Andrew Fox

Everyone has an opinion in design now thanks to the ever-evolving customisable design technology culture. This is a good thing, generally. More appreciation for the work we designers spend hours perfecting – right? Of course but on the flipside clients also more frequently want a bigger say in the design of their site.

This can be a really positive thing and can really help when the client really wants to get their hands dirty and take a real interest. It can drive things forward.

Equally, it can be a bad thing. Allowing a client to make a bad decision could mean their website potentially misses out on vital business conversions. It could also lead to their site being behind in design or technology trends therefore slowing general cultural acceptability and stopping better practice from progressing.

I can think of a hundred examples but here are a few classics:

• Client wants a layout for their website which if built could have poor usability or placement of content.
• Client produces a sitemap leaving vital content buried in the depths of their site.
• Client wants to capture a lot of information on a form making it more complicated for the user.

Issues like this can put designers in a difficult situation where we are almost forced to say yes. After all, the customer is always right? All too often I feel designers back down and say yes and give the client exactly what they ask for, even though we know there is a better solution that would be more beneficial to their brand and business.

As designers, we are trained to design and deliver but also to advise and guide the client. That’s why the client gives us a load of dosh – to make sure their site is the best out there and giving them a real return.

So how do we deal with this?

Research

When starting out on a project or picking up a piece of work get a deep understanding of the business objectives. What are they really trying to achieve overall?

Listen

Listen to the clients online strategy or if they don’t have one, devise one for them. Your ideas may be different from theirs so make sure you discuss everything in as much detail as possible.

Advise

If you think something could be done better, empathise but don’t be afraid to advise – it’s your expertise and experience that’s being paid for. Because of your understanding in the job at hand, backed up by your experience, each point you make will have a solid reason behind it and a clear benefit to the clients business goals.

You can apply this to more specific or smaller scale issues too. You may be surprised how positively clients react to good, well thought out justified advice. Obviously make sure you convey your suggestions in a suitable way.

And this doesn’t just go for end clients, you can also apply this practice within your company too if you are trying to demonstrate how your design works internally.

So next time your client asks you to do something you think is bad practice, be strong, offer advice, justification and empathy and get the result they need. The customer is not always right.