Photo Credit: Arty Smokes
What is it they say? You learn more from a mistake than a success. Years ago while working on a web design project I found myself facing one of those life lessons.
Our project team had spent months conducting research, developing an elegant user experience, and ultimately creating three design directions to present to the client. The client’s meeting room was cramped, so I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. To allow for an effortless experience, I positioned multiple monitors around the cramped conference table.
Little did I know, but I had neglected to calibrate the monitors. There were slight variations in tones of color, brightness, etc. As you can guess, a member of the client committee stood up and decided to confer with a colleague at another monitor. I often wake up in the middle of the night hearing these words spoken by the client, “I prefer the orange used on this design.” Yep, same design, different monitor. The client ultimately was very pleased with the final deliverable, and I learned that consensus building doesn’t happen as a result of smoke and mirrors. During workshops, I will often find myself sharing this life lesson to illustrate the point.
The one thing you need to fully understand is that it is near impossible to get more than two people to agree on choice of colors, fonts and design style. But you can find consensus.
So how do you find consensus when creating a new visual design for your church website? The one thing you need to fully understand is that it is near impossible to get more than two people to agree on choice of colors, fonts and design style. But you can find consensus. That’s why it is absolutely critical that your client design team is lead by a strong leader, and that the team includes the “final” decision maker. You’re looking for that person who has the final say, or has the authority to provide sign off. In most cases, it’s the senior pastor or director of communications. You’re certainly not designing for them specifically, but their opinion needs to be heard throughout the process.
During training workshops, I will often gather 6-8 volunteers from the audience and conduct an impromptu visual design workshop. I do this to illustrate how to achieve group consensus. I ask them to review samples of fonts, depths of light and dark, image choices and eventually I get to the all important color choices. I will start by having them review the family of colors (blues, reds, etc.), narrowing the choice down to three. Once they have come to consensus on one, they are asked to decide on a shade of that color. It’s at this point, I sit back and observe. Each group is different, but in most cases, it’s near impossible to get the whole group to agree on their favorite.
After a few minutes of uncomfortable banter, I have the group return to their seats. The lesson learned is that groups can certainly provide you with design direction, offering a roadmap of likes and dislikes, pinpointing design boundaries. It’s ultimately the job of the visual designer to gather this research and create a visual representation that meets the needs of both the user and stakeholders. If you’ve taken time to listen to the needs and hopes of the audience and stakeholder, you won’t need to rely on the magic of multiple monitors to display the results.
