Tips for Successful Collaboration |
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Overview |
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Collaboration is an essential part of visual communications and
design. There are usually several people that provide input for
a design project, as well as differing capacities of their involvement.
Understanding techniques for generating ideas, communicating,
and resolving conflicts make the process more effective. There
are a variety of technological resources that can also enhance
collaboration — especially if participants are geographically
separated.
Types of Collaboration |
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Co-Authorship
Co-authoring means that responsibilities, contributions, credit
are equal among collaborators. A typical process would be for
collaborators to meet, discuss the objective, and define tasks.
Then each person works on a draft independently. When the team
reconvenes, all the drafts are discussed and the best ideas from
each are retained. In the revision stage, each member implements
the agreed upon ideas of the meeting into another draft. This
cycle may be repeated until a draft that everyone is satisfied
with can be submitted for editorial review.
Co-authors need to be willing to provide and accept constructive
criticism. They need to be able to objectively analyze the strengths
and weaknesses of ideas. Co-authorship works best with small teams
of 2 or 3.
Consultation with Experts
Many visual communications or designs require input from experts.
This may include engineers, scientists, sales and marketing executives,
designers, writers, IT professionals, educators, and others. It
will also include the client, who is one of the most knowledgeable
experts on the project's topic.
Template memos or forms can be very helpful in obtaining information
from these people. They will not know what information to provide
unless you prompt them. Often similar projects will require the
same categories of information, so creating a form for experts
or clients to fill out will ensure that nothing is overlooked.
Collaborative Teams
Sometimes it is not necessary that contributions of all collaborators
are equal, depending upon the project's needs and the talents
and expertise that members bring to it. A web design project may
require the talents of web designers, illustrators, programmers,
writers, and/or animators. Each project is unique so the amount
of time and work each person needs to bring to the project will
vary.
To manage large collaborative teams, it is essential that one
person serve in a leadership role to organize members, facilitate
communication, and track progress. This person may even be responsible
for defining objectives and tasks for the project.
The collaborative manager may benefit from the following guidelines:
- Define clear goals and objectives.
- Determine what the deliverable is.
- Organize the team members.
- Delegate tasks.
- Establish schedule and completion dates for tasks.
- Create a project management plan.
- Determine when meetings are needed and between which members.
- Appoint an "observer" for each meeting to analyze
the group dynamics and communication.
- Establish procedure for reviewing and responding to work that
is submitted.
- Determine how to evaluate each member's contribution.
- Prepare reports regularly to allow everyone to track the project's
progress.
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