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24 Understanding the project Understanding the space Understanding building structures Organising the space e human interface Sustainable design Communicating design e design process Professional practice What makes a good designer? 'Professional practice' is a term that covers the personal qualities and business procedures of the individual designer, and also the framework of regulation that the designer is subject to while working. e la er falls outside the scope of this book, as the laws that govern design work vary considerably from country to country, and are frequently subject to change. Some basic and universal business practices are, however, worth looking at. Designers are creative people, and being organised does not always come naturally to a creative personality. It is, however, a trait that all designers would do well to cultivate, as there is so much more to the business of design than just designing. Being organised is probably the most important facet of a professional a itude, though not the only one. For those who get involved in the full range of tasks associated with the day-to-day operation of a design practice, it could be that they will spend no more than 20 per cent of their time actively pursuing the development of a design. e other 80 per cent can easily be taken up by the mundane side of running a business: administration, fi ling, le er writing, travelling and so on. Allied to good organisation skills is good time management. Because interior design is a subject that it is easy to be passionate about, it is also one where it is easy to spend a disproportionate amount of time on the design work, to the detriment of other tasks that need to be undertaken if a project is to be completed successfully. To help with this, one of the fi rst things to be done on a project is to create a project plan that shows the tasks that need to be addressed in order to successfully complete the project. Probably the most useful way of visualising the project plan is in the form of a Gan chart; a horizontal bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Strictly speaking, a true Gan chart shows the outcomes of a project, and not the actions that will be undertaken to reach those outcomes, but for most designers this distinction is academic, and can be ignored. So ware, including free open-source programs, are available to help produce project plans.