How to choose the best design from those presented

23 May 2014

Selecting and approving a design from those presented by a designer can be a tough job. There are lots of things to consider and always the worry that you might make the wrong decision.

Let’s face it, nobody wants to be the one responsible for sales falling through the floor just because the ad or blog page weren’t 100% perfect. There’s just too much pressure to get it right. Right?

So how do you make a good call every time?

Simple. You don’t. It’s impossible.

That’s right. Impossible.

What you need to do is let go of the fear of failure and use good practice to guide you to what’s “probably” the best solution instead.

What is good practice for a design project?

Best practice for any and every job starts with a good brief. It’s not unusual for everyone’s eyes to roll towards the sky when a designer asks for one. It’s often perceived as a luxury – or worse, unnecessary. Without a brief (or with a bad one) your designer will be forced to make assumptions. You don’t want them to do that. Unless luck is on your side, you won’t get what you were hoping for.

And your designer probably won’t have enjoyed the process much, either. When a client says “you’ve got a blank canvass”, designers hear: “I have no idea what I want or don’t have the time to write a brief, so produce something and I’ll tell you whether or not I like it until you’ve emptied every corner of your creative larder onto the floor in a futile attempt to find a solution that’s both appropriate and that my spouse will like.”

You’ll want to avoid that.

I’ll cover more detail about the components of a good brief in another post, but here are the main questions every brief should answer in detail:

What is it?
Who is it aimed at?
Why would they read/want it?
What are the business objectives?
How do we measure success?
What are the constraints?
When does it need to be finished?
What’s the budget?

So, go on then how do I choose which design is best?

This is where a good brief really shows its value. If it has enough detail, is direct as to what it asks for, and it’s easy to comprehend, then it’s basically a checklist. Your designer will be able to compare their design with the checklist, and you’ll be able to evaluate it in the same way.

Being able to evaluate a design objectively is a great place to be. And it gives you the tools to defend against subjective criticism from other stakeholders:

When someone says they don’t like the colour choice, you can point to evidence that your target market do, and it’ll sell more units because of it.

Or, if on the day before approvals, Apple bring out a fancy new OS style and your Chairman wants to ape it, you can point to the whole checklist and reassure them this design is perfectly OK. And that it’ll cost time and money just to find what’s simply another version of right.

How do you know when you’ve made the right choice?

The most important thing here is not to panic. Unless you’re designing the UI for ‘the big red button’, the world won’t end based on your decision. It’s OK. Enjoy it.

And if you’re working in a medium where measurement is possible and useful, then you have the ability to see what is and isn’t working, and the opportunity to improve it. Which takes quite a lot of pressure off the decision.

In any case, if the brief was good – and everyone followed it – then it has every chance of being a good design. And if you’ve got a choice of three concepts it’s likely every one of them is appropriate – making it almost impossible to make a bad selection.

At this point, take a pause and congratulate yourself for writing such a good brief. While your designer sits back in their chair and lights a cigar as you fight over which one you like the look of the most.