Each project starts with an initial request sent by a client. The client has chosen us – either directly, or we have won a tender – and wants us to create a website, online service, mobile or computer application, or some other interactive interface (for the sake of clarity, though, we will stick to the creation of a website design by way of example).
Note: We should consider that we can also be our own client, when working on a project in-house, for our own company. But even in such a case it is good to divide the two roles, and in each situation distinguish between who is acting for the client, and who for the design studio. It can make our life easier in many ways further down the line.
We were hired to do a job; we are at the beginning of a new project. There is some sort of – still somewhat hazy – description of a website to be created. The very first step of this phase will be to become a huge pessimist and go into a certain contrarian, highly critical mode – at least to start with. The client’s job specifications are to be seen purely as guidance, an entirely non-binding, and ultimately perhaps also irrelevant idea of what, roughly, the client expects from us. It will be our task, in the subsequent steps, to tease out the actual specifications, and put together detailed project parameters.
Sooner or later, every designer finds out that as specifications gradually become more precise and better defined, they gradually morph into the design itself. There is no precise border here: the more accurately we define and particularize the necessities and requirements of the end product, the more of it have we already created. It could be said that with well thought-out and precise specifications, the design is already half-done. That is why the initial discovery stage of investigation and analysis is so important.
Preparing exact project specifications is not the client’s job, but the central, most difficult, and most important task of the designer.
However, we have to accept as fact that ultimately, even the most detailed specifications from the client are irrelevant. For now, we will take them with a large pinch of salt. We only quickly soak in basic information about the client’s business, go through their website (if they have one already), and skim the websites of those we intuitively think might be their potential competition. At this point, it is not really appropriate to try to gather too much information – usually, we will know next to nothing about the business in question, and any guesswork and fumbling in the dark would be a waste of time and resources on such uncertain terrain. The time for more detailed research will come later. For now, we only need elementary information. We will only really find out the bare essentials, firstly to make sure the project is something we are able and willing to work on (Can we manage to deliver a secure information system for the army? Do we want to work on a service we do not consider ethical?), and secondly to get a general idea of the business in question – and if we conclude that that might work, we arrange a first meeting with the client.
