Mood boards are a way to get the client actively involved in the process early-on in a web project. This allows them to feel that they are being included and kept in the loop. It even gives them a way to participate in the design process.
I am a fairly linear person, especially considering that I’m a designer (we tend to lean toward the creative and quirky). It has been my habit to want to jump in on a new design project, open Photoshop and bang out the design template straight away. I have a pretty good idea up front what will work in HTML/CSS and what wont, so I usually feel confident that I can come up with a good, usable design on the first couple of attempts. This approach has worked well for me for the most part, up to this point.
There is that inevitable moment however, when I’m finished with the draft of the template and I’m ready to post it for the client. I invariably think to myself, “What if they don’t like it? What if it’s not what they had in mind? Will I have to re-do this whole thing from scratch? Should I defend it? (I am the designer after all.)” At this point, I’m already too far along in the prototyping process to afford starting over.
I realize now that by keeping the client out of the process between the initial meeting and the reveal of the first comp, I’m really doing both of us a disservice. The client potentially can feel left out at this point and if the design is a departure from their initial vision, it can shake their confidence in me as a designer. It also means that I am ignoring some potentially great creative input from the client.
I have always tried, in the early stages of a project, to get as much input as I can from the client about the look and feel of a project, asking about other sites that they like or don’t like, talking about colors, logos, etc. But I’ve come to realize that most clients don’t have a clear vision of what they want from the beginning. It’s all too common to spend hours on a finished Photoshop comp only to have the client realize that it’s not what they want (even though they may not know what they want in the beginning).
A mood board is a quickly thrown together collage of photos, colors, typography elements, scraps torn from magazines, etc. that together, give an overall feel for the visual direction of a design.
Mood boards accomplish several things all at once:
- They are a useful tool for the designer to very quickly put down visual ideas for the design.
- They separate the overall “mood” of the design from the interface elements and content. This effectively removes potential distractions for the client at this early stage.
- They allow the client to give creative input very early in the process, thereby avoiding back-tracking after the design comps are viewed.
- Mood boards speed up the visual prototyping process because the style has already been established.
I will definitely be including mood boards in my methodology for all future design projects.
The 10th anniversary of WebVisions, a nationally-recognized conference that explores the future of Web design, technology, user experience and business strategy was held in at the Portland Conference Center this past week. I have to congratulate executive director Brad Smith, the great staff, and an amazing crew of volunteers for putting on a fantastic conference.
