With agencies and businesses looking to streamline their work processes, the benefits of online proofing can’t be ignored.
That’s because the approval process of a product or project can be haphazard, to say the least. Companies ordinarily have multiple people working on a project at different levels of the product-to-market process. Corresponding changes and improvements among so many collaborators can be disorganized and leave a lot of room for error.
So, naturally, a platform where you can collaborate, edit and review together and get work done faster has become the need of the hour.
Think about it – No more messy sticky notes on your work, no plethora of emails to sift through. Sounds too good to be true, but is it?
Enter online proofing.
Online proofing is the practice of peer-reviewing design and artwork online. Digital artists, graphic designers, photographers, and visual artists use online proofing software to work on projects collaboratively.
Online proofing has many benefits; for example, companies can keep track of how projects come together step by step on the proofing site’s database. If you still need some convincing, we’ve compiled a list of ten proven benefits of online proofing based on customer feedback. Let’s start.
Table of Contents
1. Open Access
Online proofing’s biggest advantage is the fact that it all happens online. Since everything is online, collaborators have remote access to their projects. Contributors on a design can review, edit, communicated, and proof them on the go.
Since there is no hassle of creating an account, plans and projects can review them. This is a great way to gauge public perception of a project design, which prevents the time and cost of fixing errors after the product is made.
Remote access to projects makes the proofing process quicker and easier than proofing in person. It does not require corresponding with an entire team and getting them to be in the same room together at once.
According to customer feedback for online proofing, this is is one of the most life-changing benefits of online proofing software, especially for designers working from home or working freelance.
It can be challenging to communicate with clients when you don’t work with them at an office. Online proofing provides a collaborative space online so that everyone is heard and clients can give quick feedback.
2. Feedback Archive
The internet is a massive repository of information. Online platforms and sites that allow you to work online usually save your data continuously as you work. In the case of online proofing, reviews and edits on your work are saved online, making it easier for you to track your project’s progress and trace changes you or anybody else made.
Collaborating on a design can be a real pain when there are disorganized ideas on sticky notes flying every which way. Online proofing software ensures that all the feedback on a project is stored in one place for everyone’s convenience. The convenient archive of feedback, changes, and different versions also makes auditing easier. Auditors can view what feedback or change was made to design as well as who made them.
Since everything is traceable, everything is more transparent later on down the line. Creatives can revisit their projects and their feedback as often as they want to get a clear picture of how the end-product came about. This is easier as opposed to rifling through hundreds of emails and messages to answer the four Ws.
Customer feedback shows that traceability is a significant part of the product-to-market process in collaboration, product performance, and perception.
3. Labor Saving
The product-to-market process can be physically grueling in addition to being mentally grueling. Running all around an office with stacks of proofs person to person to get approved, deciphering their notes on a project, and reprinting different versions of a project can be exhausting.
One of the benefits of online proofing saves you most of that trouble because everything takes place online. Printing and reprinting designs, keeping track of feedback, and making changes is a collaborative, labor-saving process. When you save on person-hours, you save the company money and time invested into other aspects of a project.
Superiors don’t necessarily need to pay visits to a branch to check up on a project’s progress. And employees don’t have to stay overtime to work together on a design. With online proofing software, they can access, edit, and comment on a project from anywhere at any time. Creatives and collaborators on label and artwork projects raved about how easy the approval and batch feedback process was on proofing software.
4. Cost-Efficient
Keeping track of approvals, tracking supervisors down, and arranging meetings with busy bosses, making and remaking copies of every edit on a design during the development process of a project uses company resources. Additionally, fixing a potential mixup down the line, especially after a product has hit the market, can be considerably costly.
Cost efficiency refers to using fewer resources to achieve an intended result. Online proofing ideally eliminates these risks and reduces the turnaround time of a process. Turnaround time refers to the time taken for the completion of a task or process. While getting approvals and collaborating on big projects can extend the turnaround time, online proofing can significantly reduce it.
With online proofing, very few resources are being utilized to achieve a better, more efficient output. Business owners and creatives reported increased return on investment (ROI) after they began online proofing.
5. Clarity
In the chaotic process of developing a product, many things go wrong, and mix-ups are expected. Confusion and miscommunication are usually at the root of most mixups. Online proofing software counters this chaos with clarity by storing all the information archives in the same place. It isn’t easy to decipher and fully understand feedback comments on work sometimes, especially if it’s specific to a minor aspect.
Online proofing software lets collaborators point out and leave comments on a project. Consequent changes being made are also evident on the database to keep track of how things are moving along.
Online proofing software also allows you to see who in your team viewed a version or a change, eliminating any doubt before moving forward with an action. According to online proofing software users, this clarity and cohesion were among their favorite aspects of the online proofing experience.
6. Centralized Data
Online proofing software allows creators, stakeholders, and collaborators to keep track of multiple projects simultaneously. When a big project comes up, it tends to take up all of your mental space, leaving no room to keep up with side projects and a lot of room for error.
Updating corresponding information on a project, going back to revise a detail after quality control, releasing a new design or product with the same base structure can be a hassle because of all the information and subsequent information that needs to be gathered.
Online proofing software saves creators and collaborators that extra effort by storing all relevant data. Creators no longer have to go through loads of paperwork and files to make sense of projects. With online proofing software, they can keep an eye on all ongoing projects and their progress through the software dashboard. Customers, especially supervisors of design projects, reported easier usability and workflow through online proofing.
7. Efficient Editing
The product-to-market process has several steps that a product needs to undergo to be complete. This includes design planning, samples, mockups, labeling, batch feedback, and various levels of approvals. Copy editing the different improved and changed versions of a project can significantly reduce time and effort from the creators and collaborators.
Online proofing speeds this process by providing a project with a “master version” on which all edits are applied and updated. Everyone involved, stakeholders, collaborators, auditors, can view the master version to see how a product is coming along. Online proofing in this way makes batch feedback easier; creators don’t need to reach out to anyone to ask for a review individually; every team member can view the master design and add input.
This makes edits and updates more efficient than they would be in an in-person collaboration. Customers reported reduced turnaround time and increased productivity on proofing sites and software.
8. Encourage Responsibility
One thing no one misses about school is team projects. There are always members who don’t do their part and members who pick up the slack. With online proofing, companies can encourage team-building, individual and collective responsibility, and adherence to deadlines. Your lazy team member can no longer hide from work when everything is evident on a database.
Online proofing software has features such as reminders and deadlines so collaborators can strictly follow them and get them done on time. When a project comes together online through a collaborative effort, it encourages team spirit in employees. It teaches them to work together and bounce ideas off each other, utilizing everyone involved’s thoughts and intellect.
9. Project Tracking
Often, companies are juggling more than one project at a time. This can lead to a lot of confusion for both supervisors and design teams. Online proofing software allows you to track your progress as a project moves along. A streamlined and holistic view of everything going on enables companies to estimate investment and maintenance costs. It also helps them allocate time to a project without losing or wasting valuable resources.
Customers especially highlighted their appreciation for the project tracking and management capabilities of online proofing software.
10. Proofing Audio and Video
One of the most notable benefits of online proofing is creators’ ability to proof audio and video files. Large files are often hard to share via email among a team, and platforms such as Dropbox or Drive don’t allow collaborators to leave feedback on audio and video.
Online proofing makes sharing video files online easy. It enables users to leave specific feedback at different frames and points in the files. Editors can see who made a comment, comply and resolve it after the change has been made. There are features such as “safe areas” where creators can view how their files appear across various formats in some online proofing software. You can also add and edit subtitles on video and audio files.
Customer feedback greatly emphasized how easy creating video and audio designs have been made with online proofing. Employees no longer had to lug around their laptops every day to meetings to demonstrate the progress of a design; everything they needed was online in one place.
Book A Demo!
Ready to take your business to the sky with improved efficiency and faster results?
Well, now that you’re aware of the proven benefits of online proofing, it’s time that you try it out yourself. Book a demo with GoVisually today and make your work process easier, more manageable, and trackable.
