Design has no deadline

What is a deadline? Some dictionaries say its “the latest time or date by which something should be completed.” This makes sense when you have a projects right? You have a project and you want it to be completed by a certain time. This goes back to our years of schooling where you have to turn in your projects, your reports, exams, homework, etc. Most people are not use to “design projects”, or even being around designers for that matter. We put people who are use to black and white jobs in charge of gray areas. Let me explain these gray areas.

I am a designer, who knows a lot about websites. I own a company called J 12 Designs. I was brought up in a tech company called Rackspace. This is where I learned how to build websites and how they work with servers. I left to go work at major design agencies here in San Antonio. My time on both sides of the spectrum allowed me to see how people react to various projects. I learned that when it comes to producing something that is already designed, like a website or brochure. It is very black and white. Either your programming works or it does not. Either you built the brochure in InDesign or you did not. The key is that the design was already approved and the job was to build it. The part that was the hardest was getting someone, or a group of people to all agree on the same design, at the same time. This is the gray area. Its the subjective part of the process.

I love using that word subjective. Design, art…its all subjective. A website is a work of art. Its a bunch of shapes and lines coming together to strike an emotion or encourage a behavior. Its an intricate process of using the right colors and shapes to get you to do something, or to just enjoy that experience. As an artist, its our job to create that experience. How do we get from a blank canvas to some beautiful and functional? How do you put a time limit on that?

I had a client ask me, “How did you come up with that idea?” I told him its magic. Its actually a combination of my life experiences and influences all coming together as I express myself on a digital canvas. I have no clue when I will get that great idea. I also have no clue which design my client will like, and his wife, cousin (who is the marketing manager), uncle (who is a so-called social media expert), aunt (who does not like blue for no damn reason) and the dog (who does not like things below the fold).

If you were tell me that you need a design by Friday and I deliver it. Did I meet the deadline? It was due on Friday, and I gave it to you. Are we done? We are good right? What if you don’t like it? Did I not complete the project? This is the gray area at its finest. You may have some experience that is not letting you accept the particular design that has been presented. Therefore, you do not approve it. It could be the best thing for your audience since sliced apples in Happy Meals, but you don’t want to approve it. So what is the new deadline? Lets go with next Friday. I will submit another design that you will like, but your husband does not like it (because he does not like circles). Why even have a deadline for this part of the project? Why make up some date that does not mean anything. Well, actually we could do that. We do it all the time. We make up a date that means absolutely nothing and it forces us to approve a design that we will never like, probably ending up with us redesigning the project again 3 months later.

So how do you complete projects without a deadline? Look, Im not saying that deadlines are bad. I’m making the point that there is no set amount of time on subjective designs. I suggest that you allow more time for the design part of a project and of course you can set all the deadlines you want on the production side of the equation. I want project managers to understand that everyone is not going to like something, just keep in mind what your audience wants and not your personal experiences (unless you are a good representative of the audience).
One of my clients recently asked me when this design part of the project could be done. I smiled and told her, “whenever you want it to be.”