Comments on: When the designer/client relationship should begin

By: Bryce Fisher

Bryce Fisher — Sun, 06 May 2007 05:13:03 +0000

You seem to have thought this one through, Paul. I wonder if the process would take significantly longer? It seems like a company could issue consultancy ITT, find a designer, reject them and their work, and still be at square one. Perhaps this is better than scrapping a whole website. Even with my objection, as a freelancer, your suggestions make sense to me.

By: Paul Boag

Paul Boag — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:50:41 +0000

Okay let me respond to some of the comments made.
Firstly, I understand that people struggle paying for scoping work because it is perceived as an internal project. However, that is exactly the problem. I don’t believe it should be a completely internal process. Its a false economy. You are saving some money up front only to spend it later when you end up having to redevelop work that wasn’t thoroughly planned upfront.
I also disagree with the idea that the web designer shouldn’t be exposed to “unfocused brainstorming”. By excluding them from that process you are excluding their vast experience that can contribute to the project.
Finally I disagree with Gary’s comments that the designer shouldn’t then be allowed to tender for the work. I would suggest that unless the client is unhappy with the designer through the specification phase they would naturally be the ideal person to do the development. Yes they would have an unfair advantage but from the clients perspective this isn’t about fairness to the web designer, its about the best value for money! Anyway it is no more unfair than a tendering process where there is already an existing agency on board.
However, I do agree with Marks comments that clients are not aware of this approach and so only the savvy would ever adopt it. This is a problem and it will only change over time as designers keep suggesting to clients this is a better way. Its the same as we are seeing with speculative design.

By: Gary Hides

Gary Hides — Thu, 03 May 2007 13:18:43 +0000

I agree with you totally on this one Paul. I often read tender briefs and think: they don't need that, or that, or that, but they could do with thinking about these areas. This would cut their costs considerably but still end up with a great solution. Now I may not always be right, but I think that a web professional should be on hand when writing a brief. But then, for all fairness the agency that the the web pro is attached to shouldn't be able to apply for the tender. They are just paid for their consultancy services. Otherwise talk of foul play will obviously come in, and you'll have a massive head-start on other agencies.

By: Mark Perkins

Mark Perkins — Thu, 03 May 2007 09:11:26 +0000

I couldn’t agree more…. but sadly I just can’t see this happening.
It’s a bit of a catch 22 situation; if a client was very clued-up about the web design process then they would know that an initial consultation would be a good thing and may well put out an ITT for that stage before kicking off the main project. However, as they are ‘clued-up’ then they may not need this stage as badly as the ‘clueless’ client, who by their uninformed nature is extremely unlikely to realise the benefits that an initial consultation could bring and therefore won’t factor this stage into their equation.
The only way around this would be to educate all potential clients before they know that they need a new website, which would be quite a task!

By: Graeme

Graeme — Thu, 03 May 2007 08:56:24 +0000

Interesting idea, but I think it's probably impractical in most web projects, unless the agency and client have an established relationship.As a website owner, I would struggle to justify paying a design agency to help scope out our project, which would be seen as an internal matter (a lot of decisions get made way before anyone is ready tho think about suppliers, designers, etc). Also, I don't think I'd be comfortable having that kind of initial discussion in front of a supplier, as they tend to be fairly unfocused brainstorming affairs and probably utterly confusing to anyone from outside the company.