Reader Michael D. asks, “I was recently hired on at [ABC Company] to help establish corporate design guidelines and redesign a slew of sites. Guidelines will apply to the parent company and most of its affiliates/partners. Any recommendations, books/sites, tips, people, etc. on ways to establish design guidelines across an entire company and its affiliates?” Care to offer Michael your 2c? Comments are on for this entry, or email me your 2c and I’ll roll ‘em Michael’s way.
I've been asked to do the same thing, so I'd love to know what the general consensus is. Print or HTML guidelines? Which one do I go for?
HTML - Pros
Can use tabbed browser windows to flip between different points in the doc. Can copy code or text easily. Easy to amend typos etc. Can have interactive demonstrations, sounds, Flash, etc.
Print - Pros
Easy as heck to flip through a book and read vs. having to scroll through a long PDF
For a similar project, I'm aiming to produce an HTML set of docs that format well to being printed on any standard laser printer (how most people would print it)
HTH,
Denis
Not sure if this applies (it depends on your company), but I highly recommend Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler.
In my opinion, alot of your methodology depends on your overall brand strategy. Are your affiliate brands meant to be seperate and unique, or are they all intended to tie very tightly to your parent brand? This will dictate how strict or loose your guidelines must be.
Good luck!
Josh - The affiliates are seperate and loosely unique. Not tightly ties into the parent, but need to refelect it.
Does anybody use a standard list of questions or form when speaking to clients about their site? Thinking of putting togther a standard set of questions as well to use as a starting point when setting up new sites for affiliates.
Gilbert Lee ~ 04 October 2005 at 09:20 PM
My suggestion for you is to actually create HTML pages as the design guidelines doc. Show the different types of layouts, "look and feel," colors, and images right in the HTML pages. That way the XHTML code and CSS files can actually be used by the different teams. Wondering how the unordered list on the sidebar is generated? Look at the HTML pages, copy and paste :)
I have no patience for thick documents when I should be able to look at an HTML page and see how it should work. You'll, of course, need to have notes but the picture (HTML) is worth a thousand words.