What is Design Collaboration and Why Do You Need it?

In today’s world of digital products, it becomes crucial to come up with competitive designs. The creation of unique digital products requires the assistance of a design team of skilled people. However, it can also be achieved with design collaboration.

What is Design Collaboration?

Simply explained, design collaboration is a method in which several people with diverse skill sets collaborate to share the whole burden of a project in order to generate superior outcomes with far-reaching consequences. Because there are limitless ways to organize the design, this term is quite wide. It consists of a variety of designers, reviewers, and departments such as printing, legal, and so on.

Collaborative design is a multi-staged UX approach that includes feedback-driven planning and strategy. It is critical to understand that the design phase of the UX process is iterative.

Phases of Design Collaboration

The collaborative design has 5 phases that are as follows:

Brainstorming:

Several interactions must take place between the design firm and the customer before design can commence (this may be an external client in a design firm or even a different team in a larger company). For the design team to grasp the unique design challenge that must be solved, the brainstorming phase is critical.

Research:

Once the design team has a firm grasp of the client’s design requirements, they may do market and business research while discussing design ideas and thoughts with one another. Teams exhibit design thoughts that might motivate the design phase using a vision board.

Iteration:

The design process in UX is iterative. That is after a design approach is adopted, it goes through several iterations to fine-tune the final result. Many design companies may plan a design sprint, which is a defined deadline for finishing a design iteration.

Feedback:

User input enables optimal usability for each iteration. Teams will frequently test their designs before releasing them to the customer for feedback. Clients can also contribute real-time input utilizing a design collaboration platform. Receiving feedback in real-time may assist enhance customer buy-in by giving them greater ownership in the process.

Development:

The design life cycle concludes after the client has accepted all of the designs. Team members frequently walk the customer through the project one last time to confirm that all design aspects work properly. Then it’s time to put the design out there. Following the debut of the design, more changes may be necessary. 

Why is Design Collaboration Important?

Promotes teamwork:

About 75% of employees prefer working in collaboration. A collaborative design project unites the entire team behind the same vision or purpose. Team members may help each other while they work to solve design issues and deliver the product to the client on schedule. [1]

Increases customer buy-in:

When a client participates in the process, they feel more ownership in the ultimate outcome. This can also enhance the design team’s workflow by providing real-time feedback rather than waiting until all work is finished.

Improves the customer experience:

Collaboration brings together diverse points of view and skill sets. Working as part of a team may encourage creativity and creative problem-solving in the design process. Finally, this can improve the overall user experience.

The Power of Design Collaboration

It’s an honor to be a member of an open, communicative product team that values cooperation. Everyone takes responsibility for the product. The zeal seemed to feed on itself. When the dust settles, there is an incredible product that everyone is proud of.

Of course, this degree of cooperation necessitates a unique product team. Fortunately, these teams are formed rather than discovered. However, it takes a brave person who isn’t scared to disrupt the established quo and start a dialogue.

Designers, as people’s champions, are a natural match for this cause. More importantly, opening up the design process to the rest of the product team benefits design teams significantly. This collaborative endeavor has the potential to change the psyche of the whole team and herald a future of open communication and inclusion. In the long term, you’ll have a better team and a far better product.

Better Communication

The talks that occur between cross-functional teams provide the most benefit. Communication flourishes when there are no artificial departmental walls. Problem-solving becomes a collaborative activity, and solutions flow naturally from one team to the next. However, it is not only solutions that propagate. Ideas change as well.

Endless Fresh Perspective

The artistic block may occur in any creative discipline. They are times when you are creatively exhausted and none of the answers that occur to you appear to be exactly right. In these conditions, young designers may succumb to the brute force method. They double down and work more hours, hoping that willpower would restore their creativity.

Better Understanding of the Product and User

First and foremost, a designer serves the end user. They employ design thinking to satisfy the demands of the user while advocating for their case to peers. To accomplish it properly, you must make a conscious effort to step back from minute details and look at the product as a whole. In other words, the overall picture.

Better Products, Faster Time to Market

A united team with free-flowing knowledge and a sense of ownership over all aspects of a product’s development creates better work by definition. Users are very important to technical teams. Design teams are aware of technological constraints. Marketing knows how everything interacts. And management is stronger at guiding everyone toward a single company aim.

Key Elements of Collaboration

Collaborations differ greatly in terms of their aims, venues, teams, and resources. However, all partnerships are human activities, and the six factors listed below play an important role in all of them. The following are the elements of collaboration:

Motivation

Motivation is the driving element for teamwork. To be successful, everyone engaged in collaboration must believe that they are gaining something from the cooperation or that they are contributing to a worthwhile final product.

Communication

The project must be stated clearly in order to locate suitable people to partner with. Giving individuals information about the project and its aims lets them decide whether or not to join.

Diversity

Collaboration benefits from a diverse set of talents and knowledge among participants. A varied set of people is frequently the best approach to ensure this.

Sharing

It is critical for a successful partnership to be flexible when it comes to concept ownership. This is not to say that a team should not give credit where credit is due, but any questions of ownership of ideas or concepts must be agreed upon from the start.

Support

The assistance of the process’s other participants is critical, especially during times of crisis or unanticipated problems. Even when no difficulties are anticipated, the collaborative group must operate on the assumption that if someone needs the assistance of others in the group, that assistance will be accessible.

Problem Solving

The group must be able to work together to solve challenges. When the project’s direction changes or something does not go as planned, a high level of tolerance for ambiguity is required.

Conclusion

While having a team and resources is favorable to developing new designs and keeping products competitive in the market, it still calls for a big investment not only in money but also time and coordination. Collaborative design is a good way to achieve goals for competitive products while remaining within your existing resources.