Give the Client What they Want
By Dennis KardysWhen you make compromises to satisfy client demands, are you compromising your integrity?
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: You’ve just received feedback from the client on some designs concepts. They love where you are going with it, and think that it’s almost there. Now, if you could just change the background color to blue, add some gradients (so it looks more 3 dimensional, instead of so flat), and change the font to a sans-serif (as serifs will make the site look outdated, and the site should look modern). Also, if it’s not too much trouble, please add a dropdown with some “quicklinks”.
When it comes to web design, the client doesn’t always know best. In fact, that’s why they hired you, the expert. Part of the deal is that they expect you to produce quality work. The catch is that they also expect you to give them what they want.
So how do you determine when to bend to the sometimes misguided will of the client?
It’s the client’s project and the client’s money, so it’s reasonable for the client to expect that you’re going to give them what they ask for. Look at the example above: you know, I know, and the client knows, that those requests are straightforward and easy to implement. You could make those changes, and quite honestly it would make your life a helluva lot easier if you did. The client would be pleased, the designs would get approved, and the project would quickly progress to the next stage of development. It’s tempting. You may even get pressure from the project manager to do just that…just give the client what they asked for. But for many of us it’s not that easy. You’ve poured passion and problem solving into a design which is both well thought out and remarkably tasteful…and there is a pride of ownership that goes along with that. Relinquishing control of your creation can be very difficult, especially if the client wants to strip away the elements that characterize it. And you certainly don’t want to fall into the trap of letting the client dictate the design. In that scenario, nobody wins (an equal partnership based on mutual respect…remember?). Congratulations, you’ve just become the stereotypical pain in the ass designer.
Disputes that often start as simple discrepancies in taste, can often escalate into a passive tug-of-war for control over the project.
I should back up a second and mention that there are all kinds of great tactics that can help you sell your client on a more effective design. It’s really important to be able to communicate the rationale of your design decisions to the client. What I am talking about more specifically here, is avoiding stalemates between designers and clients that arise out of stubbornness, when neither is willing to compromise. The designer does not want to sacrifice her integrity by delivering a design that she feels is not the best solution (i.e. deliver crap), and the clients do not want to accept a website that they, well, don’t like. You can’t, and shouldn’t have to, talk someone into liking your design.
When this type of conflict occurs you may need to put your ego aside. Sure, you might know more about design and user experience than the client does, but how drastic is their request? What would the actual consequences of implementing those requests be? Are you fighting for your design because it’s truly the best solution, or because you are stubbornly married to your idea? Client involvement is part of the web design process. In order for the project to be deemed successful, designers need to be able to objectively listen to the client, and give them something they want.
Design for the client and the users, not for your portfolio.1
A few tasteless decisions made by the client should not be sufficient to ruin a well planned design. Remember that this project is their baby, and they (and their audience) are the ones that have to live with it. There is a big difference between style and usability. Audiences will be much more likely to tolerate “ugly”, than to tolerate “unusable”.
You DON’T Have to Give the Client What They Want!
Always be an advocate for the user.
As web designers it’s our job to act as the conduit between the client and their web audience. By disregarding the needs and perspective of the audience, even upon client request, we are failing to accomplish the fundamental purpose of our profession, which is to create the vehicle of communication.
If what the client is asking for will have a negative impact on usability or accessibility, then it’s your responsibility to let them know. Try to educate the client about why you have designed it the way you have, and how their suggestions could hurt the effectiveness of the site (i.e. the bottom line). In this situation, when you stand up to the client, you aren’t feeding your own ego, but rather you are fighting for the needs of the site users.
It’s not easy to tell a client no, but you need to decide: Do you build easy to use websites that help people find information? Or do you design complicated sites that are hard to use and navigate? I have yet to find the web agency that boasts the latter, yet look at how many bad websites are out there.
Whitney Hess just published a very insightful article about learning to say no to the client.
If you and your client have established a mutual respect and trust, and you’re good at your job, you should be able to sway them away from any ideas that may hurt the user experience.
Blaming an ineffective website on the result of poor decision-making by a difficult client, will not change the fact that ultimately you build ineffective and unusable sites.
If you face this dilemma often, you need to also ask yourself why you are in this field. Is it to become the instrument of the client and to garner their approval? Or is to bring value and quality to the client and their users through design thinking and industry insight? Your client is not the boss of you. If a client does not respect your professional knowledge or trust your judgement and experience, then it may be time to end the relationship.
Be flexible and accommodating when it comes to matters of personal taste. Be firm in your objections to demands that reduce the effectiveness of the design or impede usability.
When design does not achieve results, it loses value in the mind of the client. Strive to create effective designs that the audience will respond to. The results of good design will benefit your clients, and will increase the overall value of design services.
Reader Comments
Great article! It’s always nice to be reminded that we have to continue to sell our designs to clients even during the process.
But when you’re working corporate, you do need to know how to give in gracefully and work within their decisions to make a usable/accessible as possible.
It’s very easy to fall in the ‘Doing whatever the client wants’ trench. As stated in the article, the client is paying so they get what they pay for right? Wrong.
It’s your duty as a designer/ux expert to educate the client on best practices, guidelines and always always keep focus on the end goal of the website you are building.
Andres,
I am in total agreement with your points, in fact the second half of my article argues just that. I would never suggest that the client dictate the design…in that scenario the relationship ceases to be a partnership.
Just as you mention that it’s easy to fall into the “Doing whatever the client wants” trench, it’s equally easy to fall into the trap of “Designer knows best”. I think that by putting aside ego and tying design decisions back to project objectives and user needs, it’s much easier to convince the client to accept your recommendations. And there certainly are times when you need to say no.
This was a good read. In my personal experience, back when I started out I got into these conflicts a lot more because I thought I knew everything about everything. It turns out the client is often smarter than I gave them credit for, they certainly know their business / audience a lot better than you do. (And yes they can be idiots a lot of the time too
)
This was such a good and timely read, I got right to writing an article of my own about it but from a different angle. The question I had immediately was “how do I stop this madness”, as you outlined in the first paragraph. At that point, I realized I had gotten pretty good at preventing calamitous decisions by clients. Hey, some clients simply won’t bend, but a lot do. And over time, if you have that kind of relationship, you can build a track record with certain clients and guide them to success repeatedly. Just about.
I found that no matter what I say to make the client “see”, I always follow a broad, simple pattern that includes praise for “bad” ideas coupled with a redirection or “better” idea “based” on the clients “great” idea. You know what I mean, if you know what I mean.
Take a look! I referenced your article as the inspiration for my own, so, thanks for a good read and a great inspiration.
“A handy set of 20 ‘convince your client of anything’ templates with PDF chart”
http://bonfx.com/a-handy-set-of-20-convince-your-client-of-anything-templates-with-pdf-chart/
We were obviously motivated in a similar direction after reading Whitney’s article:
http://blog.lemonproductions.ca/when-no-means-no/
I love the way you put the heading “Always be an advocate for the user.” That frames it so much better than just simply “I’m a web designer, I know what’s best.” Plus it puts the cause or argument off of you and onto their potential customer/client.
Thanks for this article… im definitely going to show this to my colleagues [read project managers
] .. this one combined with the article on alistapart.com should bring some positive change here where i work… in the way we deal with our clients..
thanks again..
As a one-person shop I often find myself walking the line between the two scenarios, either letting go of control or defending important design decisions. Interpersonal skills are a must here. There’s also nothing wrong with having a healthy ego, since it helps with both letting the client have their way when needed and arguing for what’s important. Thanks for the clear description of both sides.
Great article, very straight forward. i Enjoyed it.
Thanks for this. I read the article when it came out and just today I may have agreed to more than what was necessary on an already large project. The request wasn’t unreasonable, just beyond the scope of the project. My client agreed immediately that we would add more buzz around the website by announcing these new features later, as an upgrade.
cheers!
Always refreshing to not feel alone in this world when it comes to the balancing act that is designing beautiful sites, and keeping customers that like to micro-manage every little aspect of the design happy. Putting ego aside is always easier said then done too
I can completely understand with the author. And I have tried all three, give in completely, fight tooth & nail and also persuade politely with rational / justifications for the design decision.
It’s about knowing what kind of a client you are dealing with which. After all every client is also a human. They have ego too. The article is quite defending in the nature that it only talks about not falling into the trap of designer’s ego. But many a times you realize in spite of completely justified design decision, the client wants to enforce their stands just to show who is in control. Such instances, I just pity them and let go completely. Sometime it works once you surrender; the client feels more relaxed and also ends up taking designer’s view. At times, it’s seen as client’s victory over your expertise. After almost 13 years in the profession, I am now at peace with either way. Call it maturity or simmer down attitude.
It our duty to provide rational to the design and educate the client as and when needed. But it’s the client’s responsibility to decide ultimately. After all its their money mate.
Wow, great article. I must say I agree 100% with all the points made, especially the one about drawing the line when the site’s potential usability is jeopardized and not because your personal ego gets in the way.
Beautiful site by the way. I’ll be sure to add you to my reading list