Production Processes
Production Processes
As part of this module exploring the working practices of design companies I visited ‘Sequence’, the largest new media house in South Wales where I spoke to Richard Shearman, one of the account managers. I pitched the same questions that I asked him to a friend of mine who is the lead designer at a small design company called ‘Firstline Media’ in the Newcastle area. The idea was to better understand how the size and structure of a company affects their working practices by comparing the feedback I received. I decided on five questions, covering a broad spread of the information I hoped to obtain.
1. Is the majority of your business client based or speculative work?
Both companies had business plans based on continually marketing the company, seeking out new clients and pitching for new work.
Sequence has a New Business Team and a Sales Team dedicated to making new contacts and winning work. I was surprised to learn that Sequence actually pitched ideas for work on an entirely speculative basis to large companies like the BBC; this is called ‘invitation to tender’ and often showcases the use of new technologies and software that might be of interest to the potential client. For briefs where they are competing with other companies the designers will prepare a visual pitch, normally three A3 boards which they will send to the client. The whole company operates on a dynamic business model and 50-60% of their work is gained by these business acquisition teams.
Firstline Media’s business is an equal mix of client based and speculative work although the emphasis has recently been increasingly on actively seeking new work by cold calling and pitching for briefs. They are too small a company to have a dedicated team for this so the designers must play a role in the new business acquisition side too. To help in maintaining repeat business from clients it is sometimes agreed in the contract that any follow up work will also be done by Firstline.
2. How is your team structured in terms of in house and freelance expertise?
The two companies have quite different attitudes towards buying in outside help and expertise when required.
Sequence stressed on their website that an important part of their ethos was to keep everything ‘in house’ as much as possible to maintain consistency in their output and avoid the complications and added cost of hiring freelancers. Sequence employ more then thirty people but there are still occasions when outside help is necessary to complete projects successfully and on time. Richard Shearman identified the two most common occasions when they need to do this as being when they are given much less time to complete a project then they have calculated they would need to do it and when they are called upon to produce very advanced or specialist coding, often for Flash applications.
Firstline Media have a much more compact team to draw on with just two designers, two developers and a Technical Author. However they very rarely use freelancers and will simply not take on work that the company cannot handle internally preferring a more modest business plan based on maximising their ‘in house’ resources.
3. Do you use a standardized project cycle model on each job?
There were major differences between Sequence and Firstline in the use of project cycles which seem to derive as much from the company’s ethos as the necessary differences in business models because of their different sizes.
Sequence use different models for different jobs as they prefer to adopt a project cycle that is a ‘good fit’ for the client. For example they prefer a Dynamic Systems Development Methods for most jobs where they feel that the expectation of changing needs and requirements suits their flexible working practices but they also employ a more formalised model like Prince 2 when a more controlled environment is needed. This will often be when they are working with government agencies or the BBC. They also have different models for print and web projects and will always try and agree and tailor the best working model for each client before a contract is signed.
Firstline produce a wide range of work from 3d visualisations to websites and print projects but use the same project cycle model for each one. This covers every aspect of the project design and development from initial visualisations to final deployment. The team there prefer the consistency of fitting every project to a working model that they are used to and are comfortable with where it seems that Sequence’s designers and developers must be more flexible in order to accommodate the client. I think this is partly down to Sequence dealing with larger and more demanding clients and partly a slight disparity in the levels of expertise at the two companies.
4. How do you encourage collaborative working and successful communications with your clients?
Both companies stressed the importance of good relations with clients as it makes the design process run more smoothly and increases the likelihood of repeat business.
Collaborative working with clients is central to Sequence’s ideology and this begins at the very earliest stage where employees are chosen for a job based on their perceived compatibility with the client. At Sequence the client is seen as an equal partner in the design process and this begins with design workshops which run at an early stage of the project and help the client feel an involved member of the team. It also helps the Sequence designers to gain a good idea of what the client really wants which might be different to what the brief asks for. They break the project into ‘would likes’, ‘should haves’ and ‘must haves’ based on the workshops and their own expertise, the client will be made aware how these levels of priority will fit within the constraints of the project. Communications channels are always open and Sequence employ several dedicated account handlers to ensure that anytime the client calls wishing to enquire about the project they will be able to speak to a well informed member of staff.
Good customer service is also key to Firstline Media’s business plan and a similarly high value is placed on the client’s views and opinions. At the earliest possible stage of their interaction with the client they present them with clear documentation detailing not only what they plan to deliver but also what they expect from the client, this has proved an effective way of pre-empting problems and establishing trust between the two parties. Throughout the project they regularly update the client with progress reports and ask for their feedback so they always feel included in the progress of the work. After a project is completed they stay in regular contact to maintain the relationship and demonstrate a level of care and attention that will hopefully result in repeat business.
5. How do you test your work before completion; I.e. User / Expert Testing?
By this point in the questioning I had learned that both companies were striving to be client-centred and I had heard a lot more about this then I had user-centred design. Whether it was assumed to be implicit in what they were saying that each project would be right for the end user or that as a business they have to put the effort in to please the people who pay their wages first and foremost I’m still not sure. Both companies didn’t usually conduct testing on the public but had ‘in house’ experts that would put each project through its paces before the handover. At Sequence this was a Quality Inspection team while at Firstline the Technical Author and Technical Director both gave finished work the final check over.
Sequence tests each part of a multimedia project in isolation before the design and development teams get together to make sure they have a fully working end product. They do conduct user testing when a piece intended for use by children or the disabled as it is hard for the designers to understand the exact needs of these groups. Often they just use ‘Profile Testing’; the designers will role play as the intended user, speaking aloud and using an interaction style that they feel is appropriate. While I’m sure that this will uncover most of the major usability issues it must be difficult to view a piece of work you have been involved with for weeks or months as a first time user who may be of a very different background or age then yourself. I wonder whether the time and effort of conducting thorough user testing has led to it being viewed as a luxury by the design industry.
The balance between designers, client and end user is a very interesting one and it was important for me to see how design companies are first and foremost businesses and I imagine that in some cases compromises are made to please clients that may well not result in the most appropriate product for the person on the street. I was very impressed by Sequence and I understand now how their business model has led to a fast rate of growth and financial success while I have also gained and insight into how a much smaller company can be successful while working with local clients and smaller jobs.
Thank you to Richard Shearman at Sequence (www.sequence.co.uk) and Kevin Myers at Firstline Media (www.firstlineinteractive.co.uk)
posted by nick_gerrard @ 6:52 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home