Collaborating on design projects isn’t a cakewalk. You have different design ideas popping up from each designer, opposing views, never-ending deadlines and delays, and client revisions that make your end product look messy.
But what exactly do we mean by design team collaboration?
Any designing process starts with the marketing team creating a brief that involves deadlines, design dimensions, references, and so on. Both the marketing team and design team review and asks questions on this brief after which the brief is accepted and work starts. After the final draft is worked upon, the marketing team reviews it and asks for changes which are again worked upon.
All the stages in this process require design team collaboration. Here are 4 ways you can boost that collaboration.
1. Have regular updates
There are a lot of interdependencies when it comes to design projects. For example, a UX researcher’s work may have a great impact on how the designer creates the layout of the website. Because of these varied dependencies, it’s critical to have regular updates. Many teams conduct daily stand-up meetings to let everyone on the team harmonize their tasks, and discuss the tasks for the day.
2. Use the right tools
Your entire team may not work from the office or you may have instances when a teammember can’t make it to work. That’s why it’s so important to have tools in place so that your work isn’t hampered. These tools could be PM tools like Trello where everyone can see their tasks and collaborate, communication tools like Slack to brainstorm or discuss design topics, visual feedback tools like Ruttl where your team can pinpoint those design changes, and other such designing and developing tools to have an efficient work process.
3. Set communication expectations
Before you start working on any project, it’s important to have communication guidelines in place and every team member should have a copy of the same. With so many different professionals working on a design project, this guideline can cover various topics like:
- The places for different types of communication. For example project-related communication in Trello, inspiration communication in Slack channel, and so on.
- Approval stages
- How to call in a meeting for an emergency issue
- Roles and responsibilities of different professionals and their POC (Point of Contact)
4. Exercise version control
In a design project, there are likely to be multiple versions. What would happen if your UX researcher runs a user feedback session with the wrong design? It’s important to have version control guidelines in place to avoid these kinds of scenarios. These guidelines could cover the naming conventions for each version, when final versions would be uploaded, and so on. You should also check in with your team regularly to ensure that these guidelines are being met and following-up with them if they aren’t.
An awesome design project isn’t just about great designers or great developers. It’s about a great team coming together. Design team collaboration is what makes that possible.
Follow these four steps to boost your design team collaboration and achieve success with each of your design projects.
