Design proposal essentials
Monday, 4 February 2008
Acting as the client for NLC has given me an interesting perspective on what to include in a design proposal. The design proposal is often the first stage in winning a website contract. It is the introduction to your company and your abilities. As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a good first impression.
Having spent a couple of weeks evaluating a number of proposals, here are my suggestions for what to include in a good proposal.
General design
Remember you are a design company presenting a design proposal. Make sure the proposal has a good cover and binding. All images should reflect the quality of the company. The font should be clear and consistent. Well laid out and easy to read. Where possible adhere to Plain English standards. Believe it or not one of the proposals I received had a blocky, pixelated company logo and tiny font. Have a content page and page numbers for easy reference. It is not a work of art but a document that is designed to be easy to use.
Introduce yourself
Don’t assume that the client will have done their homework and found out all about you. Put in a concise introduction to your agency that details your experience and what you can offer. Be specific and name the individuals that will be working on the project and what experience they have including example websites and projects that are relevant to the client’s requirements. This is also a chance to do some cross selling on other services that you offering, eg. Information architecture, content management systems, web writing, accessibility. Make sure the main contact information is in an obvious place for the client to find. If appropriate, you may also want to list named references at this point.
Understanding the project
Include a summary of the client’s goals and objectives for the website. If you’re working from a design brief, expand on what the client has included within it to demonstrate you fully understand what they require. If you have any doubts, contact the client before producing the proposal. Communication skills will be measured on more than just the proposal document. Never just repeat back to the client what was in the brief. A cut-and-paste of the objectives never goes down well. Just like at school, put it into your words. As much as possible, demonstrate an understanding of the client and the sector they are in.
Present your designs
For initial proposal work, include the design visuals as part of the document and also make them available online, for example in a client section of your own website. This has several advantages. The client has the visuals as part of the proposal and doesn’t have to break their reading flow to view them. However, as the designs were meant to be viewed on a monitor, presenting them online allows for them to be viewed as they were meant to be. Hosting them on your website drives clients to your website to view them. This is a good thing as they may stick around and see what else is on there. Always include a design rationale that shows how you have approached the client’s requirements. Be fairly detailed on specific elements of the design and what they should achieve. Where a design brief has requested specific elements, make sure they are included and highlight this to the client. Finally, don’t be afraid to stray from what the client has asked for. However, make sure you include very good reasons for doing so. If not, stick to the brief and remind the client this is only the start of the design process, not the finished article.
Project scope, timescales and costs
Excellent design concepts will get your foot in the door, evidence of how you will build them to the required timescales will help win you the contract. Be specific, while appearing flexible, on what is included in the scope of the project. Also, detail the timescales of the project. What the phases are and what tasks they include. For example, the design phase may include discovery time, initial design, number of iterations and producing the design documentation. The development phase may include prototyping, testing, iterations and final documentation. When steps are defined in this manner then it is easy to give a cost breakdown for each. This gives the client a better idea of where their money is going. Finally, always include a note of your daily rates for any out of scope work that may be required during the project or once it is complete.
Appendices
Use an appendix to detail five or six examples of your previous work that is relevant to this project. Ideally, this will be in the form of a short case study and not just screenshots or links. Finally, use another appendix to give a summary of the copyright issues that apply to your design work plus an appropriate disclaimer.
Acting as the client for NLC has given me an interesting perspective on what to include in a design proposal. The design proposal is often the first stage in winning a website contract. It is the introduction to your company and your abilities. As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a good first impression.
Having spent a couple of weeks evaluating a number of proposals, here are my suggestions for what to include in a good proposal.
General design
Remember you are a design company presenting a design proposal. Make sure the proposal has a good cover and binding. All images should reflect the quality of the company. The font should be clear and consistent. Well laid out and easy to read. Where possible adhere to Plain English standards. Believe it or not one of the proposals I received had a blocky, pixelated company logo and tiny font. Have a content page and page numbers for easy reference. It is not a work of art but a document that is designed to be easy to use.
Introduce yourself
Don’t assume that the client will have done their homework and found out all about you. Put in a concise introduction to your agency that details your experience and what you can offer. Be specific and name the individuals that will be working on the project and what experience they have including example websites and projects that are relevant to the client’s requirements. This is also a chance to do some cross selling on other services that you offering, eg. Information architecture, content management systems, web writing, accessibility. Make sure the main contact information is in an obvious place for the client to find. If appropriate, you may also want to list named references at this point.
Understanding the project
Include a summary of the client’s goals and objectives for the website. If you’re working from a design brief, expand on what the client has included within it to demonstrate you fully understand what they require. If you have any doubts, contact the client before producing the proposal. Communication skills will be measured on more than just the proposal document. Never just repeat back to the client what was in the brief. A cut-and-paste of the objectives never goes down well. Just like at school, put it into your words. As much as possible, demonstrate an understanding of the client and the sector they are in.
Present your designs
For initial proposal work, include the design visuals as part of the document and also make them available online, for example in a client section of your own website. This has several advantages. The client has the visuals as part of the proposal and doesn’t have to break their reading flow to view them. However, as the designs were meant to be viewed on a monitor, presenting them online allows for them to be viewed as they were meant to be. Hosting them on your website drives clients to your website to view them. This is a good thing as they may stick around and see what else is on there. Always include a design rationale that shows how you have approached the client’s requirements. Be fairly detailed on specific elements of the design and what they should achieve. Where a design brief has requested specific elements, make sure they are included and highlight this to the client. Finally, don’t be afraid to stray from what the client has asked for. However, make sure you include very good reasons for doing so. If not, stick to the brief and remind the client this is only the start of the design process, not the finished article.
Project scope, timescales and costs
Excellent design concepts will get your foot in the door, evidence of how you will build them to the required timescales will help win you the contract. Be specific, while appearing flexible, on what is included in the scope of the project. Also, detail the timescales of the project. What the phases are and what tasks they include. For example, the design phase may include discovery time, initial design, number of iterations and producing the design documentation. The development phase may include prototyping, testing, iterations and final documentation. When steps are defined in this manner then it is easy to give a cost breakdown for each. This gives the client a better idea of where their money is going. Finally, always include a note of your daily rates for any out of scope work that may be required during the project or once it is complete.
Appendices
Use an appendix to detail five or six examples of your previous work that is relevant to this project. Ideally, this will be in the form of a short case study and not just screenshots or links. Finally, use another appendix to give a summary of the copyright issues that apply to your design work plus an appropriate disclaimer.
posted by dN@redNests at
15:55
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