Creating design solutions to communication challenges
Our experience of working with clients in a variety of sectors has enabled us to create a proven process of design, delivering effective solutions to engage and inform the reader. We don’t just make things look pretty; we make things understandable.
Whatever the size of project, from a 30minute organisation chart, to a multi-stakeholder communications campaign, we will follow a process to ensure the final designs are fit for purpose. We strive for clients to be delighted with our service, and end users who are engaged with the content.
1 Define
Understanding the aim of the communications is the first step in the process, and vital to get right so we can measure the performance of the final work.
The 5W1H (who, what, where, when, why and how) method was established in the literary world to aid reader understanding in words, but we’ve adapted it to understand the aim of a clients’ graphic communication. By scoring against the W’s and H, we are able to use our skills and experience to utilise the best methods of portraying the information graphically.
2 Research
As information designers it’s imperative we understand the content and context of what we are designing. When we are working with content from a subject matter expert, we will ask them lots of questions to educate our design solutions. This questioning process will often lead to the information being transformed into something everyone can understand, not just the author!
For more complex design projects, there may be requirements to research end user behaviours or cutting edge design practices within our established network of information design research contacts.
“You listened carefully to our brief and found a way to resolve the different views in our JV to produce something that everyone was happy with.” (ARUP, 2016)
3 Develop and test
Rapid concept and ideas generation, working closely with project stakeholders to make sure the designs are going in the right direction. At this stage, our designers are using their experience and knowledge to identify the best methods of graphically portraying the information or data.
“You have handled the project with immense creativity, patience and professionalism producing high quality graphics often with little visibility on what was actually needed!! A top job!” (Ferrovial, 2016)
4 Finalise
Produce beautiful and usable designs that can be easily understood by the end user, and meet all the demands of the client.
“We are continually impressed with TDL’s ability to create graphics and tender designs quickly, and with a high level of attention to detail that engage the target audience.” Veolia (2016)
5 Assess and learn
Our process does not stop at final designs. It is important to learn from the experience by assessing the usability of the end product. User feedback is key to continuous improvement, and so is the feedback we gain from our clients on the process of working with us.
“You were very responsive to last‐minute changes, and honest about what would be and wouldn’t be possible when we explained our ideas.” (DAI, 2015)
To see examples of our work, please take a look at our PORTFOLIO. It’s been structured by the 5Ws 1H so you can see what solutions we’ve designed for our clients’ communication challenges. DESIGN CONTAINERS are things that bring all the 5Ws1H together, such as presentations, documents and brochures.
“It’s excellent! This is exactly what we needed to summarise our story. Well done guys!” (Serco, 2016)