In this chapter we will outline:
- Getting ready to implement your new designs
- Assessing the results
- Measuring your successes
- Assessing the project itself
Once you’ve worked through the stages described in the previous chapters you’ll be very close to having your final set of designs. Congratulations – hopefully the process produced just what you were after and was interesting and fun too.
Now that you have your new branding, office space design, website, packaging, product or whatever it may be, you’ll need to think about producing and putting it into action.
After the creative work is completed the next stage is to begin implementing the designs, either through printing, manufacturing, interior construction, website coding or whatever, according to the nature of the project.
Your original brief should detail whether implementation is something that your designers will work on or whether their part in the project is now signed off and the implementation is handled separately.
It’s worth bearing in mind that designers will often have skills and knowledge of implementation processes that may be valuable and could save you money; in some cases they may even be able to handle the implementation themselves. On the other hand, implementation companies such as printers may well be cheaper.
Either way, this should be discussed at the start of the project when the brief is being written, so that when you reach this stage it is clear what happens next regarding implementation.
There are many different ways that you can assess how effective your design project has been for the business, but the easiest way to clearly check whether you have met your own objectives is to refer back to your original brief.
Remember, the level of thought, planning and detail that goes into this brief will determine how easily you can see if you’ve achieved what you set out to.
And as simple as it may sound, the brief may also help to indicate when the project has come to an end and should be signed off. As with any incremental and iterative process, designing could go on indefinitely, with more and more tweaks and revisions, especially if you’re not clear whether you’ve achieved your objectives.
For example, a new product may benefit from further revisions after it’s launched, but are such revisions within the scope of your original brief or should they be undertaken as a separate design project, further down the line? Constant revisions could become expensive or result in grumpy designers (or both!), so make sure you know when you’ve completed the work.
As success is relative to what you set out to achieve not all measures will be applicable to all projects. Also, different types of design will have different objectives - an office interior design may aim to make the workplace more efficient and inspiring, while a packaging design may aim to reposition a product on supermarket shelves. But with any project there will probably be a combination of hard and soft measures that you can use to assess the effectiveness of your designs.
- Hard measures could include profits, sales figures, contracts secured or number of units produced
- Soft measures could include customer and supplier feedback, shifts in the consumers’ perception of your brand, changes in market positioning, competitors’ reactions and general reactions to the designs
‘It’s still early days, but I think where we are now is a huge improvement on where we were, in terms of brand perception. It’s certainly helped with the supermarkets – we’ve got a listing in Tesco after trying for a long while before, and we’ve got a trial in Asda too.’
Read the Munchy Seeds case study.
As well as measuring the success of the actual design work, your business may also benefit from a formal evaluation of the way the design process ran, although this may be more applicable to larger organisations. Such a process evaluation could include:
- How the project was managed
- Whether it met timetables and budgets
- Whether relevant management/staff were sufficiently involved
- The suitability of, and working relationship with, the chosen designers
- How processes could be improved for future projects
All in all, a design project should be enjoyable, illuminating and beneficial. It is an investment that can bring fresh, objective insight into your business and improve its performance in the marketplace.
If you strike up a good relationship with your designer or consultancy, it is something that should continue for any number of years to come, to the mutual benefit of both businesses.
‘It was an enjoyable and hugely enlightening experience. Don’t go into it being nervous or scared about it because there’s no reason to be.’
Read the Munchy Seeds case study.