Studio designers and project managers brainstorm

Today, we decided to think over this important part of the design process, which is constantly proven as one of the keys to efficient performance and high productivity.

The Essence of Project Management

Project management could actually be defined as the process of supporting and maintaining efficient, fast, and productive communication between all sides of the project (customer(s), designer(s), developer(s), sales manager(s), etc.) Actually, the project manager is a specialist who provides communication at all levels and general supervision of all the processes, obtains and processes necessary information, together with the creator, estimates the time of accomplishment for the design task, and – one of the hardest things for creative guys! – follows and keeps the deadlines, pulling all the ropes necessary to do it.

One of the famous American speakers and specialists in human behavior, Denis Waitley, said: “Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised”. That is a really exact description of the project management process in design, full of surprises, discussions, disagreements, and iterations, but still working much better when carefully planned and controlled.

Project Management in Practice

One of Tubik Studio’s project managers, Olena is sincerely keen to tell our readers a bit more about the backstage of the design process from the perspective of project management as the supportive link between designers and customers. Having extensive experience working on diverse design projects, she emphasizes that a lot of points in creating handy UX/UI design features are put to use by the studio team on a daily basis, and that is the result of talents working on the basis of good team spirit and efficient organization. So, let’s catch up with her practical ideas based on devoted work in the design field.

Project manager and UI/UX designer discussing feedback from customers 

Aiming at the individuality and uniqueness of every product we tackle, the sheer application of modern design strategies and tendencies seems not enough to end up with fruitful results. It is also important not to give a miss to what stands behind the actual workflow and how projects are carried out from an organizational point of view. Accordingly, Olena would like to share some project management tips today, focusing on high-performance leverages.

To start off, let’s shed some light on the importance of boosting designers’ efficiency. The issue is quite simple in theory and surprisingly complex in practice: happy designers do a great job! Eager to work, they think out of the box and put forward original and working solutions to any challenge they face. In addition, they stick to deadlines and, even if timeframes are a bit exceeded, your customers feel satisfied since they know for sure that the designer works his/her fingers to the bone, brainstorming and trying out all possible means to breathe life into the project. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Here are a few points that can break the ice and trigger designers’ creativity and energy to work.

Project manager Olga and studio designers testing the upcoming app

Project Manager’s practical tips

1. Customer and Designer: two peas in a pod.
Do not forget that each stakeholder thinks differently. In other words, you have to be aware that customers and designers take things individually. The former are inclined to conjure up future design mostly from a layman’s perspective, while the latter adds a professional touch, which sometimes contradicts what your customer wants.

There is no need to explain how stressful such a situation is for each party. The role of a project manager here is to bridge the gap between both. You need to explain to your customer that the designer struggles for the best outcome: modern approach, usability, high conversion rate, etc. On the other hand, be obstinate in persuading the designer that some sacrifices to his/her concept will do no harm to the project, and there are often ways to reach a consensus thanks to alternative solutions.

Dive deep into the creative process

Moreover, prove both parties have an opportunity to talk to each other because personal involvement makes wonders and conciliates contradictory points of view. The more they communicate, the more plausible chances are they will head for the same goal in the same direction.

2. Be a source of inspiration.
It does not mean you should turn into a fairy godmother. You just need to keep your designer’s creative poise. This is a tricky task as we are all human beings with mood swings, up and downs of life, and weather sensitivity – anyone can insert one more million reasons here.

However, either down in the dumps or on cloud nine, it is crucial to stay professional and cope with constantly upcoming tasks. You cannot be a savior to your designer’s life breakdowns, but, luckily enough, there is a hot tip to rouse their creativity from slumbers. English proverb saying that “Patience is a plaster for all sores” is an ideal piece of advice for a PM, though it does not answer the question of how to deal with crestfallen designers.

Just try to put forward as many ideas to the project as you can. They may be totally absurd or useful – the designer you work with will benefit from each! In the worst course of events, any professional would not put up with silly and unpractical recommendations. Normally, they get a bit irritated at the subliminal level due to weird suggestions that crank up the mechanism of contradiction. A person tries to bring about some ideas out of accord with what you offer. Needless to say, their ideas are full of professionalism and determination. Whenever you toss up useful suggestions, they can be further developed and polished by the expert, but at least he/she would climb out of the stagnation pit.

Project management is all about support.

In any case, this unobvious brainstorm brings high chances of boosting performance and keeping the designer inspired.

3. Find a personal approach to everyone.
It is not about an assembly line; there isn’t a comprehensive method to manage everyone and everything. Some people prefer working on their own, so if that is the case with you, do not poke your nose into what they do five times a day. Try to avoid disturbing them, referring generally to management issues only. Your golden rule is to do your best to ensure people can seek your help at any time.

Independent and resilient designers will still appeal to you when they need whereas shy personalities will pluck at you as a drowning man at a straw. On the contrary, some designers are more productive when they have someone to discuss the project with. Do not let him/her feel forlorn and desperate. Be there for support! This not only makes the designer you work with feel better but also contributes to your own deeper insight into the project flow.

To sum up, stay creative, and do not forget: it is designers who play a key role in the project, but you are the one who sets the pace. Be a conductor to make your orchestra perform successfully on the world stage.

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение Project Management. Design Process Backstage появились сначала на Design4Users.

In one of our previous articles, we have already mentioned the benefits of prototyping for designing a strong and positive user experience and reviewed one of the popular prototyping tools Pixate. Today we are going to continue this conversation by describing the other efficient software for prototyping called InVision.

General description of the tool

InVision is the comprehensive prototyping software supporting the process of designing user interfaces for mobile applications and other sorts of digital interactive products. Now it is one of the major players on the market, perhaps due to constant improvement and extensions of the functionality that the company adds to the product as well as the strong informative support via its Blog which shares diverse cases and articles on design.

The basic idea behind InVision is fast and easy to create a live prototype from static images of any fidelity level. The tool provides the ability to upload wireframes that can be more or less detailed and with the functional facilities of the software they are automatically transformed into the prototype of the app. It is possible to follow the necessary transitions, test the buttons, analyze the layout in the mock-up of the device interface.

Working over numerous projects on UI/UX design for mobile applications here in Tubik, we are usually keen to try different tools and software to increase productivity and – what is more important – efficiency of design workflow and communication with the customers. These are the reasons why the InVision prototyping tool has become popular here in cases of app design. Being simple and clear in its interface, it doesn’t scare clients who can be easily involved in the process; in addition, it provides numerous functions enabling designers to make the process of testing design faster and easier in terms of productive teamwork.

Why should you try prototyping?

As we have already mentioned plenty of times in our earlier blog posts, prototyping is the essential stage of the design process when the user interface for a mobile application or a website is created. Based on our practical experience, we can definitely say that prototyping is the stage when testing can save time, effort, and money.

Let’s see, how the process is going on here in the studio. After setting clear objectives for the product, conducting user and market research, and defining and analyzing the target audience designer starts working on the initial UX design solutions. This is the time when the living organism of the future product gets into its skeleton and all the elements that have to be included started functioning as a united system. The designer thinks over all the layout, forms the group of screens, decides on their functionality and transitions, and thinks over the most efficient variants of placement for interactive elements and CTAs. The result of this process, based on a great deal of thinking and analysis, is initially given out as a system of UX wireframes. This is usually the set of screens done in a limited color palette and its main goal is to set all the logic and functionality of the future application. And this is the high time when the team involved in the design process could apply a prototype to make a full analysis of design solutions before starting the UI design stage.

A lively and clickable prototype tested in the mock-up of an actual device screen you design for is a great and fast way to reveal any sort of problems influencing the usability of the product. It lets all sides of the design process – designers, managers, QA testers, and clients – have actual experience of interaction with the future product, to ensure that there are no missing parts or unnecessary steps in the process, to test if all the elements are logical and placed right.

The great advantage of the InVision tool is that due to its functionality it’s now rather easy to apply the technology of prototyping, in fact, almost at all the stages of the design process as it is not time-consuming to upload the static images of the screens and form the prototype with them. That means that it’s possible to start effective testing from the very first groups of screens to see how they provide the logic of the layout and transitions.

Moreover, in the case of using the tool, it is also possible to test all the UI decisions in the clickable prototype and see them actively used. The designer can apply animation and simulate gestures using tools’ native functionality to make the prototype feel even more realistic and the experience very close to natural.

The power of collaboration

What we especially appreciate about InVision software here in Tubik Studio is its strong and constant support of efficient collaboration in the design process. Knowing that fast feedback from the client is a vital feature of the effective and productive design workflow, the creators of this tool made it convenient and clear not only for designers and project managers who are usually fast in dealing with different tools and soft but also for those customers who are not really avid software users and it takes some effort for them to deal with the new tool. InVision has good navigation and is user-friendly for different types of users.

The tool enables creators to get a clickable prototype and at the same time to communicate on every smallest part of it. That means clients are able to set their feedback not only to a particular screen but even to a particular element of the screen such as a button or toggle, shade or shape, piece of copy, or graphic icon – anything. It provides the functionality of multiple threads and therefore designers, managers, and clients can discuss particular elements quickly and set a more productive workflow together.

Additional features

Except for the general functionality of the prototyping process, some important additional features of the tool should be also mentioned:

• Easy and fast integration with other design tools for efficient work, such as Sketch or Photoshop, for example, from which the wireframes can be directly uploaded to InVision.
• Supporting cross-platform experience: the tool provides the ability to set sizes and resolutions of different devices you design for. This feature is highly applicable in the process of responsive design and mobile adaptations.
• Easy control and marking of project statuses for efficient project management.
• Functionality for creating and presenting mood boards, brand boards, galleries, and style guides.
• Tools for direct live communication right from the project account. Especially appreciated by the teams working remotely.
• Saving versions history to easily compare several versions of design solutions.
• Diverse functions and features for creating high-fidelity prototypes that can be used for user testing before the stage of development.

So, the software has shown itself as an important tool for improving teamwork and the process of testing design solutions as well as tight collaboration with the customers. Those positions are among the key points of an efficient design process providing thought-out, high-quality, and user-friendly designs.

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение Design Tool Review: InVision появились сначала на Design4Users.