5 Pains of Working with Designers and How to Ease Them

We know working with designers can be tough, creative minds can be tricky when it comes to business. We conducted a survey of almost 100 executives and came up with these 5 problems that are most common for design-related projects. We’ve also provided short pieces of advice to give you some insight on what’s wrong and how to fix it.

Naturally, many of these issues are not limited to graphic designers but are probably most noticeable in this field. But you’ve learned some of these the hard way, haven’t you?

1. Too much perfectionism.

You know, the one that might result in something great, but at the cost of ruined deadlines.

Solution: The desire to create something perfect instead of just meeting the requirements is innate to every designer; the thing is that it takes more time than it should to deliver. In fact, that’s not the perfectionism ruining it all, but the misunderstanding.

Try being more engaged with the project. We’re not blaming anyone on particular, but believe us on this — the time you invest into design can return tenfold.

Designers, on their turn, love being listened to. You show how much their work means (and the deadlines, of course) — they’ll definitely come up with great ways of keeping both the perfectionism and timeframes. Effective communication and engagement will eliminate any misunderstanding that can snowball into failed projects and conflicts.

Errors that creep in due to bad information flow can be so serious that you have to remake an entire system. This might be ok for the development team, but it is wasted money and a highly expensive lesson to boot.

Must read: Undesign: What If Design Disappeared Tomorrow?

2. Designer mismatch.

The designer’s style doesn’t match yours, or the designer just isn’t pleasant to work with. Depending on your contract, you can face more creative fees for additional design options.

Solution: The offer in design industry is pretty high. We don’t say you have to search for another guy/team right away, but considering options would definitely be a smart move on your part. Seeking for freelancers can be a tough task in crowded marketplaces like Elance (Upwork), but still a rewarding one.

If you really need a team of designers to create a unique and consistent design, no freelancers scattered around the globe can perform as good as a professionally picked team, dedicated to your project.

There are also great options like getting a dedicated design team. This is a great way to ensure your design really accomplices business goals. The whole process from UX design/business analysis to storyboarding to UI testing.

Ever heard of Agile and Scrum? Works great for design projects. If you’re concerned with how the methodology works, you should check if Scrum fits into your practices. Why should you bother learning something that arcane? Because well-designed and well-developed software matters.

3. Bad designer-developer interaction.

Solving the design part of the equation only takes you half-way. Many issues lie where the design meets development. Communication gets messy, and the process is constantly disrupted from both sides. This is a matter of how you run business, you say, and you’re partly right.

Solution: In the end it all comes down to good communication. Development and design can work together without any hiccups, they just have to see the content of their work and how it differs. Meaning that designers have to understand the developers and vice versa.

Good project supervision is equally important.

Do you know whether your app has usability problems? Good UI/UX is born when all parties put effort into it, you souldn’t isolate development and design. The more people you have in the process the better the end result will be. Ideally, you should have both parties take part in the discussions. The current best practice is to agree on a regular time every day, just mind that everyone’s time is limited, including yours, of course.

4. Too much/no documentation.

Some insist on carefully documenting virtually everything, others prefer Agile methodologies, and having as little documentation as possible.

Solution: Which way is the best for your project is up to you to decide, no one will do that better than yourself. The only advice that really makes sense here is to create any documentation as visual as possible.

It takes user three clicks/taps to love or hate you — no space for bad design decisions here. Mockups, wireframes, prototypes, all the way from the high-level to micro UX.

Even a vastly simplified visualization can and should be aesthetic. While effectively explaining design in natural language is highly challenging, if possible at all, wireframes, mockups and prototypes are the keys to successful development. Taking the time to wireframe out the flow is a small upfront investment.

Good UI/UX is born when all parties put effort into it, you souldn’t isolate development and design.

Present the results/feedbacks yourself.

No e-mail or Skype exchanges.

Been there, done that — that leads to nowhere.

Feedback is best collected from discussions and NOT e-mail.

This is more effective for all parties. The secret of a successful design project is in mediating parties via translating thoughts and ideas.

Recommended for you: How Much it Costs to Design a Mobile App?

5. All I got was a .psd!

Not quite what you expected? Then something went wrong with defining the deliverables.

Solution: In addition to timing, your designer should very well know (if applicable) the dimensions or sizing for the final deliverable, what file format(s) you expect, and how you want them to be delivered (file sharing service, sent to printer, etc).

If you’re not sure about sizing or file format, present use cases (literally show the places where you want to use graphics and explain what you want it to be). Providing detail (and if possible, examples) to the designer will help him or her guide your decision on what the final deliverables will and should look like.

Working with a designer is an efficient and effective way to create beautifully branded work. However if not handled properly it can be fraught with miscommunication, misaligned objectives, or a project that doesn’t fit the rest of your brand narrative. Remember to see our UI/UX checklist so you don’t miss a thing in your mobile project.