Today’s workplace is filled with different personality styles. Understanding those differences and how they affect your workforce can make you a more effective manager.

Working with “left-brained” (more analytical) versus “right-brained” (more creative) employees has its own set of rules. Most creative workers use the right-brain style of learning and working, which is a visual, random, emotional and somewhat impulsive style of learning, according to data compiled at Western Michigan University. Right brain people like to work with sound in the background (note all those ear buds around the office), like to move about while thinking about concepts and generally start with a big idea and narrow it to the details. Left-brained workers and more verbal and logical, like things in order and prefer a formal workplace.

Take a look at your staff. How many right-brain workers are in the room? My guess it the number is pretty high among designers. Here are a few tips for managing your creative people in a way they can relate to.

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1. Develop Ideas

Start with a collaborative environment. Work with creative people to develop concepts but avoid specific, detailed instructions on what a project should look like. Explain parameters clearly – such as the feel or look a project should have – and let the designer go to work. Check in often to see how the project is going and help in its development.

The creative personality is not one to just follow a set of rules; that is one trait that makes them successful in creative and design-oriented fields. Give them room to develop concepts without constant observation.

Coach workers rather than dictate a set of rules to them. Avoid planning out everything that should be done in advance; give employees freedom to make choices so they feel some creative control over projects.

2. Brainstorm, Brainstorm, Brainstorm

Much of the creative process is organic and creative people like to think and imagine. Because a characteristic of a right-brained thinker is to process information in sometimes random and varied orders, brainstorming sessions can be beneficial. Toss out many ideas (follow the “no idea is stupid rule”) and keep quick notes of concepts that are workable.

Encourage workers to brainstorm with each other. You don’t have to be present for good ideas to emerge. Tracy Collins, a newspaper manager, offered this advice in the 2008 edition of Design Journal: “Help them develop brainstorming alliances that will strengthen teamwork within the visual group, and have that group present their ideas to you.”

3. Foster a Creative Workspace

A row of gray cubicles will not foster creativity. Litter your workspace with color and items that will inspire workers. Look for interesting artwork or showcase some of the work your company has done. Is the room silent? Think about playing music at a certain time of day. Let the employees pick the tunes.

Rearrange the workspace to facilitate communication and collaboration. Paint a white wall orange and add a piece of artwork to it. Set aside an area with couches and tables to employees to relax and chat. One of the world’s top companies, Google, is known for its super-modern workspaces which feature lots of color and modern “cubicles.”

Be flexible with work schedules if possible. Maybe some of your workers would benefit from a schedule that does not fit in the 9-to-5 mold. Try to accommodate shift variances for people to optimize their skills.

4. Provide Feedback

Let your employees know how they are doing. It is easy for someone who primarily uses a right-brained style of thinking to become attached to their work emotionally. During critiques, keep the focus on an employee’s work. Choose words carefully.

In any creative field, much of what “works” or does not can be a matter of personal preference. Weigh this when critiquing a project. If you do not like a creative piece look, ask yourself several questions. Does it work for what the client wants? Does it follow our guidelines of style and is it technically sound?

If the project meets these guidelines and you still don’t like it, the difference may just be a matter of taste. Remember you may not like everything that comes across your desk. It may sound overly simple but people have different styles and like different things. It does not make something right or wrong; it is just a matter of taste.

Do set clear boundaries in black and white areas. A common concern among creative, for example, can be meeting deadlines. Start with how much you like the direction of the project but emphasize that the team is waiting for everyone’s contribution so the project can be completed. Outline a clear set of steps to meet that goal.

5. Develop Style Parameters

Although creative workers like their space, it is a good idea to have some guidelines in place. Develop and post a set technical specifications, communication standards and deadline policies.

For certain types of work where visual consistency is important — such as design in magazines, newspapers and some websites — develop a basic set of style rules. Outline what fonts and colors are acceptable; set guidelines for images. Also set guidelines for breaking the rules — what is the threshold, who approves the “rule-breaking.”

6. Don’t Fear Failure

An international Mercedes-Benz ad campaign in early 2011, focused on left and right brain traits in a series of print advertisements. These ads showed the differences in thinking styles visually. The result was visually stunning images that make you think, but did they sell the product described? The creative agency took quite a risk with this edgy campaign, but I doubt people who saw the ad related it to buying a car. The result could be viewed as both a success and a failure.

Don’t take away work from someone after a failed project. That is the time to “get back on the bike” and try something else. If an employee did good work but a project just did not come together give them another chance and talk about the small success and failures that contributed to the final result. Creative people can have big egos at times and need to feel some success to find continued success.

7. Coach Principles of Communication

Sometimes it can be very frustrating for visual people to communicate with non-visual workers. Your visual group may be able to “see” an idea during a conversation while others cannot. Coach those workers on how to better communicate their ideas.

Sometimes the solution can be as simple as having sketch pads and pens at all meetings so those visual ideas can be put out there for everyone. Ask questions to help visual thinkers learn to better articulate their thoughts as well: “I don’t understand. Please talk me through this one more time.”

Help designers learn to explain their decision-making and why things look a certain way. Don’t accept “because it looks cool” as an answer; push creatives to justify the reasons why something works or does not.

8. Different is Good

Don’t focus on differences as a negative attribute; use them to your team’s advantage. Different styles of thinking and communication can be a challenge in the workplace but try to focus on how to use those differences.

Creative people think in a way that is likely to challenge the more structured through process of managers. Keep your cool during these challenges. It may be frustrating but the same thought process that challenges your rules about a dress code, is the same process that got you stellar results on a project. Learn to mesh your styles effectively but keep lines of communication open and appreciating difference.

9. Emphasize Learning

Technology is changing the way we work each day at a pace that is hard to match. Make sure your employees are learning new things and keeping up.

Print designers should be dabbling in web design. Encourage and find opportunities for those who are not. Web designers should have to participate in a print project or two.
Provide learning materials for your staff as well. Subscribe to industry magazines and have them available. Send links to neat ideas or online articles. Show that you are seeking out learning opportunities as well.

10. Start Daydreaming

Daydreaming is at the core of problem-solving, according to an article by Amy Fries for Psychology Today. Don’t stop your best employees when they zone out at their desks; sometimes that is when the creative process is happening.

Further, encourage mental time-outs. Several companies known for innovation – Google, 3M and Gore-Tex — offer employees free time, just to sit and think. When have your best ideas hit — in the shower, at the dinner table? Giving employees more time to think about projects may increase overall productivity.

Conclusion

Managing creative people is not simple task. There are no perfect ways to keep everyone happy and productive. But as a manager you can create workspaces and environment that fosters out-of-the-box thinking.

The keys to success are understanding how creative people operate (the room may be filled with right-brained thinkers), constant communication and freedom to let people do what they do best. You might have to get out of your comfort zone to do it, but push some of the boundaries to create a space that encourages this open exchange and see where it takes your group.

Do you have any other tips for getting the most out of creative workers? We’d love you to share them.

Image Sources: bagaball, Timothy Vollmer and ste3ve.

Web design companies and freelancers should never underestimate the power of good copy. Likewise, they should never doubt how much bad copy can hurt their chances of winning clients.

Follow along as we discuss then ten commandments of writing simple and effective copy that will convince your potential clients that you can successfully meet their needs and blow away their expectations.

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More Than Design

So you’ve got yourself a gorgeous website design. You’ve spent hours making sure every pixel is perfect and you’re proud of the professional and minblowingly amazing visual aesthetic you’ve pulled off. You’re confident that when potential clients see it, they’ll be immediately convinced that you’re an A-level designer who is perfect for their projects.

Hold on though, you’re not quite finished. Selling yourself isn’t just a matter of design, you’re now faced with the task of wielding vocabulary instead of Photoshop, prose instead of CSS. When a potential client sees your site, always remember that you’ll be judged both as a person and as a designer by how you speak about yourself.

You may think you’re just a designer, but the second you start marketing yourself as a freelancer, you become both the salesman and the product. This is a place where I see new freelancers stumble time and time again. Here are ten tips to help get you on the right track.

1. Humbleness is a Virtue, But It Won’t Pay the Mortgage

One of the most prevalent mistakes that I see freelancers make is downplaying their talent, experience, or both. When a client looks at your site, you’re thrust into a sort of passive job interview and you want to make sure you put your best foot forward.

The interesting thing about hurting yourself with copy is that many freelancers don’t even realize they’re doing it. Language is a subtle art and the things that you say about yourself provide a lot more insight that you might think. Think through every sentence and how it might be perceived.

Here’s an example: When I read your bio and all you can talk about is school, I immediately think, “young and inexperienced.” Here you were giving an honest account of what currently seems important but in reality you could be scaring off clients.

Some take this much further and really cut themselves down with phrases like “still learning” or “just getting started.” The way I see it, you either can or can’t produce solid, professional work. If it’s the former, then why are you trying to scare me off with all this talk about how new you are? If it’s the latter, then why the heck would I hire you?

2. Be Honest, Just Shut Up

Now, don’t misconstrue my advice above as a suggestion to lie through your teeth about having ten years of experience and several prestigious design awards. Instead, you should be completely honest, while also being completely confident.

Think of it as an online dating profile. If you simply list all your faults, no one is going to choose you. However, if you’re untruthful and tell everyone you’re 6’6″ and have the body of a Mr. Universe candidate, they’ll immediately know you lied when you show up looking like George Costanza.

There’s a happy in-between where you stay honest and play to your strengths.

3. Be Professional

Another area where I see inexperienced freelancers fall flat on their face is in the area of professionalism. Even the most corporate of designs won’t fool anyone if you can’t live up to it with your copy.

Can you have fun graphics and still be professional? Absolutely! In fact, you can even get a little crazy with your copy and still come off as someone trustworthy and ready to take on serious design work. Here’s one example: “Kohactive is a creative digital company that produces kick-ass interactive websites…”

The tone here is both self assured and playful. It’s not for everyone but will appeal strongly to a specific market. So where do I cringe when I see professionalism abandoned?

More often than not, it’s on a freelancer’s blog, several posts of which are often shared on the homepage. I saw a freelance designer’s site the other day with a recent post discussing how his lunch made him feel sick. I’ve seen others who go into lengthy political rants. This is all well and fine, but if you want to talk about mundane life events or stand on a soap box and start wagging your finger, start a personal blog that isn’t tied to your freelance web design site.

If I stop by your site with the intention of hiring you and see posts about how you aren’t feeling well, that doesn’t inspire confidence or action in me. In fact, I’m likely to move on. Your professional blog should be about what you do: design. Write about recent projects, give tips to other designers; you can talk about yourself but keep the purpose of the blog in focus.

Keep in mind that this carries over to your Twitter stream if you’re one of the countless individuals who share recent tweets on your freelance portfolio. If you say things on Twitter that you might not want your website visitors reading (“this client is an idiot”) then it’s time to open up an account for your business and keep it separate from your personal account.

4. Say What You Do and Keep It Simple

A strong simple statement that says what you do is more important that I can possibly communicate. There are two ways you can go wrong here.

The first is to miss this step completely and get so caught up in creating an attractive and impressive website that you forget to even tell people what it is that you’re offering. Never assume visitors know anything about you or your company, make it clear exactly what it is that your business is all about.

The other way this can go is completely too far. Some freelancers and design companies write lengthy paragraphs about who they are and slap it right on the home page. Save your long speeches for the About page, this is your chance to make a strong first impression and you’ve only got about three seconds to do it.

5. Communicate Passion

Passion: this is what sells products and services. Confidence is important, but unchecked it can lead to unpleasant arrogance, instead make sure it communicates that you really care about what you do for a living.

You can see this principle at work in countless successful business men. Steve Jobs was always able to convince a room full of reporters that he had just changed the world, which he admittedly did quite a few times. However, this wasn’t always because the product was revolutionary (many were flops), it was because the man himself was obviously so excited about the product, so passionate about creating devices that people love, that you couldn’t help but get caught up in his energy.

When potential client see your site, they should get the impression that there’s nothing you’d rather do than take on their project. Good copy reels the viewer in and has them nodding all along the way. If they believe you’re really out for what’s best for them, they’ll trust you to deliver a quality project.

6. Find Your Unique Selling Proposition

This is one of the most difficult tasks on this entire list. The simple truth is that there are a million competing businesses out there. No matter who you are, you usually don’t have to look far to find someone with more talent and experience than you with a better price.

So what sets you apart? Why should someone choose you over the competition? The image above is an example of a design firm trying to answer that question. They know that you’re sick of designers who only “speak geek” and ramble on when you don’t have a clue what they’re saying. ForeFront Web promises to be different and speak in terms that you can understand.

The word “different” is powerful when used in this context. Different is a good thing when it means ease instead of frustration or unique instead of plain. Wield this word wisely.

7. Everyone Loves a Catchy Headline

Sometimes you can really nail that first impression with something simple and memorable. The site above uses the phrase “contagiously creative.” It’s an alliteration so it rolls off the tongue nicely, it speaks to what the company does and even hints at the idea of viral-style marketing that catches on and spreads quickly. That’s a lot to say in two words.

Obviously, you need more than this but starting off strong is a good way to pull people in and make them like the personality of your site and in turn your company.

8. The Proof Is In the Work

Big talk is all well and fine but ultimately visitors want to see your work to see if you can live up to your promises. Make sure first that you have great examples and that you’re showing them off front and center. Then work on some copy that makes it clear that you’re proud of this work.

The example above hits commandment five and then moves quickly into the statement, “Let our delivered projects do the rest of the talking.” This tells me that they are completely confident that once I see their work I’ll want to hire them. Setting up this expectation is a self-fulfilling prophecy that helps ensure its own success.

Obviously, if your work is crap, this technique will backfire. But that’s another article entirely.

9. It’s Not All About You

One pitfall that’s really easy to fall into, especially when creating a personal freelance website, is talking all about yourself. This is who I am, here’s what I’m good at, me me me, I I I.

A solid way to grab someone’s attention is to start talking about them. Use language that’s personal and helps communicate the idea that you’ll take the time to create a customized solution that’s perfectly tailored for their needs.

In the example above I circled the appearances of the words “you” and “your” to get you to see how much effort this copywriter put into making the copy all about the client’s needs.

10. Seal the Deal

After the client has seen your work and heard your spiel, it’s time to convince them to reach out and contact you. As a designer, you handle this by making sure your contact form is easy to find and easy to use. Many put it right on their home page.

As a copywriter, you need to write something that encourages action and effectively helps ease the tension and trepidation when it comes to taking that first step. The copy in Malaku’s form above is a great example of how to do it right. It turns the focus back to the client and lowers barriers by encouraging you to make contact regardless of whether or not you really know what you need yet. The tone is friendly and approachable and genuinely makes me want to proceed.

Conclusion

We designers are too often art nerds who think that fancy design is all you need to win clients. In truth, how you present yourself in copy is often just as important.

The next time you overhaul your freelance site, come back to this article and use the ten tips above as a checklist for writing copy that will be effective in convincing clients that they should be eager and excited to have you working as their designer.

Title Image Soure: John Taylor

Today we’ll show you how to wield Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions to better tailor your designs to different cultures through a basic understanding of the values that they tend to pursue.

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Thinking Globally

source: Kenneth Lu

There are many designers who have the benefit of designing websites and marketing materials that are specifically targeted at their own cultures. If you’re an American born citizen designing for an American audience, you have the benefit of a lifetime of experience with this culture that you can leverage in both your visual and written communication. You know what makes Americans tick, what offends and shocks them, and what grabs their attention.

However, there are countless designers who have no such luck. The Internet has made a big world very small and designing for a global audience is a trend that will only continue to increase as the web climbs higher into the realms of ubiquity.

The problem is an obvious one: How do you design for cultures that you don’t understand?

Design Gone Wrong: An All Too Common Tale

A team under the control of a colleague of mine working on a university web page once featured a photograph of skulls from the anthropology department right next to a cover story about a group of people from a specific religion and culture that found the image to be highly offensive. As Americans, the team knew other Americans would have no problems with the content and would even be drawn to its bizarre nature. Unfortunately, the team had no idea that the image would alienate another group that the page was meant to highlight.

This makes clear the types of problems that will arise if you begin to design for different cultures without understanding them.

Let’s Be Realistic

There are two important points that I want to make about the story above. The first is that the job of a global designer goes way beyond choosing color palettes and typefaces. You may not have majored in global business, world religion or human psychology but these facets and more will suddenly make their way into your daily routine.

The second point that I want to make is that you can’t please everyone. The project in the example above was aimed at trying to please multiple groups with completely separate ideals and goals. This is the hardest task of all and can require a nearly impossible juggling act and enough office politics to make your head hurt.

In all honesty, whether you’re designing for one hundred cultures or only one, you can’t possibly do enough research to catch every little faux pas before it occurs. There are a million different factors to take into account and as a designer or head of a creative team it’s nearly impossible to figure out where to start.

Fortunately, there are powerful theories, studies and indices in place that greatly simplify this problem by creating easy to understand archetypes and constructs that you can apply to your global projects that target specific groups. One of the most helpful and comprehensive of these is Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, which is the focus of today’s discussion.

Geert Hofstede

Geert Hofstede is a Dutch social psychologist and anthropologist who created a model for understanding how values are influenced by culture. This model, originally released in 1980, has received plenty of criticism over the years and is most definitely not perfect, but it’s still one of the most comprehensive and relied upon systems for this topic in place today.

You’ll find this subject matter as a primary theme in global business and marketing university courses everywhere. As a designer, it can open your eyes to the types of considerations that your team should take into account when working with different cultures.

Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

globe source: Riley Kaminer

Over the years Hofstede has studied and collected data from over 70 different cultures and regions to assess how their values differ. The current version of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions includes six different points of measure.

Each of these is explained below in extremes but keep in mind that there is a continuum and a given country can fall anywhere on the line between the two (read more about these here and here).

Power Distance Index: Equality vs. Inequality

The PDI measures the degree to which a culture accepts the divide of power. Some cultures are prone towards opinions of equality regardless of position, people share the idea that even lower level employees and economically challenged individuals have the right to be heard and make a difference. Other cultures embrace hierarchy to a greater degree and accept the differences of position between those with more power and those with less.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Individualism measures how much emphasis is placed on individual achievement and responsibility. Some cultures (those with an emphasis on collectivism) are more prone to work and live in groups where credit for both success and failure is shared. You’re important because you’re part of something greater than yourself. When making decisions, you consider the group before your own selfish priorities.

By contrast, individualist societies praise individual achievement and responsibility. Your success or failure is largely in your own hands and you’re expected to live and work for the most part with your own personal interests being help above those of others.

Uncertainty Avoidance Index: Uncertainty Avoidance vs Tolerance

The UAI is all about measuring a culture’s tolerance of ambiguity. Some cultures tend to operate much better when ambiguity is low, everything is clearly structured and planned out with uniformly application rules and laws. Others thrive in environments where constructs are looser and less rigid. Change is embraced as a positive thing and rules are fewer and more flexible.

Masculinity vs. Femininity

Did you know that cultures as a whole can be regarded as masculine or feminine? To understand this, think about the traits usually attached to each word.

Masculine cultures value ambition, competition, power and attribute success to material wealth. Feminine cultures on the other hand value relationships and quality of life. Feminine cultures typically have much less defined gender roles whereas masculine cultures tend to clearly divide tasks performed by males and females.

Long-Term Orientation: Temporal Orientation

You can probably see this one operating on the micro level with several people you know. Some people and cultures look to and place emphasis on the future while others learn from the past while focusing on the present. As you can imagine, long-term countries promote saving and planning for the future while short-term cultures focus on today’s obligations and respecting long held traditions.

Indulgence vs. Restraint

You can easily imagine how this one works. Some cultures are very keen on promoting self-indulgence while others hold social norms and restraints in high regard. For instance, in the city of Amsterdam, marijuana use and prostitution are decriminalized and quite publicly accepted. It’s safe to say that this culture falls more towards the indulgence side of the spectrum.

Who Cares?

The content above reads woefully close to a college textbook so I hope that I haven’t bored you too much. The real interesting bit comes when you take a culture that you’re expected to design for and check its score for the various dimensions.

By learning where on the continuum a country falls for each of the measures above, you can make informed decisions about how to proceed with producing designs that will actively engage and resonate with that audience.

Some Examples

Let’s see how this is put into practice shall we? Say we’re designing a website for some product that promises professional success. Perhaps something for an online training course or a recruitment agency. Should you use the same graphics and messaging for the American site and the Chinese site?

If we check the scores for America, we can see that they score very high in the individualism category. In fact, it’s their most prominent dimension. This tells us that Americans might respond well to images of strong, successful individuals that suggest innovation, leadership and other qualities. You might grab an image like the one below, which evokes personal achievement and a sort of lone wolf style.

source: Daniel Zedda

However, when you look at China’s score on the same measure, you see that individualism is their lowest dimension. In fact, they rank lower than any other Asian country in this measure. This might lead you to choose images that depict a group setting or at least two individuals or more working together.

source: Allen Sima

Another easy target for design consideration is masculinity vs. femininity (we’ll explore this more in a future article). If you’re designing a vehicle advertisement for Germans, their high masculinity score might lead you to emphasize speed and the competitive element of owning a nicer car than your colleagues.

However, Finland is far more towards the feminine side of the spectrum so for them you might create an ad that shows a couple or family enjoying life and each other’s company as a result of the spacious new vehicle.

Conclusion

I’m a firm believer that what we think of as boring, stuffy marketing principles are in reality fascinating psychological studies that can help make you a better designer. Whether you work with another department who takes care of this kind of logic for you or not, gaining and wielding this understanding could significantly improve the effectiveness of your globally distributed designs and even help further your career. Designers with solid marketing knowledge are primed for management positions (that’s me appealing to the individualists out there).

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think of all this. Have you ever embarked on a design project for a culture that wasn’t your own? How did you approach it? Will this information prove helpful in the future?

For anybody in the industry it’s absolutely essential to understand task management. Timing, repetition, sleep, nutrition, and a lot of other factors play a role in your work attitude. And by synchronizing yourself with natural rhythms and an upbeat schedule you’ll feel more productive throughout the day.

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Take on Reasonable Hours

When you have the time to spare, ambition can often get the best of your judgement. It often seems worthwhile to land another couple gigs for the extra money. Even if your schedule is booked solid, you can stay up all night! Right?

This system of workflow will slowly degrade your inspiration. It’s simply too much to handle at once. I recommend sticking with 1-3 fair-sized projects monthly until you feel comfortable juggling more. Depending on the type of work (web design, jQuery dev, logo graphics) you may even find it difficult to land continuous work.

Unfortunately the Internet is a crowded ecosystem and there are a lot of great freelancers out there. But the global demand for web and graphic design is huge. When work slows down, you will often find those extra side-projects to check back on, still just waiting for a designer. But initially it’s best to limit yourself and avoid spreading yourself paper thin.

In Daily Routine, Practice makes Perfect

If you have a feeling that your work schedule is uncomfortable or stressful you are most likely correct. Some designers never take a step back to really examine how they are spending each day. When efficiency is money, it’s important to keep a task list.

When drafting something, don’t feel chained into this schedule as a contract. Instead loosely base your week around 4-6 days of work, depending on project due dates. Each week try to plan for a small series of tasks to get done and jot down a couple for each day. It’s better to make this underwhelming than overwhelming since you can always spend extra time working!

Once you have an idea of how much coding and designing you can realistically accomplish in one hour, workflow seemingly becomes more fluid. You will naturally feel the urge to take breaks, grab some food, and over time this becomes a device to manage how far along each task has progressed. Remember it’s not about meticulously following through on schedule, but rather easing into work that you will feel accomplished having completed by quitting time.

It may seem weird shifting from digital format into writing down your tasks. If you’d rather work on the computer please check this great collection of 10 time management tools all based online. It’s a much simpler and a lot less messy in comparison to the ancient paper and pencil.

Honesty is the Best Policy

Each new prospective client you meet is an opportunity for a strong business relationship in the future. And each client you speak with will also want to know how long it’s going to take you to complete their work. This may seem redundant, but you should spend a bit of time considering the answers here. Always try to shoot high and if things wrap up early it’s a happy surprise.

Also take note that if things are falling behind it’s best to bring it up with the client sooner than later. We are just people, after all. We can only do so much work in a day, as freelancing can get the best and worst of us. Honesty is always the best option; contact the client and try to explain the scenario, and maybe extend the dates for a more reasonable time. As you build a portfolio and complete more work, it will become clearer as to how long a project should take.

Micro out of the Macro

You may have heard about breaking down larger tasks into smaller tasks. This is routinely suggested for artists and digital professionals so as not to get bogged down by the weight of everything. After a while you may realize how big your work has gotten, how many projects you’ve created and launched online.

If you can keep your focus laser-tight on the current project then you’ll never go awry. It’s great to reminisce, but when you sit down to work, keep complete focus within those moments. If you have trouble with this we should look back to writing the tasks list. Only this time instead of sorting by date let’s try a bulleted list format.

Using sub-lists within each project to define steps along the way is the best way to simplify your work life. These steps shouldn’t be anything more than a couple work hours so you can check off a couple of them throughout the day. I have included an example task below which could even be considered as a sub-task underneath a whole web branding project.

• Design New Corporate Logo (5-7 days)
• Sketch or brainstorm 3-5 solid ideas
• Mock up a few as vectors, layers, and ultimately select down to 2-3
• Send out to client and await response
• After final selection go back to add color, texture
• Re-size and export in PSD, AI, and PNG. Immediately e-mail out contents in zip archive to client and copy in project head

Use Your Innovation

In the art of freelancing, we all need to play by the rules. I suppose in this fashion you could look at projects as more of a game than an art form. But you don’t have to struggle with design and code in the same ways the internet suffered 10 years ago.

In today’s global society we have access to practically endless knowledge at the touch of our finger tips. Google has quite literally revolutionized the way we all are living. And this is the same case for freelancers of all calibre. I recommend doing a bit of research on new projects you land. Hit Google and see if you can find any open source platforms, free graphics or icons to possibly match a design theme.

Innovation is something designers are overwhelmed with. Nothing is too “outside the box” and you can always give a new idea one decent try. If you can keep this attitude to explore and try new things with your routine, you’ll gradually develop some time-saving habitual behavior. Always keep your mind open to new ideas because these can earn and save you a lot of money in the long run.

Conclusion

Web designers and developers are more in-demand than we have ever seen. Along with the bouts of angel investing and unique startup ideas, we are seeing a exponential growth of websites and data collection. With these tips mentioned above you should easily hold a level head throughout your design career.

Freelancing is possibly the most rewarding work experience. You can work in absolute comfort from home, doing work you enjoy, creating beautiful digital artwork all on your own hours!

Yet with this lifestyle comes a burden of responsibility to accomplish tasks and meet deadlines. If you have your own strategies for managing freelance projects we’d love to hear your thoughts in the discussion area below.

For the average webmaster these tools provide a very powerful and free resource to setup as your backend. Google can be used to fuel your company and track visitor stats, revenue, plus tons of other metrics! We have gone over some of the most prosperous services and how you may benefit from them. With just a single Google account you have access to all of their apps completely 100% free. Talk about a sweet business deal.

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Google Webmail

Most people get started using Google Accounts in Gmail. Upon signing up you get your own e-mail address and a personal inbox for your stuff. But Google also includes a few extra tools – namely a contacts book and tasks list. These are great for managing the many details you have to juggle as a digital professional.

As you e-mail back and forth contacts are automatically saved into the address book. You can add further details and export the database to another system such as Outlook or Mac OS X. Additionally these contacts will carry over from Gtalk buddies who you can add in the left sidebar of Gmail.

By default GTalk is enabled on all new profiles. Since some conversations better handled instantly, this is a meaningful alternative to e-mail in some cases. But you do have the option to turn this off at the very bottom of the inbox pane. And since Gchat can run through any 3rd party Jabber client, you can actually use Talk for IM and setup Gmail solely for messages!

As if all this isn’t enough you can also attach personal POP/IMAP e-mails to your account. Such as if you have myname@designshack.net Google will pull from your web server and download all new messages right within Gmail. This completely streamlines your workflow for checking e-mail messages in more than a few websites.

Business Documents

The cloud has become a popular resort for digital works. And Google is thinking the same way by constructing Google Docs to run within your browser window. This means Microsoft Word has a tough competitor for document processing.

Google Docs actually includes the tools to create spreadsheets and presentations as well. This makes collaboration between partners and groups extremely simple. Everything is stored remotely within your Google account on their external servers. However you always have the option to backup a copy of your file and download locally to your hard disk.

The apps feature a fully-equipped toolbar with all the formatting options you would expect. Documents can be shared with contacts or even just by e-mail address. By default everything you create is private, but you can include a party of friends to leave comments and edit content. I find that Google has become the best alternative for creating professional docs, all of which are stored securely within my own account.

Google+ Network

There have been plenty of opinions about the new Google social network. This incorporates everybody who has been using Google into one Facebook-esque news feed. At first it seems like a social networking app for techies, which to an extent is very true. But there can be a lot of business done here as well.

The root URL is http://plus.google.com which either redirects to your home or will display a sign-in page. When you add friends into GTalk you can access a full menu by default on the Google Plus homepage. This is an alternative to using Gmail, where now you can separate e-mails from live chats.

But Google+ also has something called a Hangout where you invite multiple friends to chat via web cam. Of course this is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family around the world. But why not hold business meetings from within Google+? Many users don’t understand GTalk or don’t have the proper plugins for video chatting.

Planning your Calendar

The all new Google Calendar actually features some really fun new tools. Firstly the tasks list from Gmail is tied into the sidebar by default. So in here you can set a specific day and time to have something completed, and even tie in a reminder through Google.

Most of the major holidays are added into the calendar right when you sign up. Everything is fairly straightforward to understand if you’ve used a calendar system before. I personally don’t use this app all too much since I use my physical wall calendar at home. But Google Cal gives you the opportunity to separate your personal and business life with ease.

Traffic Analytics

Google Analytics is easily the most popular and dedicated website analytics software to date. Webmasters would be foolish to use anything else since Google is both free and always reliable. The service will archive all of your numbers for years to come and you may compare trends over time.

Additionally, when you create a new website profile you may include other administrators on the account. This means you and a few friends can login to your own Google accounts and still check the same analytics data. In this way it’s possible to keep tabs on ten or even one hundred different website brands!

Google Webmasters tools is another directory full of helpful apps. This doesn’t tie into your Analytics settings, but you can get better search engine rankings by following a few suggestions. This set of tools is made for beginners and should be dead simple to get running on your site. The most important type of visitor is organic through a keyword search. So I definitely recommend webmaster tools to increase your rankings quickly.

Conclusion

There are so many other things Google can offer, it’s really hard to expand on them all. You can also become distracted from work through these many outlets. So be cautious of your time and start slow if you’re new to Google.

Depending on the type of business you run, some of these apps may feel a bit pointless. But that is the great part of Google since the whole development community is open to all career types. Maybe only a few webmasters will use the Google Blogger service, but mostly all digital professionals can find a use in Gmail. Keep this in mind as you explore other neat features Google has to offer, and let us know your thoughts in the discussion area below.

Do you think a designer should be asked to prove himself/herself before being hired? Is this debate an example of employers going too far or designers not willing to go far enough? Let’s find out.

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A Little Logic in an Emotional Debate

A few years ago, with the rise of a few web services built on the idea of having designers compete over work, the great spec work war came into being. This time honored tradition of clients scoring work for free or very little was thrust into the light like never before.

Countless designers came to the conclusion that spec work is truly an evil thing aimed directly at ruining the design industry. Many other designers hunkered down and tried to avoid being noticed as they actively and covertly engaged in such activities.

It seems we have grown fairly tired of the debate and moved onto more important topics like whether or not responsive designs are better than fluid designs, but designers are still left with a hot coal in their chest that ignites furiously once again any time they see or hear anything that remotely resembles spec work.

This has resulted in perfectly legitimate practices being openly lashed for joining the dark side and seeking the destruction of designers everywhere. It’s time to calm down, take a step back and analyze what spec work is, why we don’t like it and most importantly, why you should stop freaking out any time someone suggests that a designer must prove his worth.

What Is Spec Work?

We need to start this discussion with a basic definition of terms. This is the most crucial point of the debate as it seems to be the part that is most often misstated.

Speculative work, shortened to “spec work,” refers to the practice of performing work for a client without pay with the hope that they will like it enough to actually purchase it.

Speck work essentially takes the balance of the client/designer relationship and tips the scale entirely in favor of the client. You as the designer are completely at the client’s mercy and are spending valuable time and effort working without pay.

Clients can and do often request several changes, tweaks and redesigns, all without paying for them and without any commitment that they will indeed purchase the work. Too many times, this leads to a designer looking back over hours and hours of wasted time that led to nothing profitable. The whole time the client just stood over them dangling money that they never intended to deliver.

Crowdsourcing

In the case of “crowdsourcing,” there are several designers competing for a single job and are asked to produce a partial or even fully finished version of the design. In the example below, CrowdSpring members enter their competing logo designs into the contest. The winner will be chosen by the client and paid the preset prize money. All other entrants will not be compensated.

The competition here is quite fierce and incredibly underhanded. You can almost always find a talented designer who submitted a truly original idea that the client showed interested in, who is then ripped off directly by other competitors who make good on someone else’s concept and creativity.

There are definitely plenty of legitimate players in crowd sourcing competitions but rest assured that the real bottom feeders find a very happy home here. CrowsdSpring and others could fix much of this by simply not allowing an entrant to see the work of others, but since they directly benefit from this shady activity, they let it go on.

The Kicker: It’s Real Work

The interesting distinction to note here is that this is real work. It is not a sample project meant to showcase a designer’s strengths and weaknesses, it’s the client possessing and utilizing an unfair amount of leverage over the designer so that their own terms are met.

The ultimate result can’t be anything but underpaid labor. As a staunch free market capitalist I firmly believe in competition but this is not “healthy” competition. A row of restaurants on the same street is healthy competition. This is akin to those restaurants being forced to give their food away free to every passerby while being rarely paid and even then at a price completely at the discretion of the eater.

Another important thing to note is that much spec work is focused on the product, not the designer. You’re not being evaluated for your skill, you’re not earning your way into a promising career, you’re merely a salesman trying to peddle your custom-built wares. Even if the client purchases it, the relationship often ceases there.

Carsonified: Design Something & Win a Job!

I’ve written about Carsonified and Think Vitamin founder Ryan Carson’s hiring practices before. I see this company as an innovative leader in a new world where fluffed up paper resumes mean nothing in light of actual talent. In fact, when Think Vitamin and/or Carsonified is hiring, they have a strict policy against resumes. They simply don’t want to see them!

Ryan Carson and his gang are at it again. Earlier this month they posted a job opening on their blog. The position is for a remote full-time designer at a whopping $80,000 per year. To sweeten the deal even further, Think Vitamin employees work 9am-6pm four days per week while getting paid for a five day workweek! If you think this sounds like a dream job, you’re right, it is.

Without a resume to go from, how is Carsonified going to choose a candidate for a dream job? Via a competition! They gave designers a sample project by asking them to design a dashboard for their life and gave some specific parameters for what has to be included. The designer with the best design gets the job.

Revolt Via Comments

It wasn’t long before some designers started to look at this with a suspicious eye. In fact, the comment section of the post quickly filled with outrage and indignation was.

Isn’t this spec work? How could a company with such a good reputation be engaging in such an outright evil practice? We expect more from you Carsonified! On and on it goes.

I can easily see where the confusion lies. This admittedly sort of feels no different from CrowdSpring right? A bunch of designers are spending time and effort on work that they won’t get paid for, only one of which will get anything in return. Grab your pitchforks boys, it’s time to kill this monster.

Not so fast though, these conclusions are in reality way off base. When in doubt about whether something is or isn’t spec work, check the motives of the client. Are they attempting to score some work for free or illegitimately drive down the price of labor?

The answer is a firm and resounding “no.” Th project to be worked upon is merely a sample. Carsonified didn’t ask entrants to give them a free new design for their site. They made something up so designers could showcase their talent. The bottom line is, Carsonified doesn’t really benefit from getting cheap design labor!

Further, not only are they not driving down the cost of design work, they’re actually offering up a job with a dang good starting salary and some unbeatable perks.

A Singing Competition

One of the more interesting arguments in the Carsonified job comments related to whether or not it’s a good thing to hire people for design work like you’re choosing contestants in a singing competition. This is an interesting metaphor that’s worth exploring.

The thing to remember is that when you hire a designer, you’re someone hiring for a creative position. The success of this person at your company depends largely upon whether or not they can do the kind of work you want them to. Resumes are notoriously bad predictors of this type of success. Who cares where you went to school or even where you worked before? What matters is whether or not you can design what needs to be designed. Even past work portfolios prove to be a poor indicator of current skill. Many designers are far better than their portfolios give them credit for, others are far worse.

The singing metaphor works. If you were going to hire a singer for your band, odds are you wouldn’t ask to see a resume. Instead you’d hand the person a microphone and ask them to sing! There’s after all only one way to judge a singer: letting them sing. Doesn’t it make sense then that the best way to judge designers is by letting them sing? Isn’t the true value of someone’s creative talent best assessed by simply letting them show off?

This can be carried over to countless other fields. Would you hire a public speaker without hearing them speak or a dancer without seeing them dance? Even my wife, a teacher, has to go in and teach a real class while being observed before being considered for a position.

Why Are Designers Better Than Everyone Else?

Back to the singing competition. If this was indeed how you were trying out potential band members, would the entrants have the right to be indignant? What if one of them said that you had no right to hear them sing before you agreed to make them your band leader? Would you laugh them off the stage? Of course you would!

Somehow designers are better though. For whatever reason, our time is worth more than the singer’s and we shouldn’t have to stoop down to the level of proving our talent. The world of potential clients should look at our resumes and portfolios without a doubt as to the authenticity of either. After all, no designer has ever claimed work that wasn’t his own or made himself look a little better on paper than in reality! We should be hired without question, without proving ourselves. Why? Because spec work is evil!

Do you see how little sense this makes? I wish this argument were hyperbole, but it’s not. Unfortunately, it’s exactly how a large part of the design community seems to feel about itself.

Underlying this of course is a strong sense of insecurity. Some commenters actually went so far as to say that it wasn’t worth their time to enter because they never win these types of things. As if that’s the fault of the potential employer! If I as a designer never stand out from the crowd enough to be chosen as the best, then odds are I’m a pretty average designer.

Know Your Roots

What many web designers don’t know is that this is how the design industry has operated for decades, long before they ever came onto the scene. And in continues to operate that way today.

Let’s say a big company like Johnson & Johnson wants to hire a new company to redesign their brand image. Do you think they start looking at resumes? Nope, instead what they do is put out an “RFP” or a “Request for Proposal.” This outlines essentially what they want and how to apply.

Top name firms like BBDO and Chiat Day see that Johnson & Johnson put out the RFP and go into overdrive. There’s a lot of potential work at stake here so everyone whips up some fancy early stage concepts. These concepts almost never represent what will finally be delivered and are more of a statement of “here’s what we’re capable of producing.” The biggest part of the proposal is often not even the creative but the bid that says how much you’ll do the work for. The agency with the combination of the best work and most affordable bid wins, the others go back to their existing clients and discuss how to do better next time.

Unlike CrowdSpring, bidders are blind. They can’t see and ripoff the work of other agencies nor can they offer up a number that they know is lower than their competitor’s. They can only give it their best and hope that they’re good enough.

What’s really crazy is that Johnson & Johnson may do this even if they already have an agency, and they’ll allow that agency to enter! Every few years that design team has to re-prove itself in order to keep the business by beating out the competition yet again.

I’m not saying that every individual designer should be hired in such a way, they shouldn’t. However, before critiquing what you think to be a new fad bent on ruining the design industry, it’s worth knowing your history and how somewhat similar practices actually built an age where being a “graphic designer” was a great job.

Conclusion

This discussion is meant to get you to question your short fuse when it comes to anything that seems related to spec work. It’s meant to help you tell the difference between clients who want to take advantage of designers and good companies like Carsonified who’re offering up great opportunities to those willing to prove themselves. Finally, it’s meant to reign in the notion that designers are somehow more important than every other person in every other creative profession where you actually have to show that you’re good at something before being paid to do it.

I’m confident that many of you reading this are nodding your heads in agreement while plenty of others are fuming. Feel free to keep the debate going in the comments below. How do you feel about the Carsonified contest? Do you really believe it’s an underhanded and seedy tactic aimed at screwing designers over or is it a decent alternative to tired resume-based practices?

What one thing above all else makes for a great design? Where should your focus lie? More importantly, is it possible or even desirable to focus on a single goal at the expense of others?

Today we’ll take a look at why goal-oriented design is good design and discuss how being a designer means weighing several competing factors. We’ll also discuss how to decide which goals are the most important and how establishing a hierarchy for each project will make for a better experience for the client, the user and the designer.

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The Magic Formula

There’s constant debate in the design community over what the primary idea, principle or tactic is for creating “great” designs. What sets the work of real design rockstars apart from the rest of us? We tend to want some magic formula that says, “Follow these steps and you’ll have success every time.”

I don’t possess such a formula, nor do I believe one even exists. However, I am a major proponent of “goal-oriented” design and speak about this quite often. I think the difference between a good design and a bad design is that a good one meets its goals and a bad one does not. Often a “bad” design is even the result of having followed no clear goals in the first place.

Accepting this premise still doesn’t get us very far. Our conversation has merely shifted from what makes a great design to what makes a great goal. Too often I see this discussion forcefully whittled down to a single principle. What should a designer focus on? Aesthetics or Usability? The client or the user? As if being a designer merely involves picking one major goal and sticking to it.

Design is Like Golf

This problem is a lot like that of hitting a golf ball and having it land anywhere near where you want it to (which I’m incapable of doing). If you’ve never played golf or even been to a driving range, then you’re quite sure there’s just one primary task: hit the ball. You’re likely to think that your primary goal is centered on one thing: strength. Hit the ball as hard as you can so it will go as far as possible.

However, when you actually play golf with an instructor telling you how to master a swing, you see that it’s much more complicated that that! You have to stand the right way, hold your arms just so as you bring the club back, avoid twisting your body as you bring the club down, transition seamlessly through various parts of the swing, have just the right amount of follow through, it goes on and on. What seems like it should be a fairly simple task turns into a vastly complicated series of instructions and goals that you might get right only one out of a hundred times.

Design is the same way. Trying to find that one magic thing that will make it all work is as silly as thinking that simply swinging your hardest will result in a beautiful straight shot up the fairway. Instead, you need to focus on a myriad of goals, assigning various degrees of priority to each with the ultimate end being that perfect swing.

Not All Goals Are Created Equal

It would be easy to just say that you need to consider all goals equally for a well rounded design, but let’s face it, real world projects afford you no such luxury.

The age old designer aphorism often holds a lot of truth: “Good, fast or cheap; pick two.” These goals are a bit oversimplified, but this immediately communicates that there is indeed a limit to the goals that we can achieve in a given effort.

So given a finite amount of time and resources, how should we establish our goals and which are the most important? The problem seems to lend itself to a hierarchical structure. When you have multiple goals competing for your attention, the simple solution is to list them out in order of importance. Before discussing which goals belong at the top of the hierarchy, let’s discuss what type of goals you should be establishing for a design.

Stakeholders Lead to Goals

The first thing I like to do to establish some base level goals is to think of the involved parties and their interests. For instance, a given project is often associated with a client who of course already has a group of goals in mind.

Client Goals

That client has various needs and wants to keep in mind. The design often needs to accurately represent the company or brand, encourage users to take action, meet important deadlines and stay within the established budget.

User Goals

The ultimate user (interactive design) or viewer (static deign) carries another very important set of goals. This is where usability and UX come into play. The user wants everything to work fluidly, the communication line to be clear, and for effort to be minimized.

Designer Goals

Yes, we designers typically have goals in mind as well. You can deny it, but you’re probably lying. Better to be honest and get your own goals out in the open so you can decide whether or not they are worth pursuing. This can be anything from trying a new design style that you’ve been itching to pull out or earning some recognition for working with a major client. Your own goals really need to be evaluated in light of the previous two vested parties as they can often conflict.

Conflict Defines Hierarchy

As indicated in the previous statement, the key to establishing your hierarchy is to consider who wins in an argument. If a conflict arises, which goal will ultimately be pursued? Odds are, whether you like it or not, the client goals sit on the top of this hierarchy. I personally love to hold the user up as the person to ascribe to please, but ultimately, I’ve been hired by someone to do what they ask so my main concern is respecting that agreement.

Rogue designers that hold what they imagine to be the user’s needs above those of the people who write the checks often translates to designers who rip off their clients and earn a bad reputation.

Imagine you pulled up to a fast food drive through and ordered your son a cheeseburger Happy Meal. Then you get to the window and the guy behind the counter has decided that kids like chicken nuggets better. Armed with his superior knowledge, he gives you nuggets instead in the name of having your child’s interests at heart. You’d probably be irate right? It’s your money, your kid; if you pay for a cheeseburger, you had better get one!

Of course, ideal clients make user goals high on their own list of goals, which makes things considerably easier. However, when there is a conflict, remember the hierarchy.

Each Project Requires a Unique Hierarchy

Remember that the client, user and designer hierarchy above just defines general categories of goals, not the goals themselves. This is simply a device to help you think of goals for the design and provide insight for how to order them in light of other goals.

The reality is that each and every project requires a custom and unique hierarchy to be established. For instance, one popular goal for web designers right now is “Responsive Design.” Many love this method so much that they would suggest that it take a permanent position at the top of your goal hierarchy.

However, a given client may have zero interest in pursuing mobile users at this juncture. Or perhaps they already have a custom mobile app and don’t want to pay you to cater to their mobile users. This is a case where your concern for the user might lose to a client’s iron will.

Conversely, maybe your client is completely sold on Responsive Design and actually wants it to be a top priority. This sets up a different goal structure than the last project.

Conclusion:

Start Every Design with a Rough Goal Hierarchy

The point of all this is to illustrate that one size doesn’t fit all in the case of goal-oriented design. I can’t give you a clearly delineated list of goals that you can then apply to every project.

If you want to be a “great” designer, then start each project not in Photoshop but with a plain old pen and piece of paper. List out some goals for the design then attempt to order them while considering the client, user, designer relationship. Once you’re finished, go over this conceptual approach with your clients. They’ll likely be amazed that you’re being so thorough and will be eager to help you tweak that hierarchy to something they can get on board with.

After this is finished, you’ll be infinitely more prepared to create something that is as effective as possible. Further, having a list of agreed upon goals in place will help you defend your position on a given conflict. If a client gives you random direction that strays from the path, you can pull out the goal hierarchy that was already agreed upon and show how you’re attempting to make sure the end result follows this plan.

Image Credits: Dan Zen, Harald MM and Horia Varlan.