Methodology

My personal design methodology may not be the same you are familiar with if you’ve worked with other designers before. Whether you have worked with a design consultant before or not, you may be interested in how I will do the work and what working with me will be like. There are two primary stages for my design process: Collaboration and Iteration. Within the context of a collaborative environment, I will work through an iterative process to develop a design that meets our shared vision of what can be, which is responsive to the design constraints we have identified.

My design process is often information driven, and it is in this focus that I feel I differ the most from other designers. I begin with the information and develop from that an information design which then informs the overall project design. This focus means that I am much more interested in creating a design that is in service to the goals of the project than design for design sake itself. I work to create a design that highlights and features you and your project, not my design.

Also, I work with a limited number of new clients at a time, so that I can focus my energy on your project and developing the best design solution for you.

 

Collaboration

The primary mode of my work is to collaborate with you. I want to learn about your own work, your ideas and vision. I will also look toward what you can tell me about any constraints on the design, such as preferences and needs as well as other general and specific requirements.

This is the stage where I will gather all the information I can about the project. I will also gather any initial information content for the site that is available, such as any documents you may already have developed, outlines and so forth.

 

 

Iteration

Within our collaborative space, I will then take the information I have gathered about your project and iterate through several design ideas. For each of these ideas which seems to fit our shared vision, I will check in with you to make sure that I am going in the right direction with the design. Along the way, I may discover completely new ideas and information that I will bring to you for consideration.

Think

With the information gathered, I will look for patterns and possibilities. I will work through many of these myself, but will settle on several of the most likely information designs which I will then present as possible design directions. We may work through several iterations of this stage, but once we have settled on a good direction, I will then move to implement prototypes.

Do

Once our collaboration has developed a direction, I will create a prototype to evaluate how this design functions in meeting your needs. For a website, this will mean creating a speculative site where we can review the look and feel as well as the content. Further, this will be a chance for you to get used to the new design and how the site will function for you once the project is complete. For a Wordpress site, you will get the opportunity to work with me to learn the features and functions available in the tool, and to get feedback on best practices for blogging and social networking that will enhance but not distract from your primary business goals.

We will iterate through this prototyping phase until you are satisfied with the site and design, and then we will move to launch the project after you’ve given your final go-ahead.

Replicate

Finally, even when the project is complete, we can continue to work on iterating through the collaborative process to make further improvements on the design over time or work together on other projects together within the collaborative environment we created together. Further, we may find that our design solution itself opens up new possibilities which can then be explored.