starting a communication project: creating a good communication plan

standing on the shoulders of giants, I've decided to add this wonderful piece of advice from Kim Erwin on how to create a communication plan.

Kim has made me a true believer that when starting a new communication project, it is well wroth your time to hold your horses, and before you start designing take 20 minutes and create a solid communication plan.

a communication plan should consist of these elements: target audience, communication objective, key message, communication model (and what design principles would that model infer).

creating a communication plan helps focus your efforts, and keep you on track. later you can and should evaluate your design against this plan.

here are a few tips from Kim, each a true pearl of wisdom to keep close to your chest and repeat as a mantra:

The point of a communication plan is to inject
some realism into the assignment. You are
constructing a scenario that has objectives and
constraints, just like real life.

The idea is that each element of the communication
plan informs the next one. Your audience has a
need, which informs your objective, which defines
your key message, which suggests a framework +
principles. Voila, that's a communication plan.

Therefore, if your audience is weakly defined, you
have little more than a prayer of creating the
logic you need to design.

Here's my tip: if your audience definition starts
out with "People who..." just stop and rewrite.
The probability of you, in the real world, being
asked to design for "people who" is remarkably
low. You will design for specific user groups,
specific clients, and in specific industries.
Those people will have specific needs and
objectives that you will have to design into.
That's what we're aiming for.

And when you have finally arrived at a key
message, think about which of the communication
models might help you think differently about the
problem. Pick one. Itemize the design principles
it suggests (look at SeeID for these). Add this to
your communication plan.

I hope this helps clarify and streamline your
efforts. It's common for students to pick a key
message before they have an audience. It doesn't
work. The rest of the plan feels force fit. And
the whole bit lacks logical coherence.

So start with the beginning and end with the end.
In order. That works. I promise!

taken from an email from Kim Erwin to the Theories of Information and Communication class, Fall 08, Institute of Design.