliver the work or project?
• What happens to the intellectual property that you create?
• How to resolve complaints and disputes.
• Limitation of your liability.

Some of the problems you could face include clients paying or delaying payments, clients coming back for amendments after completion of the project, and clients complaining about the work even if the work is consistent with the brief.

A good contract will assist in preventing these problems by clarifying with the client at the outset the project's scope, the amount of amendments included in the project, and your right to obtain payment. If a problem arises, a good contract will provide for complaints and dispute procedures, which should assist in resolving the dispute quickly and hopefully without court involvement.

Intellectual property

There are two types of copyright: yours and others.

Individual copyright

Copyright gives the author of the original work exclusive rights to use and exploit their creation. If you create original logos or other designs, as the author, you are entitled to the copyright attached to these works. After the project or after payment, you have to either assign (transfer ownership) or license (permit to use) your IP rights to your clients because they pay you to create these works. The conditions of an IP assignment or a license are something that you need to set out in your client agreement or contract. This may include your client’s permission for you to use images you created for them in your website portfolio.

Others’ copyright

If you use other people’s photos, designs, or graphics when creating graphics and images, you must be aware that the creators of these items have rights. You should ensure that before downloading and using any of these items, you have permission from the creator to use these items or have paid for the license to use them. It’s important not to infringe another artist’s copyright as a sign of respect to your colleagues and to avoid needless spending defending a copyright infringement claim.

Trademarks

A trademark is any sign a trader uses to distinguish their goods and services from those of other traders. You will likely have been (or will be) engaged to create a client logo, brand, or trademark. When you do, you should let your clients know whether or not you provide trademark availability searches. If not, you should inform your clients that conducting or engaging a trademark professional to perform an availability search is probably a good idea. This will increase your client’s understanding of trademark registration and add value to your service. It also assists in ensuring that your clients will be able to use the logo or branding that you created and designed for them.

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It discusses creativity, copyright and fair use. (4:40)

Ethical issues

Ethics in graphic design can be defined as the set of principles and moral guidelines that govern the conduct of designers in their professional practice. It encompasses various aspects such as honesty, respect for intellectual property rights, and avoiding misleading or deceptive practices. By adhering to ethical standards, you can ensure their work is responsible, truthful, and respectful. The following are good examples of guidelines to follow.

1. Trust is a critical element in any client-designer relationship. When clients trust that a graphic designer will act ethically, they are more likely to feel confident in the designer's ability to create work that aligns with their values and objectives. Ethical conduct goes beyond delivering quality designs; it involves open and honest communication, respecting client confidentiality, and being transparent about the design process.
2. Cultural appropriation is an important aspect you must be aware of. It occurs when elements of one culture are used inappropriately or without proper understanding or respect. You must be aware of cultural nuances and avoid appropriating symbols, styles, or imagery without permission or proper context.
3. Accessibility is critical, especially in a society where so many are already struggling with discrimination in many forms.

4. Offensive and controversial content needs to be considered. It is fine to want to make a statement, but you must be careful where you draw the line. If you’re promoting something or designing something that will create a conversation or debate, you can’t afford to drift into a territory that leaves you vulnerable to serious scrutiny.
5. You must also comply with legal and regulatory requirements that govern the industry. These requirements may include copyright laws, data protection regulations, and accessibility standards. Staying current with these legal obligations and incorporating them into your design process is essential to maintaining ethical practices and avoiding legal issues.
6. You are also responsible for adhering to ethical principles and promoting ethical practices within the industry. This can include sharing knowledge and resources, participating in discussions on ethics in design, and advocating for ethical considerations to be integrated into design education and professional development programs.

Ethics in graphic design are not simply rules to follow but a guiding philosophy that shapes the profession. By understanding the importance of ethical considerations, upholding ethical principles, and promoting ethical practices within the industry, you can create work that impacts and stands the test of time with integrity and respect.

Finally, click on each question to check your knowledge of this topic.