Monday Motivation: saving time and money in web design

Why is time the most valuable currency? Because it’s the only kind you can only spend—there’s just no way to earn more time.

And when you’re working with a client, you’re spending your time, your client’s time, and your client’s money.

With that in mind, here’s a few thoughts on saving time for your clients, colleagues, and the people who use the digital tools and websites you build.

Saving client’s time

Many web design clients won’t understand why you want to mood board, wireframe, or create a library of design patterns—they just want a website.

So be sure to clearly explain to them that the real purpose of all these steps in your design process is to save time by cutting down on revisions. Make sure your clients understand that you’re simply trying to get everyone on the same page, so that what you produce is what they want.

Saving design colleagues’ time

Find ways to streamline the production process. Here are just 3 ideas that, though they take time themselves, will save your whole design team tons of time:  

1. Make sure everyone agrees on a file naming and folder structure so no one wastes time trying to find things
2. Clearly label layers in your design files so collaborators will understand how to work with your work
3. Make sure that brand approaches to things like color, typography, layout, and other design patterns are clearly documented, easy to find, and well communicated

Saving your developer colleagues’ time

If you work with developers, find out how you can deliver your assets to them in ways that will help them code faster.

For example, if you use Webflow, take the time to understand how your devs handle class-naming conventions, and use those conventions when naming your styles.

Saving your users’ time

Whether you’re a freelance designer or you work in-house at an agency, startup, or enterprise business, your real client is the end user: the people you build websites and other digital tools for.

So always think of ways your designs can save them time, like:

• Providing easy and clear navigational options
• Including search to support discovery—and those who’d rather not use your navigation
• Removing unnecessary steps from your product’s key actions

Always be saving

When you’re neck-deep in the mad dash to get stuff done, it can be hard to remember that following certain best practices—like explaining your process, following naming conventions, and putting end-users first—can save time. But in the end, it’s so worth it.

So remember: Always take the time to save (a lot of) everyone’s time down the road.