From the course: Cert Prep: Adobe Certified Professional - Photoshop

Communication and project management - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Cert Prep: Adobe Certified Professional - Photoshop

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Communication and project management

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- [Instructor] Good communication skills are essential for graphic designers since they need to understand the wishes of their clients, develop ideas with coworkers, and turn feedback into results that work for everyone. That's why one of the objectives on the ACP exam is about communication. So let's look at some key terms related to communicating design plans. First, let's talk about a design brief, also called a creative brief. This is a document created by the designer after the initial communications with the client. It spells out the expectations for the work in terms of what is to be delivered also called deliverables and the schedule, budget, and scope of the project. It can also include information like the target audience and spell out the approval process. The client and the designer both sign off on the brief to indicate they agree with what's in it and this is a way of keeping everyone accountable. The brief may include or be followed by a sketch or a mockup. This is a rough illustration used to communicate your ideas to the client early in the design process. Sketches are by definition simple and they don't include real information that could be distracting. They use placeholders for text and images to force people to focus on the overall concept and direction of the work not the content. Next is specifications or specs. These are the technical requirements for the agreed upon deliverables. So for example, the client may require that all of your images be four inches by six inches in landscape orientation and 300 pixels per inch resolution. Or that a logo you're designing use a specific spot color ink. Wire frames are visual guides that represent the basic structure of a design. They act like blueprints for building websites and apps. They show the user interface and how it connects to the underlying data, including the arrangement and behavior of each element in the design. Like sketches, wire frames are not formatted with the colors, fonts, and graphics that you intend to use in the final product. They show how things are supposed to work not what they'll look like in the end. Prototypes are used further along in the design process. A prototype can be formatted to look like the final product, and if it's for a website or app, it can include live interactivity or it might just be a detailed image with annotations and labels describing that interactivity. Prototypes are also used for print projects. For example, you could create a prototype of packaging using 3D software or you could create a prototype of sample pages for a book design. Iterations or drafts are successive versions of design as it evolves from the first sketch to the final look and feel. Each one is shown to the client with a request for feedback. And the feedback loop is the two-way communication between the designer and the client where each round of feedback helps to guide the development of the design. Project scope is what defines the boundaries of the project. It spells out the expectations for what needs to be done. So for example, if your project goal is to create a magazine template, the scope will say how many different page types you're responsible for designing. Scope creep occurs when the client adds additional requests for new work that are outside the original agreed upon scope for the project. For example, they might ask for additional versions of a design in extra sizes, color variations, or languages. You could be asked to deliver videos or presentation files that the client can use to demonstrate a new design in meetings. Or the client might ask you to deliver extra formats like an ebook in addition to a printed version. Scope creep can be a threat to the success of a project since it's adding work that was not planned for when schedules and budgets were made. And finally, we have change order. This is a document that you as the designer, create and deliver to the client when they ask you for changes that are outside the original project scope. It's your weapon against scope creep. In the change order, you lay out how much more time and money will be required to make the client's requested changes and the client needs to agree to these terms before the work on the changes begins. So that's a look at some key terms for communicating about design plans with peers and clients.

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