Stop Apologizing for Unfinished Design Work
For one thing, it is never done.
What you show clients should meet their expectations, and you need to manage those expectations. Clients can no longer expect to see fully-designed pages anymore, and if they do, it is your job to set them straight. This varies project to project but to give you an example, I do a lot of ski resort website work. At minimum, I show a completed desktop design (with menus, mouse-overs, other interactions), a general sub-page template design, and a snow report page design. No mobile design? Sometimes. But my wireframes must illustrate clearly the information hierarchy and since my design is context-first (as opposed to mobile-first) then what the end result for mobile should be predictable and with exactly the content you would see on the desktop version.
Initially, the deliverables that the developers receive will be what the client has approved, with one big exception: the pattern library. Developers will have an extra deliverable of a pattern library. In some cases, a pattern library can be added to throughout the project but the pattern library should be as complete as possible early on. Generally, I do not show clients the pattern library for approval because it is based on already-approved designs. If anything, I might show a client to illustrate the versatility of their website, or for fun, if I don’t think it will lead to any confusion on their part.
Web sites and apps are systems with parts and some of those parts can come together to form what feel like pages to users.
Web Design is no longer static, it should never have been static in the first place especially the moment Content Management Systems became a thing. If you are designing pages, or you expect a designer to design pages, you haven’t been paying attention. Web sites and apps are systems with parts and some of those parts can come together to form what feel like pages to users. When those parts are designed separately they will be better designed to be flexible, dynamic, and extensible.
Designing pages should be done in the wireframing stage, as those illustrate the system as it comes together, and how/when/where users will interact with them.
Design is an ongoing process within the life of a project (and sometimes beyond). Unless you are perfect (and you’re not), you will not think of every single thing that needs to be designed, but you should be engaged with developers throughout the life of the project so that you can quickly identify and execute on additional needs or adjust accordingly. That favicon not done at the time of the initial hand-off? That should be the least of your worries (why does it always seem to fall of my list of deliverables? Whatever, I am done feeling bad!), instead you should hand the minimum viable approved design to get development off and running as soon as possible. At that point, you then hunker down and continue to fill in the gaps and immediately hand them off to development as you complete them. That isn’t to say that the favicon, OG image, and other “small stuff” isn’t important, they are extremely important, they are just items that are not needed to hand off to developers right away. Get the essentials to developers first, then while they are developing, take that opportunity to focus on the very important grout of the project.
Force yourself into a relationship with the developers
You should get always be collaborating with the developers on the project. There are several reasons for that; you will be able to identify and rectify problems as they crop up, and continuing to foster that relationship will only encourage a more collaborative (and efficient) UX design process. Most important: your design process and experience will continue to evolve with with the web development world. Bouncing your ideas off of the people who will be putting those ideas to work is a great way to make sure those ideas are possible and applicable in the first place, as well as challenge your strategies in how they can be executed and it gives you a chance to test them early on. Those added challenges to the development team will be good for their growth as well.
In conclusion…
Design is ongoing and iterative, and communicating constantly with your client as well as with development is a must. Start early, and stay till the end.
