(*a person or group of persons elected or appointed to perform some service or function, as to investigate, report on, or act upon a particular matter.)

The term design by committee is one every designer dreads, but the fact remains that due to internal politics design by committee will remain (in some form!) and it is up to us as designers to make the process as successful as possible. There have been calls for “death to design committee” in some quarters of the design world but the fact remains that it is something which isn’t going to go away anytime soon. In almost every project you partake in your client will want to seek another opinion from people within their organisation…well this constitutes a committee.

The common problems you will encounter when designing for a committee

Firstly let’s have a look at a few of the problems when designing for a committee.

• Design by compromise can ensue
  For instance key player one says they want the background red…whilst key player 2 says they want it blue…so they decide to compromise on purple which serves neither purpose. Compromise is tantamount to sitting on the fence and getting splinters…not fun.
• The head honcho doesn’t understand the context
  The stakeholder who will be making the ultimate decision doesn’t understand the context decisions have been made within. This typically means that their opinion is often uninformed.
• Beware the alpha male
  Another problem is the alpha male (or female!) in the group…because they tend be louder their voice carries more weight even though it may be an uninformed voice!
• Sharing responsibility
  One of the reasons your client will seek other opinions is to cover their own back and share some of the responsibility. Often it will be the case that this is a new experience for the client; they are maybe a little unsure about the design process and therefore they will naturally seek reassurances and outside opinions. The client often tries to please everyone and in doing so we are left with design by ‘compromise’ which results in a design that doesn’t disappoint anyone but doesn’t inspire anyone either.
• Someone will also often seek the wow factor…see below!

So what exactly is the wow factor?
Often someone within the group will come up with the line:

“But the design doesn’t “WOW” me Chris…no offence but it needs to have that “wow factor” do you know what I mean?”

I’ll say:

“No I don’t know what you mean, do you?”

Let me here refer you to a quote from Paul rand

“Don’t try to be original, just try to be good”

Ludwig mies van der rohes said something similar

“I don’t want to be interesting. I want to be good”

So what exactly is the wow factor?
The point here is that designing in search of a wow factor …or being original for the sake of it is often a pointless process. If a design strives to be original for the sake of it, it is often at the expense of its real purpose (to communicate). Creating purely for the sake of originality is something for an artist. Don’t get me wrong I love to experiment (I began as an artist!) but it has to be done within the structure of the brief. The “wow” factor is fluff…so tell your client to get there head out of the clouds and start to rationalise their comments. Ask them what is the wow factor? If they say they don’t know and you’re the designer you should know, and then just explain the above to them…the “wow” factor is fluff!

I’ve just remembered another quote from Ludwig

“Less is more.”

This is true, great design should often be stripped down to its truest form. The “wow” factor often hides this form. Great design has also been done before, it follows rules which work almost like science so sometimes when we try to be original and wow we are veering further away from great design. Remember average / bad designers just try and make the design look pretty without solving the problem at hand. They become consumed in the “wow” factor whilst missing the point of the design and the purpose it has to serve!

Here are two further great quotes which surmise many of my thoughts:

“Focus on the meaning and quality of the design first, solve the problem well and brilliance will follow.”

“I like to think that originality stems from doing exceptionally good work. That is, not something you can force. It’s the reward for hard and inspired work.”

So what do you think of the design?
So it is now time for the committee to critique your design. How are you going to seek feedback? Simply dump the design in front of them and say “What do you think?” This is exactly the approach we need to avoid. Instead we need to contextualise and prepare the ground by explaining our rationale, and then when seeking feedback, we have to make sure that feedback is focused. We can do this by asking the following targeted questions:

1. Does the design meet your business objectives?
2. Is the visual hierarchy correct (based on the conversations we’ve had)
3. Is the design in line with your corporate branding?
4. Does the design serve your target audience?
5. Is the design what you expected…based on mood boards, wireframes and conversations we’ve had (if you’ve done these well the answer should be ‘yes’!)

Control the committee
The key is to control the committee and control the feedback you receive. Design by committee only really becomes a nightmare when all the committee are together and you aren’t there…it can become like a classroom full of children without the head teacher; chaos invariably ensues! Another important thing here is to speak to the key players individually. Try to speak to the head honcho directly, not via email.

Deal with key individuals directly
Email conversation can be misinterpreted and the conversation is stuttered rather than free flowing in real time. If you can’t speak to the head honcho directly it becomes even more important to educate the client you are dealing with directly. By educating them and making it clear why you made all your decisions…it makes it easier for them to rationalise when speaking to the main man (or woman!)

So next time you are presented with a committee however small it maybe, try the following tactics and let me know how you get on.

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