One of the most common challenges designers face is educating their clients about the design process. Design is not like construction, where you can drive by at any point in the process and see how the structure is made. People perceive design a bit like magic: We step behind a curtain, say some magic words and out comes a website. They have no idea what happened out of site, they only see the finished product. And designers have, by and large, liked keeping their trade a bit secretive. Unfortunately, this practice, purposeful or not, dumbs clients down and creates unrealistic expectations that design is easy, cheap and quick. Add the accessibility of design software tools to everyone and their brother, and professional designers have a real challenge on their hands keeping their trade secrets while educating clients about the value of their expertise. The basis for the value of their expertise doesn’t reside in a designer’s ability to pick the right colors or come up with the coolest concept, the value lies in their disciplined design process. So, I’m going to open the magic curtain of design and allow everyone to see my interactive design process.

For the last year, I’ve been wanting to redesign my own site. It was a temporary site to begin with, and I’ve not had the time or creative energy to readdress it. It’s not right to tell clients, “Do as I say, not as I do” with regard to my own site.  I’ll be redesigning my site without the curtain–giving you full access to the what, how and why of the design process. I hope that it will be helpful to clients and other designers.

First, a couple of things you should know before we begin:

• I’ll be sharing all my design process documents. Where possible, I’ll make them available to you as a template. You may use them, modify them and give them to clients as you like. You may not redistribute or resell them.
• There is no one right design process. Every designer has their own. However, there are some general design principles which I’ll share as I go along.
• Each client and each project require variations on the process depending on the business requirements, budget and schedule. It’s not one size fits all for good design. And that’s one reason professional, custom design costs more than cookie cutter design.
• My design process is always changing and adapting. This is just a snapshot.
• You may have thoughts or comments along the way. Please share them.

Let’s get started!