Outsourced design are among the most common projects businesses outsource. There are several good reasons for this. For one, they can lessen overhead costs, given that outsourcing labor cost is inexpensive compared to doing projects onshore. Many countries that have a robust outsourcing industry, such as the Philippines, also boast talented graphic and website designers, who can deliver high-quality output that aligns with the client companies’ visions, objectives, and goals.
Graphic Design and Website Design
Graphic and Web design may seem like they both have the same job roles, responsibilities and qualifications, in reality, both have their key differences.
Graphic Design – from the word itself, it is the use of graphics, more so, typography, graphs, and images to represent a message or idea. Besides, graphic designers are not just focused on virtual designs. Graphic designers can work both on print projects, as well as digital projects. Graphic designs are solely the creation of graphics for either websites or print, these designs do not require any coding and/or programming.
Website Design – web design covers everything that is included in a website. Website design does not just focus on the overall look of the site, it also includes the content and how it works. Web design, unlike graphic design, requires a process of conceptualizing, planning, and creating a collection of files that will determine your overall layout, color scheme, text styles, structure, graphics, images, and interactive features that will build-up your site.
Outsourced Design Tips
Outsourcing has gone way past the customer service processes. As of today, business processes involved in the digital marketing world are also being outsourced. The BPO industry now offers services that cater to your business’ online presence, from social media marketing, content, graphic design, and web design.
Outsourcing your web design also means that your e-commerce site will be maintained properly by the right people. More so, it also means that your site will always remain on-trend in terms of user experience, design, as well as the latest technology that needs to be used.
On the other hand, you will need to have a skilled graphic designer in establishing and maintaining a strong online presence. Outsourcing your graphic design will help you have a consistent and relevant look at your brand images.
It should be noted that not all outsourced graphic and web design projects turn out successful. Some were finished past the deadline or beyond the budget, while others were not designed the way clients expected them to be. How did these happen? The following are some of the most common causes of failed outsourced design projects and suggestions about how you can avoid them.
1. Goal is Lacking
Surprising as it may sound, many websites, brochures, logos, and marketing campaigns are outsourced by companies without first determining the goals of the project. As a result, outputs have to be revised several times to meet the varying aesthetic opinions of those giving their feedbacks, which equates to wasted time.
Before assigning any design project, be sure to establish your goals first. What is it for? What do you want your audience to do when they see the piece? Questions like these will allow you to determine what you want to achieve out of the project, and these goals should be shared by everyone on your team including your outsourced staff.
2. Decision-Makers were Left Out
Project managers are usually assigned to oversee the design project from start to end. While this is advantageous as work is monitored, there are instances when decisions about the project were made without consulting the decision-makers. This, in turn, results in projects being held off or completely pulled out. At the beginning of every project, be sure to find out what other decision-makers are expecting. Consulting them beforehand will also allow you to have fresh ideas about the project that can greatly enhance the outcome.
3. Lack of Research
An important component of any design project is research. This allows a better understanding of the target audience and eventually generates creative ideas around the research that will appeal to the target audience. Unfortunately, many businesses skip on this step and instead put urgency on getting the design done as soon as possible. Hence, the final design is either lacking or too fancy for the audience.
You can avoid this fate by doing extensive research. Taking this step will ensure that all options are tackled and all elements that should go into the final design are taken into account.
4. Underestimating Time
Know that design projects take a lot of time and effort to accomplish. As such, habitually underestimating the time needed to complete a certain task can lead to delays and deadlines eventually lose their value. When that happens, your outsourced staff may feel like there is nothing wrong about missing the deadline, which means extra money wasted on your part.
Before implementing a project, make accurate estimations of the time required to get the design tasks done. You can do this by understanding the complexity of the project involved and by taking into account other factors that could set back the project such as meetings, holidays, sickness, iterative design reviews, revisions and so on. By having a timeline for every task, the most important ones can be tackled properly and deadlines will be met.
PrimeOutsourcing Graphic Design and Web Design Services
Your journey to design outsourcing will involve several up and downs. Being aware of the things listed above will at least allow you to avoid these instances from happening. However, to make sure that your outsourced design project is far from being a failure in the very first place, make it a point to deal with a trustworthy design outsourcing company.
At Prime Outsourcing, we ensure that our clientele is not just satisfied but are also highly pleased with their working relationship with their designer. To ensure that we provide nothing but the best graphic design and web design services, our staff are constantly provided with state-of-the-art training and workshops. To know more about our outsourced design services, click here.
