Speculative Design

You’ve realized that you need a new web site for your business and you want to hire a freelancer or an agency to produce the site for you. You do some research and find several people or agencies that you might like to work with, but you’re unsure which one will be the right fit. It can be tempting to ask each one to produce a sample design at no cost for you to review so you can see which one you like best and go with that agency.

Speculative design is any unpaid design work done by an individual or agency in the hopes of winning later work. Here’s why it’s a bad idea.

Good Design

Good design means design that is successful in reaching its target audience, meeting business objectives and enforcing the brand. When speaking about web sites specifically, good design is also easy to use and accessible to all. Good design is reached at the end of a process where the designer and client collaborate closely.

Good design results from the designer learning as much as they can about the business, products and services his or her design is supporting. After the designer learns about the business’s background, message, target audience, business goals, branding, and image the designer works closely with the client to produce ideas for the design. Those ideas are then tested to be sure they are usable, accessible, and supportive of the brand and image of the company. Revisions are made, and the ideas are tested again. At the end of this process, a good design is produced that is successful and beneficial to the client.

How Speculative Work is Harmful to You, the Client

Getting to see multiple designs at no cost before making your decision might seem like an ideal situation to you, but it’s actually harmful to your business and your project.

Speculative design doesn’t benefit from the collaborative process of good design. The designer does not have all the background information he or she needs about your business, your target audience, your goals, your brand, etc. to produce a design that solves all of those problems. It’s usually superficial, visually impressive work done with the aim of impressing you, the client, and not done with the aim of solving your problems.

Design is subjective – we all have a favorite color or colors and certain styles or aesthetics that we naturally gravitate toward. When you choose what you believe to be the best from a pile of speculative designs, you’re not focused on the goal of the design, just on your personal preference. You choose your favorite design, not a design that solves all of the problems and does all of the work of good design.

Speculative design is expensive – you might not think so since you’re getting it for free, but don’t be fooled. Freelancers and agencies have bills to pay and expenses to meet just like everyone else. They cannot afford to work for free. The costs that they incur producing speculative design for you will be included in your project costs once you hire the agency that will complete the work. What’s more – you’ll also be paying for all the unsuccessful speculative design that freelancer or agency did for other clients who chose not to hire them. Producing speculative work for clients increases the cost of sale for a freelancer or agency, and they’ll need to recover those funds by increasing their pricing on projects.

Work that results from a speculative design is expensive work that is unlikely to meet business objectives or be in line with a company’s branding or messaging.

Appreciating Creative Work

Companies that strive for good design and understand its value, like Apple and Dyson, produce products that can be sold at a premium and that everyone envies. Design is powerful and valuable – it can make a product a pleasure to own, can make a web site delightful to use, can communicate messages without words, and can evoke deep emotional responses.

Requesting that creative work be done for free devalues the work and discourages designers from doing their best work. You would never approach your dentist and request a free filling, justifying the request by saying that if you liked the filling, he’d win the work of doing any future dental work you might need. Neither would you justify the request by promising that everyone would see the filling and be impressed and that you’d send your dentist many new clients.

Likewise, you shouldn’t make these kinds of requests of designers. Be respectful of their work and their industry and appreciate its value. Be respectful of their right to earn a living.

Use a Portfolio to its True Potential

You might be thinking that this is all well and good, but you’ve only got so much money and time and you want to be sure you hire a designer that will be a good fit for your project, and you’re not sure how to choose between them if you can’t see what kind of work they’d do for you.

A designer’s portfolio is not just a collection of pretty pictures or links to impressive-looking web sites – it’s also a list of current and former clients. Contact the clients and speak to them about their experiences working with the designer and the final outcome of the design. Ask questions like these:

• What was the designer like to work with? What was the design process like?
• Did you have any problems working with this designer?
• How is the web site doing – are you getting search engine traffic? Are your customers able to find the information they need? Is the web site bringing you new business?
• Was communication with the designer prompt and professional?
• How did the designer handle negative feedback?
• Are you happy with the outcome of the project?

Speaking to a designer’s clients will tell you everything you need to know about what kind of working relationship you’ll have and what kind of work you can expect. You’ll understand the process that the designer will step you through and get an idea for the quality of the work they produce. You’ll know if they produce web sites that perform instead of web sites that just look nice. And you’ll be able to find the best designer for your job without asking anyone to work for free.