When understanding the client and their requirements, the interviews helped a lot. Speaking to the client and being able to ask them questions was very useful for advancing the project. Being face-to-face also has the personal element and allows us to read between the lines and as designers, really listen and pick up on what it is that they want. During interviews, I also always make sure I have a note pad on me so that I can take down important information. I make sure to do this so I can assess the situation and quickly note down ideas based on how the client reacts to things, it also looks more professional. During meetings, we try to keep it informal and engage in natural conversation because it is the best way of finding out what the client is like, their preferences, aims and dislikes but for the sake of being thorough, we also record the meeting and transcribe it later on. This job is usually taken on by someone that is either lowest on work or happens to want the job. The transcribing process can highlight things that we did not pick up on during the interview and allows us to further understand the client. However, I never find it as engaging as a real time meeting.

Another method of making sure our project was moving in the right direction was making a project proposal. This solidified the client’s aims and allowed them to make changes or bring up any possible problems they see. It is a great way of ensuring we are all on the same page and understand the brief fully because it is a graspable, written document and the client is free to bring up problems.

The first meeting with the client was very informative as it adopted an interview style. We were able to ask about the clients job, company, competitors and previous work. It focused on the clients wants and aims rather than the brief as it was the first time we had met with the client. We used a couple of techniques when interviewing to make it run more smoothly. Firstly, we prepared questions and took turns to ask them. This meant we all got to speak with the client and we had more time to construct meaningful questions. We also took the time to introduce ourselves and think about the timing of our questions.  The only thing I would have changed would be making the interview less structured and adapting our questions to what’s already been said. We should have used more of a semi-structured interview method.

There was some secondary research that had to be done to learn more about an area that would clearly be an important part of the project. For me, this was UX research. I conducted a range of UX research to further my knowledge on the subject, segregating this research into 3 sections. I did this to structure my research process and make it easier for my team members and client to see what I had been doing.

Throughout the process, we continued to meet with the client once a week. We decided to meet this frequently as it allowed us to prepare content and show the development of the project whilst keeping the client involved in the process. The weekly meetings were our main point of contact for the client so we tried to get the most out of them by preparing content. Some weeks were more organised than others depending on how we had prepared so I think preparation is key for weekly meetings. More meetings per week would be beneficial but after listening to the client’s constraints, that wouldn’t be possible.