Choose and work with a designer

Once you chose your designer, it is vital that your team runs the project effectively. Just dropping in occasionally to check on the design process isn't the best way forward - your input will be important during activities such as research, brainstorming and user testing.

Design process key stages

The various stages of creative work include:

• Concept development - the designer explores various design options as initial concepts. You'll be involved in helping to choose which one goes forward for further development.
• Design development - once you and the designer establish the basic concept, you will have to refine ideas and choose one to work up to a final solution. Again, you will be asked to sign off each stage.
• Testing - the project evolves to the stage where you can evaluate, test and review progress.
• Implementation - finally, depending on the project, the final design may go live, to print, production or be communicated to target audiences.

See more on the key stages of the design process.

Design project review

During the development of your design, you will have to evaluate the work against project requirements and outcomes. This may involve, for example, reviewing sketches for layouts, suggested brand colours and typography, or product prototypes and mock-ups.

When and what you review may depend on the needs of the business and the specifics of the project. However, in most cases, there are a number of natural stopping-off points where you will be expected to sign off, eg after the initial designs and after the revised designs. Identifying these review stages in advance, helps ensure that you can deal with any problems swiftly.

Throughout this process, your project manager needs to communicate with everyone involved at all stages. Find out more about managing your design project.