IntuitiveDesigns

Every time we start a new project we talk about how important it is to give the best work you can as a professional designer to a project. We have noticed that very often designers want so hard to please the client that they lose sight of what is actually the best for the project. I’ve seen and participated in a lot of projects that had me shaking my head sadly because I just didn’t feel the client got the type of site they or their business deserved.

The truth is, doing a great design and please the client at the same time is often a hard work. It takes a lot of research, question asking, taking some risks, and yes, sometimes fighting for what you think is best for the project. It is much easier to say, "Yes, I’ll do anything you want, no problem" or "Yellow text on a green background, sure!", but then is the designer doing the job as the expert he is? And furthermore: is he really giving the client what they are paying for and need?

Here is a great article posted on called "Tips for Presenting Your Work" on thinkvitamin.com by Dennis Eusebio that explains how important the presentation of your design to the client is and point number 4: "Don’t be a Yes Man", especially illustrates the same idea I am writing about. It’s important we do the very best work we can and present it with confidence and knowledge. That’s our job.

There is a common stereotype that designers are arrogant. That doesn’t need to be true, necessarily. If a designer refuses to do something on a project and doesn’t tell the client why, then there’s something wrong going on. But, if the designer gives the client a technical explanation and an example of why some things don’t really work or they are just not beneficial for your particular project, that’s something to think about. When we work on a new project, we just want to give our best. We want to be proud of it and have the client feel proud of it too. But more than any other thing, we want the result to be a successful site. This doesn’t mean that we don’t listen to client input, of course it’s important and client’s know the most about their business, but the professional in building web sites is us and it’s our duty to bring our expertise to the table.

After all, there’s nothing better than, after a little compromise, getting the best result for a project so it can reach the site audience in the best way possible. That’s what both client and designer should always aim for.

When a professional relationship between a client and a designer begins, there are certain ways that will be helpful to achieve the best result. One of the guidelines to keep a project rolling in effectively and harmonically is to understand the function of the “WHAT” and “HOW” in design.

The “WHAT” stands for the concept and what the client needs for his project. If you are a client, you are ultimately the one who needs to know what your business needs and what you want to achieve with the project. “What feelings should be represented?”, “Who is your target audience?” These are some of the usual questions we do to a client when we start a new project. The better the client knows what his or her business needs, the better the result will always be. Sometimes, we get clients calling our door who still don’t really know what they want for their new web site or corporate image. We pass them a few questions about their needs and they answer something like: “I’ll leave this to you”. In this case, we tell them to think about it better and come back to us with more information. We are designers, and our real task is to find the right way to give shape to their business needs and goals, not to define them. When a client knows exactly “WHAT” he needs for his project then 50% of the success is gained, because we will always find a way to come with the best design for the project.

The “HOW” stands for the process, the way to develop the design and the way the designer manages to achieve the client’s needs in the best way possible. This includes a process where knowledge, tools, practice and other factors are involved. It is supposed to be the reason why a client decides to give their design project to a professional instead of doing it himself. Sometimes, the clients forget that “the way to do the things” is something for the designer to determine. When they are not satisfied with the first sample they get, they panic and start giving concrete orders on the way to design. They try to monitor the design as if they have a “remote control pencil”, instead of telling us where is exactly the problem or what they feel is not working. They start moving objects and colors around as if design was about making puzzles or playing around with Photoshop. Honestly, design is not about that and, from our experience, things never work that way. A designer is a person who will find a way to make things work within the client’s needs and requirements. To be able to do this years of experience and knowledge in different techniques are necessary such as geometry, color balance, distribution of space, programming, etc… Apart from all this, a good designer will be aware of new trends, marketing and design, and the effect of images, symbols, proportions and colors on the human psyche and it’s commercial projection. He will know how to pick the right image to the needs of your concept and will know how to take it to terms with the right techniques. That is exactly what a designer does everyday.

Let’s put it this way: if you were building your new house, would you tell the architect where to put the walls and start playing around with the columns and structures? That would be pretty erratic. It would be more clever to tell him what kind of house you want, how many rooms or floors you want, what kind of requirements it has, and then let the professionals find the way to give you the best solution for your building. If you see the result and you don’t like the way some things are look for a certain reason or you need more space here and there or one more bathroom, you should tell the architect: “Hey, I need more space, I want a new room and I’m gonna need another bathroom”. But I don’t think you should tell the architect how to mess with the walls or where to install the pipes, unless you are an architect yourself. Very often, clients don’t realize that design involves very many variables and is the designer’s task to find the right balance between all of them in order to make them most suitable for their purpose.

If you are a client and you start a professional relationship with a designer, try to keep this in mind. Trust the designer, tell him “WHAT you need”. If there’s something you feel is wrong, tell him what do you feel, but don’t tell him what to do and how to solve it. It would be like telling your doctor what the diagnosis on your disease is instead of telling him where it hurts. It would be like telling the surgeon where to cut on the surgery table. If you pick a designer because you have seen his work and you think is very good, then don’t forget he will always find the way to find the best solution for your project, and he will have in consideration all of the factors that are important for the best projection of your business concept. It’s just as easy as this: you set the target and hold the bow and we will hit the bullseye.

Brian Warren makes a lot of good points about the perils of participating in design contests in his article entitled “Finding the Con in Contests“. This article is well worth having a quick read as well as the following comments.

It happens to all designers at least once in their career. You have a potential client that wants you to give them a few concepts, ideas, or designs before they hire you so that they can decide if they like the work first. Or, you are hiring a designer and want to hold a contest to pick your future designer. This is bad for both clients and designers. Visit the NO!SPEC site to find out why.

We just came across this amusing, but somewhat cheeky article from Software is Too Expensive to Build Cheaply entitled If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers…. Some of the analogies are actually pretty close. One of the more amusing ones:

“Please prepare a complete set of blueprints. It is not necessary at this time to do the real design, since they will be used only for construction bids. Be advised, however, that you will be held accountable for any increase of construction costs as a result of later design changes.”

Worth having a look if you are a web designer for a chuckle.