The Heartache of Web Site Design. Its All About The Brief

Oct. 13, 2014 - PRLog -- If you could read my mind love, what a tale my thoughts could tell. Gordon Lightfoot

Great song actually, but it does bring up a very good point, how many people in your life expect you to be a, “Mind Reader”? Who are these people? Well they are easy to identify.

They use words like, Logical and Obvious. They often say things like, “It’s just common sense” or “It stands out like dogs balls”, and the biggies “You didn’t follow my feelings” and “I shouldn’t have to explain”

Yes these words, and sentences have sent many of us on the path of self-meltdown, words and sentence’s uttered by wives to husbands, children to parents, teachers to students and in our case? Customers to Website Designers!

I have watched grown men and women who have spent years earning a degree in Graphic design become sweating, grovelling fools when these words and sentences have been uttered. I have seen Companies close to the financial brink of disaster as projects driven by these famous words, “You should know what I mean” suck the very life force out of a design team and management.

In the end, I lay down upon the ground, I am joined hand in hand by what used to be confident and talented people now just red bull driven nervous wrecks, We all join in a group hug and reach to the sky not to sing Kumbaya but to proclaim to the customers, “We are not bloody Mind readers!

But we are expected to be readers of the mind, and then when timelines are missed, projects have dragged on all money in the budget has been spent? The dear customer that has created Design Armageddon wants to find another crew that, “Understands what they want”

How do we fix this potential Psychotic episode? Well it’s a simple thing called a “Brief” and its accompanied by a little task called a ”Sign Off” A lovely document with questions that require a mandatory answer, that must be accompanied with pictures or drawings that words cannot explain.

All those little, “I will show you” moments rather than, “Do you feel me” will guarantee that Valium is not needed as part of the daily diet of a web designer.

To make it easy let me use the tune that’s very popular at the moment, “It’s all about the Bass” just change the words keep the tune, change the words to, “It’s all about the brief, bout the Brief, NO trouble”

So Happy singing and happy site building, as that tune will keep you and your crew far away from Happy Holidays Home for the Designer Insane!

Enjoy the day and remember no Second Chance on a First Impression, Get Multi-Screen

www.thecamel.co