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Design Brand Identity Basics Finalizing the Project Conclusion

Raghav Agrawal
Raghav Agrawal
4,654 Points
Posted by Raghav Agrawal
Raghav Agrawal
4,654 Points

planning for short deadlines

Hello treehouse family!

How should one go about the discovery and research phase mentioned by Matt Yow for projects of 1 week,how much research is enough for that?

Please provide a detailed answer guys covering web design too

Thanks in advance for any help :)

Raghav

"Too many things to do,too little time"

Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points
Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points

This is a difficult question to answer, as every project presents it's own unique set of requirements and scope. There's a tonne of posts and books written about this, one worth a mention (however I'm yet to read it myself) would have to be Erika Halls book Just Enough Research published by A Book Apart http://www.abookapart.com/products/just-enough-research

I might also suggest that one week is also a very short timeframe for any design project, unless you have all the information required from the client and understand the clients specific market in depth already. I think you have to sit down and draft up a list of questions you need to ask yourself about the project. Some suggested questions to start with might include:

  1. What's the project budget?
  2. What are your clients expectations?
  3. Have you worked on any other similar projects, that required solving the same/similar problems and for a similar market?
  4. How well do you already know your client and their needs?
  5. Are you working as part of a team or flying solo?

There's more questions I'm sure, but research is an important part of the process, as it will inform the direction of your design and you don't want to discover later that your design looks like a competitors, in the same market.

hope this helps.

Raghav Agrawal
Raghav Agrawal
4,654 Points
Raghav Agrawal
Raghav Agrawal
4,654 Points

Thank you Alexander Stanuga ,actually i should have mentioned the scope earlier,well its a website for my sister's studio space rental service and she is tired of me telling her "give me time,i'm upgrading my skillset"

1 Answer

Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points
Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points

I think the question you need to ask is, whats the project worth to you? Being a family member do you want to provide your sister with a good service? if so your research will be a very important part of the project. She may only have a small budget, or she's not paying you anything financially, so you'll need to research methods of creating/managing the project that suits her needs and doesn't find you constantly trying to fix issues later, when you could be earning an income from other projects.

At the end of the day, your sister might be the Client but you won't be designing for her! You'll be designing for her audience! I recommend checking out a bunch of articles on A list Apart if you haven't come across it already, theres a few up there that address the research question, notably http://alistapart.com/article/audiences-outcomes-and-determining-user-needs