Like I have mentioned before clients don’t have the time to understand every design process and sometimes they just don’t want to head into that lane. You must be wondering why? And who in the hell I am writing this for? And there must be hundreds of articles out there that explaining this process and they off course go into pages and pages of explanation – no wonder  when they do start to read it they get insane idea of shooting themselves in their foot to stay awake!

This article is for the clients alright! These processes are in-depth and time consuming they are made simple and short so that you get gist of what we really do and don’t go about ridiculing our every process.  It also explains why our prices do tend to be on the higher side. Here goes!

1. Information Gathering: We come in peace and with a blank slate. It allows you to see things through their eyes, and in doing so, arms us better with the knowledge we need to proceed and refine those things we have learned into the design. So having the client fill out a design brief can give you a big step forward in the beginning as you try and sort out who you are working for and exactly what they need. Also make sure you check out their competition and see how they have responded to certain elements and approaches from others in the field. This could give you an added advantage in the beginning.
2. Brainstorming: is another creative process. The brainstorming is as crucial and fluid part of the process wherein we just set our minds on the path towards our end goals and see the numerous ways in which we come up with to tackle the issue. This is done with the client and stake holders it gives us a clear idea on how to tackle an issue. This is the process which involves whole mountain of data.
   
3. Sorting: After the brainstorming session with the ton load data, we go back to our secret HQ (headquarters) and we take the time to actively pour through the notes, picking out the workable ideas and tossing the rest. Sometimes these processes can be so cumbersome to sort and to some it could give us brain hemorrhage!
   
4. Refine & Distill We begin to refine and distill (this is not about making liquor) the concept to help find the approaches that we thing, will work best for the client. Most of designer would go ahead with a couple of options they have and present it to the client in different ways.
   
5. Sketching: We then, draw some doodles and sketches of those ideas. This is an in-depth and time consuming step that the clients rarely see So like with a few of our other steps, they do not take this part of the process into consideration when they are formulating their expectations and time lines.
6. First Drafts Once we have shown the ideas to the clients & stakeholders, they then decide where they want the project to go. They take in what we have shown them and they determine which route that we have devised best suites what they were looking for. Now this is the part where hmmm… and go
7. Back to HQ: After we have absorbed all the blows, below the belt punches and digested all of the feedback that we receive from the client, we then take everything back to the proverbial drawing board, to further refine the idea and actually move the project into the last stage of the creative process.
   
8. Designing: Following nearly the same pattern as the sketching only with more depth and detail, this step takes the refined idea that the client chose in the draft stage and actually designs it completely. Through hours and days of dedicated effort, we transform our drafts and sketches into the completed design that we have been working towards all along.  Though this is the part when the clients thinks Yup! This is it! Lets Partee! We say, Not Yet!
9. Feedback: From our communities, fanatics or others in the field can provide much more critical feedback for your designs to sharpen them overall. This is a vital part of growing your skills and moving ahead in your work, which in other ways also benefits the client in the end.
10. Final draft & delivery: Once we have received the final feedback from our secret society, we can begin to finalize the design for the project. These final tweaks and adjustments can be very time consuming and very demanding but this is the part of the process which needs to be done with utmost care. And finally when our feet gets wobbly and tears brim our eyes and we hand over the baby to its new parents
11. The final step is we running behind the client to get the final payment – Oh that part is ours!

I hope this write-up was effective and fun enough in conveying our design process. I know that there are more steps out there but if you start explaining to the clients all these steps, He would eventually have a heart attack!

But if you really look at the design  more closely! and visualize this with your everyday mode of transport, you have one question that keeps repeating in your head, has the designer really thought this through. Here are some of the points that I would like to point out why this design might actually not work!

1. The Signal numbers (single line numbers) will be barely visible from 500 meter distance.
2. The designer has fail to factor Sunlight Glare! it would be practically be invisible to the motorist on a bright sunny day.
3. Human Behavior people always tend to speed up  at orange light no matter what the countdown is

If you look at this product more clearly this signal system would be much more effective and helpful if it was used for “Pedestrian crossing”. Don’t you think so?

One of the disturbing trends that you get to hear nowadays is that the deadlines come and go. Neither the client or the designer’s, or the programmers in general are really that concerned. A deadline seems to be general passé among most of us. We set our deadlines for our task and pass this on to the clients but in the end it doesn’t get met. More and more people ignore deadlines and keep on piling on the work, which in turn affects our social lives and which in turn is a chain reaction and recipe for disaster. Who do we really blame here?
Is it the clients, whenever I meet the clients and after the initial project debriefing, the final question from my side would be so “when is your deadline?” and the usual immediate response, without really thinking would be, Duhh!! That would be YESTERDAY!!! Finally after a little negotiation from both sides we set on new deadline which in the end is what the client really wants. Whether it is the client’s fault or our own these deadlines come and go faster than startups.

Have we always lived in a world where deadlines have no meaning? Have we become so full of ourselves in this online world that we have created our own celebrity status and feel that we are above such things? Maybe you are at a job and the current client doesn’t fit with how you work because you don’t do deadlines. Deadlines are too restrictive and hinder the creative process right?
Missing deadlines is an addicting thing. You miss one and make an excuse and realize it isn’t so bad to miss them so you miss another one and another. Soon you laugh internally at the thought of setting a date for the project to finish or maybe you still convince yourself that this one time you will actually get it done.

It never happens.
Most designers and coders expect to get paid what they feel they are worth and when they do are they fulfilling the expectations of the clients that have paid them? We want money yet don’t want to help our clients make that money back by doing stuff when it should be done. If we lose these clients no worries because we have five more potentials sending us emails right? All we need to do is pump out one nice looking website every two months and a couple more clients will trickle in and the ones that were complaining about missed deadlines will disappear and our reputations will go untarnished.
I can’t say if doing bad work ever catches up to you in this new digital world, but if that day ever comes to pass a lot of us our screwed. Till then, f**k deadlines, whatever it is can wait till next week.

The client is the problem
Of course when dealing with deadlines it is a two-way street. If a client is expected to provide you with content by a given date you want that content to arrive by then and if it doesn’t you more than likely hold off your work. This begins the deadline traffic jam where things can quickly spiral out of control. As a rule though, always stick to your deadlines, even if you have to make some sacrifices and that includes profitability.

We build good ships here, at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but always good ships.
Establish who is leading the project from day 1. If you are the sole person behind the design and development of a design then you are also the acting project manager. You have to manage the assets, deadlines and every other aspect needed to get the project done. There are a lot of hats to be worn, but someone has to put them on.

Clients don’t want to hear about your problems with other clients. They only care about their project. They don’t want to know that their deadline was pushed back without you telling them. Giving them work that is less than quality because you can’t manage your time is inexcusable. Just because a client is at your mercy doesn’t mean you should push back deadlines because you can.
If your problem is estimating the time it will take to complete a project, then learn how to overestimate the time. It’s better to come in under a deadline then to give the expectation that you will get something done quickly only to watch it get done weeks later.

Never set the deadlines too close to comfort, some of the reasons that could be are:

1. Client have no clue of what goes behind your work and the time you need to complete your work he just wants the end product. Therefore it is very essential that you Never, Never-Ever give a time frame at the initial meeting with your clients! You need to go back and gather your thoughts about the meetings and chalk out the exact time.
2. Always think of possibilities that might hamper you from completing the work on time for example:
   • You might be needed next door to give a birth to a baby at an uncalled hour.(New Client Meeting)
   • Your mind would suddenly and unexpectedly go blank for the next 5-6 hours or so (Designer’s Block)
   • While researching for the project you tend to get carried away researching why the Blondes look more cuter than brunettes (Browsing habits)

Based on my own estimation, if a particular project would take only 8 hours of time. I make sure I inform the client that I would need 12hours to complete this way it helps me take a re-look at my work  for errors and also see any unforeseen incidents that might crop up at the time of presentation and also let me know if I have covered all the points that the client have stated .
If a deadline is missed then it is your job to reset the expectations. Rarely can you miss a deadline and continue on the schedule that you planned from the beginning. Most of the MNC I have worked for I have seen people literally sh***g Bricks, cussing and creating the blame game. Don’t let this be you.

Then came the release of HD Ready 3D TV, each companies were releasing their own technological version of the 3D viewer. Panasonic was the first to release their version of the 3D TV to the people in the US, with glasses that you need to buy separately. It was expensive.

What if you had guest in house would you take turns to share the 3D specs. Now Samsung (OLED Version) and LG have released their version of the 3D TV and Sony is going to release their version by this month, each having their own type of technology behind it, making it as complicated as ever for the consumers to understand.

Being fan of latest technology gadget, I find that 3D TV is bit over marketed as of right now. My advice to all the technological geeks out in India don’t rush into buying your 3D TV as of yet. My suggestion is to wait for it for another 1-2years at the most. Yes! You heard me right!

Couple of factors behind it, one for instance is Cable TV and Hollywood movies have not switched the cameras over to 3D camera except for very few programs, which are at the initial stages like the sports channels few Discovery programs have started shooting in 3D format. Movies are in the initial stages of moving into 3D formats and not all movies out there worth that 3D experience.
They’re currently studying making active-shutter glasses the default technology, which are the most popular right now with TV makers. But there are details still to be worked out, such as the effects of competing with other infrared devices already in the living room, including TV remote controls.

Clash of Titans and Shrek 3D got very lukewarm response at the box office here in Bangalore, People now understand the technology and they are waiting for that wow factor! People are not going to spent a little extra every time just to see another 3D movie. 3D TV is currently a bit expensive for our taste. I suggest we wait and watch for now.

Until then, 3D TV watching it isn’t going to be a naturally social experience, the way standard 2D TV-watching is now, at least at first, while the likes of Sony and Panasonic race to get the technology to the marketplace. But it will get there eventually.

As with any new technology, you try to get it to market, and get people to use it and start giving you feedback. All of (the manufacturers) have their own glasses and their own TVs that can only interact together. They do that to take the variables out of the equation, so they control the experience consumers have with the television,” “But the natural evolution of 3D TVs over time is for them to have interoperability with the glasses they use for viewing pleasure”