When working with graphic designers, I often come across the request to provide exact details, including exact written content. And there’s a problem with this.
Question can be asked “What is the exact content you want on this design? And at what sizes”?
And the best answer is, “It depends” and “What do you think?”.
As a client, it’s beneficial to avoid being fixed on the precise specifications and parameters of a design spec.
As designers, we should suggest the content and design decisions based on the purpose, context and placement of the graphics. For web, one of the biggest factors is Responsive Design and the medium it’s on (e.g. website banner, Facebook, Google).
Fill In The Gaps
A good “spec” is important. It’s good to provide plenty of info about key content, key messaging, terms and conditions, asset sizes, mediums to display on, and examples of all our previous work.
But certain specs for a promo graphic should remain open and are dependant on factors like placement, context and purpose – questions a designer is probably best to provide solutions to.
Some of the right settings can only be found by starting the design process, and feeding back on the suggested parameters and constraints, and working with real examples. Some assets might have room for more content, and others less.
And this is why a complete/exact spec is not the best way to get great designs. It’s also one of the most time consuming pieces of design, and something I often want the designer to own (if the aim is to reduce my own work load, otherwise it can be just effective to do the designs yourself). Designers can add lots of value by helping clients to contribute to or solve the content/wording decisions.
For a designer to contribute maximum value, they need to run with and own key design decisions, including which content diamonds to pick and show.
To do this well, designers should have…
An awareness of Responsive design
For a graphic to be effective, how many sizes should be generated. Depending on the design, it may only need one. Depending on others, you may need four – different designs. This has it’s drawbacks in terms of cost and time, but that’s when it’s important for a designer to justify decisions and think about commercial outcomes, and commination effectiveness.
Screen sizes, break points, frameworks like Bootstrap are all key things to web and ui builders. So much of a graphic’s effectiveness depends on a close connection with these mechanics.
Know fluid design concepts and the standard responsive break points (e.g Bootstrap to
An awareness of the range of placements and media (“mediums”)
Each placement demands a different set of priorities. And the design for each placement of course should echo other graphic placements, but each context may demand a different set of variables that are best determined by experimentation and decision-making from the graphic designer and not necessarily the person providing the spec.
Each placement may need differences, but similarities should flow through each. The right variations across a set of designed assets, again should be explored by a designer, and fed back to the person asking for the work.
An awareness of how to export images for web use
When Exporting, Images Should be Larger Than Their Biggest Placeholder
Images need to fit to a variety of container sizes, and should be fluidly responding to their containers. Exact sizing is not always relevant, but relative sizing is. While the dimension and proportions of graphics are important, the absolute pixel size of them is a m
Images should 2x to 1.5x bigger than the spot they they are to fill. Partly because mobile devices and tables have resolutions that make standard size images look blurry. Let the web coder compress the images to fit their container, rather than developing the image to direct size spec.
Learn and know the basics of exporting images as JPECs and when to use PNGs (transparent backgrounds etc). Compress jpegs, but not too much, so that it ruins the quality feel of the graphic.
Designers Should Be Connected to Conversion Metrics
To help with owning decisions, designers should have access to things like click throughs and conversions. It helps to take ownership and in my experience provides valuable insight in to the how-to’s of designing for interaction and engagement.
In Summary
- Know responsive design, web/media break points (e.g Bootstrap). Choose break points that work with the design. Suggest the break points a design should have based on what you think works well.
- Know when to suggest different graphics for different device sizes.
- Suggest fluid, or additional assets
- Experiment and respond on the fly to finalise the design specs
- Come back to the client with why, iterate, allow the client to see what your decisions are why, as opposed to just saying “do you like it”?
In trying to please a client, designers will ask lots of questions. But at some point a lot of it depends on responsive design, and the size and circumstance of the placement Exploring the size and placement options . The only way to answer all of the gaps is to get designing and experimenting.
Designers for web can’t just rely on ‘make it look pretty’. It’s an important part of the process to understand the dynamics and different assets required based on the campaign, and to make ongoing suggestions about how each graphic can be solved and best communicate the goals of the promo.
Happy designing!