Project case: Big task of 5+ hours
Big tasks might require a more structured process of working, so we would like to help you by providing our tips and tricks that will ensure a smooth project workflow for you and our admins. But let´s start with the first things you should consider before applying for a big task.
We recommend getting into bigger tasks slowly and increasing your capacity step by step. Do not jump from 3-hours task being your biggest project so far, to 8 or more task hours suddenly. This big increase in amount of work might be overwhelming, and might surprise you if you are not 100% ready yet. Such a situation often times ends up in mismanagement of deadline or quality, and so the task ends up being very stressful on both designer and admin sides. So, make sure to increase your capacity in smaller increments before you apply for bigger tasks.
Sometimes designers get excited by the possibility of jumping on a big task to earn more with just one project, yet they might not have considered if they have sufficient time for the task. What to consider:
Duration and deadline of the task. Is the difference between the task estimation and the deadline sufficient for you?
Did you remember to account for sleep, breaks, meal times, and other commitments (work, studying, meetings, family or friends related commitments) you might have during the time this project will be ongoing? (Always make sure to let the admins know when you are leaving for a period bigger than 30min, and make sure to state when you are coming back in CET)
Is your working speed fast enough to manage this task and the deadline comfortably? (already considering possible iterations the admins might give on the work)
As well remember that big tasks require more submissions of WIPs and more thorough consistency checks, which also adds up to the overall working time.
For further guidance, we recommend watching the following video:
When working on bigger files, where we are not editing all the slides, we recommend reviewing, very well, the guidelines but also looking at the other slides in the file that we should not touch, as clients usually prefer consistency in the decks compared to sticking to the guidelines 100%. In such a case, when you recognize a pattern that would be consistent with other slides, but not with the guidelines please clarify with your admin on how to proceed.
If a file contains repeated slides, we recommend submitting them in one of the first file submissions to confirm the looks of 1 structure per each repeated set of slides. That way you can be sure that all these repeated structures were approved by an admin before you proceed with the work for all slides. We also recommend specifically warning the admin that you are submitting 1 of each repeated slides for confirmation so they are aware that they need to give a more in-depth review at that point as you will apply that to all other repeated slides.
If you have any doubts on an instruction please make sure to clarify it with the admin before doing the work. If, by chance, you misunderstood it, it might mean reworking the entire deck.
Big files require a lot of consistency checks across many slides, therefore it is important to know how to check your slides efficiently and what to focus on. Please watch this brush-up video that also explains well how to check consistency across the deck:
Check all your slides for jumpings. Before uploading a file for an admin to check, please check your slides in presentation mode, multiple times, and each time focus on a specific area that should be consistent and not having any jumpings from slide to slide. This might sound like a lot of work, but it takes just 1 minute to quickly flip through the slides with keyboard arrows if you focus your eyes just on separate areas as mentioned below. It really helps to discover any inconsistencies and jumpings in the file. Fx:
Presentation mode = focus on the title area through all slides - Are the titles consistent with font size and position?
Presentation mode = focus on the headings through all the slides - Are the headings the same height? Are they non-jumpy?
Presentation mode = focus on the slideframe - Is the slideframe pixel-perfect consistent on all 4 sides throughout the file?
Presentation mode = focus on the footer area and slide numbers - Are they consistent? Is any slide number missing?
Generally, try to submit a WIP around every 10-20 slides (depending on the size of the project). This way the admin can spot and point out any issues as you go, and it ensures you do not have to do massive rework at the end of the task.
While more frequent submissions of WIPs should prevent a large number of edits in the final file, we still recommend submitting the final file well before the deadline so there is sufficient time for any last edits.
Lastly, if you ever feel at the start/middle of a big project that you are somewhat behind with the project timeline and might be too tight on delivery, please report this right away to your admin so that the admin can consider giving some of your slides to another designer, in order to respect the client's deadline. It is very important that this is reported early enough, so please be realistic with your own working speed and availability.
1: Consider if you are ready for a big task
We recommend getting into bigger tasks slowly and increasing your capacity step by step. Do not jump from 3-hours task being your biggest project so far, to 8 or more task hours suddenly. This big increase in amount of work might be overwhelming, and might surprise you if you are not 100% ready yet. Such a situation often times ends up in mismanagement of deadline or quality, and so the task ends up being very stressful on both designer and admin sides. So, make sure to increase your capacity in smaller increments before you apply for bigger tasks.
2: Do you have enough time to take on a big task right now?
Sometimes designers get excited by the possibility of jumping on a big task to earn more with just one project, yet they might not have considered if they have sufficient time for the task. What to consider:
Duration and deadline of the task. Is the difference between the task estimation and the deadline sufficient for you?
Did you remember to account for sleep, breaks, meal times, and other commitments (work, studying, meetings, family or friends related commitments) you might have during the time this project will be ongoing? (Always make sure to let the admins know when you are leaving for a period bigger than 30min, and make sure to state when you are coming back in CET)
Is your working speed fast enough to manage this task and the deadline comfortably? (already considering possible iterations the admins might give on the work)
As well remember that big tasks require more submissions of WIPs and more thorough consistency checks, which also adds up to the overall working time.
For further guidance, we recommend watching the following video:
3: Once you are on the task follow these recommendations:
When working on bigger files, where we are not editing all the slides, we recommend reviewing, very well, the guidelines but also looking at the other slides in the file that we should not touch, as clients usually prefer consistency in the decks compared to sticking to the guidelines 100%. In such a case, when you recognize a pattern that would be consistent with other slides, but not with the guidelines please clarify with your admin on how to proceed.
If a file contains repeated slides, we recommend submitting them in one of the first file submissions to confirm the looks of 1 structure per each repeated set of slides. That way you can be sure that all these repeated structures were approved by an admin before you proceed with the work for all slides. We also recommend specifically warning the admin that you are submitting 1 of each repeated slides for confirmation so they are aware that they need to give a more in-depth review at that point as you will apply that to all other repeated slides.
If you have any doubts on an instruction please make sure to clarify it with the admin before doing the work. If, by chance, you misunderstood it, it might mean reworking the entire deck.
Big files require a lot of consistency checks across many slides, therefore it is important to know how to check your slides efficiently and what to focus on. Please watch this brush-up video that also explains well how to check consistency across the deck:
Check all your slides for jumpings. Before uploading a file for an admin to check, please check your slides in presentation mode, multiple times, and each time focus on a specific area that should be consistent and not having any jumpings from slide to slide. This might sound like a lot of work, but it takes just 1 minute to quickly flip through the slides with keyboard arrows if you focus your eyes just on separate areas as mentioned below. It really helps to discover any inconsistencies and jumpings in the file. Fx:
Presentation mode = focus on the title area through all slides - Are the titles consistent with font size and position?
Presentation mode = focus on the headings through all the slides - Are the headings the same height? Are they non-jumpy?
Presentation mode = focus on the slideframe - Is the slideframe pixel-perfect consistent on all 4 sides throughout the file?
Presentation mode = focus on the footer area and slide numbers - Are they consistent? Is any slide number missing?
Generally, try to submit a WIP around every 10-20 slides (depending on the size of the project). This way the admin can spot and point out any issues as you go, and it ensures you do not have to do massive rework at the end of the task.
While more frequent submissions of WIPs should prevent a large number of edits in the final file, we still recommend submitting the final file well before the deadline so there is sufficient time for any last edits.
Lastly, if you ever feel at the start/middle of a big project that you are somewhat behind with the project timeline and might be too tight on delivery, please report this right away to your admin so that the admin can consider giving some of your slides to another designer, in order to respect the client's deadline. It is very important that this is reported early enough, so please be realistic with your own working speed and availability.
Updated on: 10/10/2023
Thank you!