Should Designers Specialize In One Industry?
When a potential client approaches us, they often ask, “How you done any other——web sites?” This——may be Wordpress, ExpressionEngine, Magento, etc. etc.
Or, more often than not, they’re asking if have done sites in their particular industry (real estate, coaching, medical, etc. etc.). On the surface, this makes sense. They want to work with someone who’s familiar with the ins and outs of their industry. And some designers do specialize in a niche industry, which is fine, of course. It’s one good way to differentiate your design firm from others for sure and that can make a lot of sense in marketing terms.
But, this also overlooks something essential about how good designers work. Something that’s a part of our nature and how we do things.
And that is this. We’re problem solvers with very good observational skills. That’s what we love to do and what we do best (hopefully!). Give us a problem and we immediately start looking in multiple directions for solutions. The possibilities of what may be is probably the strongest motivator for us regarding our own work.
The good thing about this it that it can actually be vital for businesses that need fresh solutions and an outside perspective. Often, business owners and other experts are too close to the problem to come up with innovative and often even simple solutions to problems that no one perhaps even realized was a problem before. And that’s where designers come in.
We often begin by asking one simple question. “Why?”. “Does this have to be done this way?” Or, as we often ask here at our own little studio, “How can this be solved using the least amount of resources and in the most practical way?”. Maybe those fancy graphics and flash animations aren’t going to help your bottom line after all. On the other hand, maybe a simple paragraph offering a little more information about your product or service will.
We don’t design things to look pretty (although that could be part of the overall solution and strategy). We design to solve problems. What can be made better? How can this been done differently to provide a better outcome?
One of our new clients recently said during our initial call that one of the reasons he hired us is because of the diversity of the work in our portfolio. He mentioned that many design studios he looked at do custom work, but somehow their work still seemed to look the same. This was probably the nicest comment we could ever hope for regarding our work. Seriously. I responded that we don’t design to win awards. If our objective was to win awards, we’d work on our own side-projects during our own time and not on our client’s time. And that’s the truth.
When was the last time you hired a designer to help revitalize your business or products either online or offline? Did you give them the freedom to ask “Why?”. Did you involve them in the initial planning process of your project and not just at the end of the process?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Comments
Personally I think, at least for me, that it would be a bad business decision to focus on a niche market.
I’ve created sites for bakeries, construction, clothing, jewelry, real estate, providers of social services, landscaping (plants, etc.), technology, boating, general business, tourism, non-profit and others.
A great designer or developer is a great problem solver.
I agree with what your client said. The only specialty I care about is, “Can you get people to fall in love with me? And then can you get them to sign up or click or do whatever it is I want them to do?” It doesn’t even matter what the industry is if these things aren’t happening. Plus, if I’m a realtor or whatever, I don’t want to look like all the other realtors. I want to look special, you know? Make me look like a candy shoppe proprietor. Or make me look like a safari guide. Anything but a realtor!
@Christina - Yep, that’s just how we feel too. I think we’ve done some very different sites over the years. Amazing how many different solutions you can propose. It makes this job fun!
@Kelly - Sooo in agreement with you. It’s curious because I think we both have have the same goals, but you approach the problems with copywriting and we do with design. I guess that just means we all care about taking care of our clients. :)
Funny what you say about not wanting to look like a realtor. I feel the same way, but a lot of people are resistant to this. We get requests often where people want their sites to look like other business’s in their industries. We try to work around this, but sometimes it’s not possible to totally circumvent it. I think that they are nervous about doing something new and feel safer copying something that seems tried and true already.
We’d probably take the customization a lot further if we could most of the time.
What’s great about your process Naomi is that it guides your client through customization in a way that choices are able to be made by those of us that are not so good at making design choices.
Alexis
@Alexis I’m so very glad you found our process helpful. We very much want it to be a collaborative process. You don’t need to know design jargon or go to design school. What’s most important is knowing what your site’s goals are.
You were great throughout it all too!! :)