Essential Questions for Your Design Project
A design product is fun, it’s exhilarating. It’s the sensation that bubbles up inside of us regardless of whether the project is a branding design, product design, or a website design. If you’re a client or a designer, clear communication and understanding helps to keep the project as fun as we’ve described it and it helps to ensure the project’s success. To set the stage for a smooth and productive collaboration, it’s important to ask the right questions. Today we’ll run through our list of the top three must-have questions, each with important sub-questions, to consider before launching your next design project.
What are the project's goals and objectives?
Success begins when everyone has a clear understanding of the goals and objectives behind the project. This foundational question helps clarify the vision and purpose behind the project for both ends.
Sub-questions and Follow-up Inquiries:
1. What is the primary purpose of this project?: This question will help you to understand if the project is meant to increase brand awareness, drive sales, and improve user experience. It also allows you the chance to discuss how the client and your team measure the success of the project.
2. Who is the target audience?: Figuring out the demographics and psychographics of the intended audience allows you to make better decisions in terms of functionality, messaging, and overall design. Eventually, any of the answers will allow you to answer “Are there any specific user personas that the design should cater to?”
3. What are the key messages or values that need to be communicated?: Once again, when discussing the target audience, you’ll also discuss what tone, messaging, and style the design should have. There should be available brand guidelines or existing materials to be considered. If there isn’t, your team has some extra work to add to the workload.
4. What are the specific deliverables and deadlines?: This is huge. You’ll have to discuss the milestones and final deliverables that are expected by the client. There are so many times that a client is unclear on the deliverables and you work on the project going off of the small amount of information you have and the client hates it… Let’s avoid that.
What is the project's budget and scope?
Budget and scope of work (SOW) has to be done early in order to aid in the prevention of misunderstandings. It’ll also help both parties to set realistic expectations of what can be achieved.
Sub-questions and Follow-up Inquiries:
1. What is the overall budget for this project?: The overall budget might not include flexibility. However, you can ask if there is flexibility based on additional features in the future as well as any unexpected issues that may arise. Also, this is the best point to figure out what the budget allocation looks like for different facets of the project (e.g., design, marketing, and development). A $1,000,000 budget sounds good, but when you learn you only have $10,000 of that, it gets a little tough.
2. What is the scope of work?: SOW, or scope of work, is a piece of paperwork or a deck that outlines specific tasks for everyone. You’ll learn the expected responsibilities for the designer, the copywriter, the photographer (if any), and those on the development team.
3. What are the project constraints and limitations?: When the deal is signed, it can be easy to just jump the gun and never take into consideration anything negative. However, it’s probably the best option to figure out if there are any technical constraints (platform limitations or existing systems) as well as any legal or compliance issues that must be followed.
4. What is the approval process and who are the decision-makers?: This question tends to help figure out the communication side of things. If you’re reporting to a higher authority such as c-suite, you’ll know they want something a little more in-depth. They tend to be detail oriented and want to know every little aspect. Knowing the process of getting feedback and approvals can actually benefit you in terms of expecting delays and providing information timely.
What is the expected user experience and functionality?
Now that budget, expectations, guidelines, and all the administrative things are out of the way, we turn to when the designers get their most exciting morsel: the discussion of experience and functionality. A successful project not only looks good, but it also functions well for its intended audience. Understanding the UI/UX and overall functionality is key to creating effective design.
Sub-questions and Follow-up Inquiries:
1. What are the essential features and functionalities needed?: You’ll have to learn the specific features and functionalities so that you can build everything else around them. When the client gives you more than 3 functionality features, it’ll then be important to figure out in which order they should be prioritized. This could also help you if it comes to a time crunch. If something is just a loose priority, you can dump it for an update down the line.
2. What is the user journey and how should it be mapped out?: Learning or building out the buyer map for a user can help you design the entire product or service. If there happen to be different touchpoints, you can add special attention to them so they function correctly and offer the correct amount of user experience.
3. What are the usability and accessibility requirements?: Your design has to match the want for a seamless experience across all devices and screen sizes that have the potential to use the product.
4. What are the performance expectations?: Not only is timeliness and overall design a metric to be measured, but specific performance metrics or benchmarks for the design should also be discussed. User feedback can help in collecting and measuring such metrics, however, you have to implement a process in which users can give feedback and how your team can incorporate it into the design.
Takeaways:
Having a process to ask the right questions before launching a new design project can make a significant difference in the outcome of the project. By understanding the project’s goals, budget, scope of work, and expected UX/UI, both the client and the team can ensure that they’re aligned and prepared to tackle any challenges that may arise. Clear communication and a detailed plan can become major players in a successful design project.