Comments on: When Clients Take Too Much Design Control

By: Tyler Dahl

Tyler Dahl — Tue, 04 May 2010 00:29:48 +0000

I had to deal with this just today. My design was far superior to what the client actually wanted done. I presented the “clients” version thinking they would see what I had been trying to say all along. It went half way… Although I was not able to convince them why my design was the better, they did see that it needed some of what I was saying.

I think a lot of clients have a hard time visualizing what we are so good at seeing in our own head, that maybe taking the little extra time to show them exactly what they want is a way to give them the sense that they are in control so they feel they have come to the conclusion themselves is worth it compared to the energy used to explain the details that have taken us years to master. Sometimes clients “just dont get it” so let them see it!

Hopefully they come to some realization that our reasoning is usually accurate and in their best interest.

By: Ravikumar V.

Ravikumar V. — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 07:23:39 +0000

its true that sometimes we need to work for a single guy rather than customers!!!

By: Link Collection January 2010

Link Collection January 2010 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 06:03:04 +0000

[...] When Clients Take Too Much Design Control – Build Internet [...]

By: Formulis @LasVegasWebsiteDesign

Formulis @LasVegasWebsiteDesign — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:58:04 +0000

Sadly, this happens quite often. When you hire my firm, you hire us for our experience, knowledge and skill.

By: bambooRoof:blog » Design Links

bambooRoof:blog » Design Links — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:48:05 +0000

[...] When Clients Take Too Much Design Control [...]

By: kenduret

kenduret — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 08:02:40 +0000

I have one time when I actually refused a requested change. They asked for it week after week and I just never made the change. Get ready for this… they wanted bold flashing red text that said “take our FREE workshop now!!!

One of the huge downfalls to the ease of publishing with a modern CMS is that the client can very quickly destroy many hours of your hard work. Such is life.

By: Aidan

Aidan — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:31:59 +0000

Intriguing read! I guess in the end it boils down to choosing money vs sticking to self principles.

By: Carl

Carl — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:08:51 +0000

Great article, but had to point out a bit of irony.

At the bottom of the post was a google add for one of those “Fully Custom Websites in Minutes with No Experience Required” web services.

The irony of that after reading through the post put a smile on my face for a few moments, and then I realized that companies like that are actually making money and devaluing real designers and developers and the smile went away.

By: Victoria

Victoria — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:56:48 +0000

I´m currently involved in web and graphic design, but am really an industrial designer… I´m glad this sort of thing happens to us all!!!
I had a real good laugh: “@bornfamous: Sadly, I cave in and let the site go to hell. Then I drink.” It´s happening to me nowadays, but I´m trying to put my foot down. At the end of the day, it is my responsibility for things to work out and even though I do believe we musn´t just design for “people like us”, I like to think things turn out to be usefull for the client, in more than one way.

By: Scott Kellum

Scott Kellum — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:59:39 +0000

Good contracts can solve most of these problems. I divide my projects into design, development, and implementation and as soon as we enter a new stage there is a penalty for making revisions in earlier stages. I also add revision caps so I can charge more if a client makes far too many changes. If they want to make more changes, then they have to pay up.
I also write lines to protect the client from me being a flake or unresponsive (just to re-assure them).
Good contracts make good relationships!