If you have ever hired a designer you will know that it can get frustrating trying to articulate your requirements.  This is especially true in new relationships with designers.

What is the problem though?

Perhaps we should take a step back and ask what makes a great designer and what the benefits of working with one are.  Design is subjective.  The difference between a good designer and new-comer is consistency.  Good designers consistently solve problems with their designs.  New designers just go for it hoping to produce something that looks great without really appreciating certain thought processes and solving key communication objectives.

Note I’ve just spoken about good designers.  Great designers on the other hand are made by great clients.  With experience I can point out a few things that I think clients can do to make great designers:

1. Spend a few minutes learning how to write a brief:  The creative process begins with an idea.  Over time the idea takes different forms in the thought process until one decides to execute it.  This means the bearer of the idea is the best person to write about it!  Your designer may be trained to extract certain points and polish the brief, but truth be told, you (the client) must take a few days, weeks or even months researching and writing about your idea in detail.
2. Talk about the design process: As a designer, I’ve often worked with clients who deliberately reduced the amount of information they gave me in order to “avoid stifling my creative flow” , so they said.  Believing that designers are telepathic or have super powers is a mistake.  The design process is actually scientific and every good designer has one.  Talk about it with your designer and make sure you have an understanding of how things will unfold.  This will really help manage expectations and prevent tension.
3. Be part of the design process: Making a fire is very difficult compared to keeping it running.   When you take a week or two to get back to your designer, you are killing the creative fire and asking the designer to start it again.  If you are too busy, just write a message to your designer acknowledging the work and let them know you will get back to them in a few days.  Keep the fire burning, make comments and definitely make suggestions.
4. Pay your designer:  As clients we tend to look for the most cost effective solution when confronted with a problem, this is a good thing.  Be that as it may, the cheapest designer will give you just that,  a cheap solution that doesn’t communicate your ideas effectively.  The first thing you should do is make a budget.  Thereafter, look through your designer’s portfolio to see if they are capable of translating your idea into great work.  Tell your designer what your budget is to avoid spending too much time on unnecessary mind games.  If your budget is is too small, your designer will tell you and won’t waste your time by giving you second grade work.
5. Learn how to critique a design:  As a designer gets better and better, their design process becomes more and more scientific.  They focus more on solving real business problems  and avoid shooting in the dark to hopefully produce something that just looks good (even though it doesn’t solve the problem).  Over time, good designers become one with many guiding principles that help them produce consistently great work.  It is important for you (the client) to know a thing or two about these principles which will also help you critique the work.  This will also help you communicate more efficiently and help you tell the identify problems and techniques for solving them through design.

My father always coaxed me into helping him to fix his cars.  I never understood why because my reasoning was that there are people who were trained to do it.  In hindsight, I know exactly what the problem is when my car starts coughing.  I know what it takes and what it would cost to fix it.  That way I can maximise what I get from the people I who fix my car.  Why not do the same with designers?

Below are some resources you may find useful:

• How to write an effective design brief and get the design you want
• Gestalt principles of perception

FACT:  Lately mobile devices are pretty capable of displaying a website exactly like a desktop (or laptop) would.  The problem however is that the screen size and resolution of most devices is obviously smaller which leads to distortions of many websites that would otherwise look great.  The other fact is that more and more people are consuming the web with their mobile devices.  If your website does not respond to these smaller screen sizes, you may lose a lot of traffic or even worse, business.

What’s the solution?  The solution is something we call a responsive website.  Simply put, a responsive website is designed to automatically respond to different screen sizes and adapt the layout and content for a perfect output every time.  I recently made my blog responsive and my traffic source from mobile devices grew by 80% which grew my entire blog by 25%.

So.

Don’t just ask for a website, ask for a responsive website because it will make your site more accessible and multiply your traffic.  If your web developer doesn’t know what that is, fire them!

P.S

This blog is also responsive.  Try browse it from your phone or your computer and notice how it gracefully responds.  Or just resize this window…

Link to Great responsive websites

I went through an interesting case study of Vermon Country Store, which shows how they used a custom facebook page to literally take a giant leap into the global market place.  They grew from 8000 to 20,000 fans.  Its a no-brainer to know that this obviously translated to a lot of additional revenue and growth.

I’ve been doing a little digging to find out why the facebook page is so special.  Apart from the fact that facebook accounts for over 35% of world’s internet traffic (jaw-dropping), there are many other interesting facts that are unique to the facebook page.  This link is a video that explains precisely what makes facebook pages special.  I’ll just go ahead and summarise it below:

1. There’s a huge trust advantage that facebook carries.
2. People who don’t have a facebook account will still see your page.
3. It’s a good way to separate your personal profile from business activities.
4. Hosting is free for all your content – videos, pictures… you name it.
5. It offers great tools for people to communicate – it is a social network after all!
6. It makes it easy to leverage your personal network (by inviting people through facebook to see and interact with your profile).
7. You can also use your employees (or friends) as evangelists for your page – i.e. it can go viral.

Creating a custom facebook page in conjunction with a good marketing campaign is probably a better investment for a start-up business.  To get started click here (You need a facebook page).  Feel free to contact us for any assistance.

Link to Vermont Country Club Case Study

Almost everyone you need to work with is on the internet one way or another.  There are many professionals on platforms such as linkedIn and other industry specific websites.  It’s easy finding these platforms, but the question is how do you build productive relationships through them?

One way to do it is to be a genuine contributor.  I started writing on other people’s websites in 2008, created my own blog in 2009 and started writing for a much bigger online magazine, myweku, in 2010 which opened a lot of doors.  Through the process of writing and contributing my time and thoughts to people with whom I share interests, we started exchanging deeper conversations via email, skype and so on.  Just three weeks ago, I was talking to a client I have never met in person, saying its funny how the distance between us (U.S and South Africa) is so insignificant given our ability to work and communicate efficiently online.

The down side (perhaps for some people) with this approach is that it takes a lot of time and effort.  But being a genuine contributor on other people’s blogs, groups and forums will help you build solid business relationships in an environment where just about everyone and everything else is screaming for attention.

Happy Contributing!

Interesting links:

• Linked In : Business Social Network.
• myweku : Pan African Online Magazine.
• businessbloghug : Articles by real entrepreneurs dealing with real issues.
• skype:  They’ve made online communication a pleasure!

Please feel free to share more links by submitting a comment below.

The unanimous answer to this question is YES, but why?   Often in a small business, where cash is always tight, investing in something like a website may not seem prudent considering salaries, rent, telephone bills and all sorts of other overheads squealing for attention.

BUT.

Have you ever googled a company trying to sell you something only to find they are listed in shady directories but do not have their own website? Even worse, have you ever googled someone only to be greeted by their terrible website?  In both cases chances are you’ll google some more and try to find someone else who looks more capable.

The point is, yes you do need a website because you will lose a lot of potential business if you don’t have one.  However, you are better off without a website than a terrible one that will dent your reputation at the end of the day.

Here are some interesting links:

• Research:  Yes, you will be googled
• Article: Entrepreneur.com  - Why do I need a website?
• Just For Fun:  Worst Websites of 2011
• Great Insights: Best Websites Around the World

One of our clients phoned in, asking us to help her set-up an email account.  It so happened that she had another 4 accounts that she was battling to manage.  Some of her emails came through outlook, gmail, webmail and various other email-clients.  As a result, she was no longer responding to emails efficiently.

We helped setup her latest email address through gmail.  Essentially, you can setup all your email accounts to work through google.  What happens is that whenever you recieve an email, gmail will mark it so you see which account its from. You can also send (through gmail) using that alternative email address. i.e.  you can send an email from info@donebyEXPERTS.com through your gmail.  This feature is not unique to gmail ofcourse, but with gmail you’ll never lose your emails (when your computer crashes or when you buy a new computer you won’t need to make backups and transfers etc.)

This will save you a lot of time and, “Did you get my email…” phone calls.   We’ve stumbled across a great video that will show you exactly how to consolidate your emails.  You can watch the video here.