I work for an in-house design team that collaborates with third parties. As designers, we get paired up with internal producers (assignments rotate), and then outsource to third-party developers. The producer manages the primary relationship, and the designers weigh in on key deliverables.
What we do: 1. High Concept Powerpoint for Marketing and Other Biz Partners - Goal: Get Buy In - they want the top level to make sure we're on strategy - we include images to help them visualize the product - we include bullet point lists of key feature sets - we include preliminary user research data from qualitative testing Once there's buy off.... 2. Create Design Document Lite - Goal: Solicit accurate & fair developer bids - We include enough detail to communicate the scope of the project, whatever it takes - We don't go deep into design details, because there's usually a time issue - Meanwhile, we keep refining the concept and user testing Select a winning bid, then... 3. Create Complete Design Document - Goal: Enable a Great Kickoff Meeting & Create a Reference - Include as much detail as appropriate to communicate the spec But at this point it becomes a collaborative work and a conversation with the developer. The process is organic and it varies by project. Over-documentation is definitely a no-no to watch out for. You don't want to make your docs so detailed that you spend all your time updating them instead of communicating with your developer. Regular conversation is key. You want to stay on the same page. We used to document a lot more as a company, and would write docs that spelled everything out to the letter. But what we found is that the more we wrote, the less the developers read. You have to keep it simple. Pictures, labeled diagrams and prototypes definitely help. If you use text, bullet point it. No one likes to read paragraphs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=26800 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
