As if that wasn’t enough, last week we saw them release two new iPad apps. These are Adobe Proto and Adobe Collage.

Adobe Collage

Adobe Collage is their attempt to turn your iPad into a moodboarding tool. The problem is there are already some great Moodboarding apps out there and I am not convinced Adobe bring anything new to the table, beyond integration with their Creative Cloud.

Also I must say that although I am a fan of my iPad and use it as my main blogging tool, I am not convinced it is suited to moodboarding. Creating a moodboard requires two things that the iPad is weak at. First, the need to flip between multiple windows as you grab content from different applications and websites. Second, the need for quick and accurate positioning of elements, which is a struggle with a touch screen interface.

Adobe and the other moodboarding apps out there have done a reasonable job, but they are fighting the inherant drawbacks of the device in my opinion. For me, moodboarding will remain a mac based activity.

To be honest, I have similar feelings about Adobe Proto.

Adobe Proto

At face value you might think that Adobe Proto is doing the same as Adobe Collage by replicating iPad applications that already exist. Adobe Proto is a wireframing app and these do already exist on the iPad, most notably iMockups.

However, Adobe Proto is a step beyond what I have personally seen on the iPad to date. For a start it allows interactive wireframes which its competition doesn’t (at least to my knowledge). It also has some great gestures that takes a hand drawn box and turns it into a nicely rendered version. There are also gestures for adding dummy text and even video elements.

All of this sounds good, but I still come back to the question of whether the iPad is the place to be creating wireframes. Like moodboards I see interactive wireframes as something that are produced on a PC where you have quicker and more accurate control over positioning. With basic wireframing I find a pen and paper far more intutive and quicker to produce than using an iPad. However, perhaps I am getting old and stuck in my ways.

Interestingly I find Adobe Muse a far more exciting wireframing tool despite the fact it was not designed for that purpose. Adobe Muse is meant to return us to the days of building websites without touching code. This in my opinion is fundamentally flawed in a world where websites have to accommodate a range of devices. However, it is ideal for quickly throwing together an interactive wireframe that you can test with. I will certainly be having a play with it to see if it can be used in that way.

So what do you think? Am I just a grumpy old man who doesn’t like change? Would you produce moodboards and wireframes on the iPad? Share your thoughts on Adobe’s new apps in the comments.

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That said, some personas can get a bit wordy for me. They go into so much depth about the persons likes and dislikes, their internet experience and family situation, that they loose their impact. They stop being an easy way to keep the user in the front of my mind.

That is why I fell in love with this alternative approach to personas. Instead of lots of text they consist of two images. One image of the person, and one image of a cross section of their possessions. It is amazing just how much a persons possessions say about them. It is enough to get a sense of who you are designing for.

I am not suggesting these personas replace more detailed versions, as the additional information they provide is invaluable. However, these are a nice compliment and one I may well consider on my next project.

So what do you think? Would you use this approach? Does it tell you enough about the person?

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Previously I have avoided sharing my slides from this workshop. This is partly because slides don’t really capture the essence of the day and partly because my previous slides were so vague that they were meaningless.

However, I have recently reworked the slide set and feel they are now worth sharing. I hope you find them useful.

If looking through the slides sparks any questions or comments, please feel free to post them in the comments.

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Don’t get me wrong I learn a huge amount from the web everyday. However, the web was always meant to be a medium you contribute to, unlike reading a book or watching TV.

For me contribution is in the form of writing blog posts, recording podcasts and giving presentations. For others it is participating in open source projects or sharing code and designs.

However, there are many who don’t contribute at all. This is not because they are bad or lazy people. It is because they either think they have nothing to contribute or because they fear getting it wrong.

If that is you then I would encourage you to read a post on Smashing Magazine about moving the web forward. One paragraph in particular says it all:

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes (because that’s how we all improve). It’s absolutely okay for you to not be a complete expert or authority on a topic. Share what you do know because it has the potential to help many other developers and designers out there.

Don’t rely on others to contribute. Share what you know, for somebody that might be exactly what they need to hear. No matter what your skill level, you have something to contribute.

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These videos form apart of Sitepoint’s superb “Kick Start Your Web Dev Business” course, which I can highly recommend if you are starting out freelancing.

I have to say I find recording these videos painfully embarrassing, but apparently others find them useful. Here is the first video, which is particularly embarrassing because I talk about how great I am!

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You have realised their hidden beauty and convinced them that you are the web designer of their dreams. However, like all the worst romantic comedies things can still go horribly wrong.

Like all men, I despise romantic comedies with a burning passion. I hate the inevitable scene when the couple have a big bust up over a misunderstanding. I find myself screaming at the screen, my face red with fury and veins bulging on my temple. Why can’t they just talk to one another? Why can’t they be honest with each other?

Unfortunately these kind of farcical situations often occur between web designer and client too. In this post I want to look at how we can prevent a breakdown in our client relationship by learning to communicate better.

I once saw a tweet from an exasperated well known web designer who shall remain nameless. He wrote:

Although I can associate with this persons frustration, the reality is that his client justifiably wants both.

In my first post of this series I explained that we do more than build websites, we also offer a service. This means that regular communication is a fundamental part of the job.

Rather than just communicating more because that is what the client wants, lets take a moment to consider why the client is asking for updates.

Why the client wants to be kept informed

Part of our problem is that we feel there is a lack of trust when the client asks for updates. Although there may be an element of truth in this (especially if it’s a new client, who doesn’t yet know us) it is not the only reason.

It is human nature to try to control what we do not understand. With many clients unfamiliar with the web design process, it is unsurprising they feel a need to be constantly updated.

Anxious man with questions from Shutterstock

It’s important to remember that for most clients a website is a major investment. They are under considerable pressure to make sure it is delivered on time and in budget. Combined with a lack of control this creates significant anxiety.

Communication combats micromanagement

Anxiety leads to a desire to control. This is where micromanagement comes from.

Many web designers mistake micromanagement as a character trait among clients. I don’t believe that is the case. I believe micromanagement often arises because the client lacks confidence in our ability to deliver.

One way of giving the client the confidence is to establish yourself as the expert (as discussed in the last post). Another is to keep communicating with them. That way you demonstrate you are in control and that progress is being made. This will reduce their anxiety and their desire to micromanage.

Regular communication doesn’t just prevent micromanagement. It also protects your profit margin.

Communication protects profit

Clear and regular communication does two things. First, it avoids misunderstandings and second it prevents surprises. Both of these problems can have an impact on your profit.

Think about why you lose money on a project. It’s either because there is a difference in expectation, or because the client didn’t like what you produced and forced you to start again.

We like to take a brief away and work on a solution. Only once we have finished the work are we happy to reveal it to the client.

Unfortunately this approach dramatically increases the chances that we will either misunderstand the client’s requirements or produce something that the client simply does not like.

How then do we communicate better?

The best way to communicate

As web designers we are comfortable with online communication. We regularly communicate through email, twitter, IM and Facebook.

Despite this we still misunderstand each other which often leads to “flame wars” and other online conflicts. Without tone of voice and body language, communication is difficult even with experienced users.

Basecamp

That is why when it comes to communicating with clients (who are often less experienced in digital communication) we need to make the effort to meet face-to-face or speak over the phone.

That said, it is important to document conversations with clients. Following each phone call or meeting, email the client with the key points. This not only gives you a written record of what was agreed, it also helps flag potential misunderstandings.

Communication is all well and good. However, it has to be honest and built on trust.

Building honesty and trust

For fear of over-stretching the relationship metaphor, just like some marriages, too many of our relationships as web designers suffer from a lack of trust.

This is born from bad experiences suffered by both parties. Clients have often endured web designers who have been less than honest, while web designers have been taken advantage of by previous clients.

One example of this lack of trust is design iterations. Many web designers limit the number of iterations. This is because they have been burnt by clients demanding change after change.

However, limiting iterations sets the wrong tone for the relationship. It says you don’t trust the client to be reasonable. If the design process is handled sensitively there is no need for these restrictions.

Another area where trust and honesty can be lacking is in how we handle problems. When we come across a problem we tend to avoid discussing it with our clients.

Although confronting problems can be painful, it is better to bring potential issues to the clients attention when they arise. Better to please a client by overcoming a potential problem you have warned them about than surprising them with a sudden crisis.

This also requires us to be honest with ourselves about potential issues. Often, web designers convince themselves that a project is possible because they want the work. How often have you agreed to an excessively tight timescale or squeezed pricing to fit a budget?

Our tendency to deceive ourselves ultimately leads to us deceiving our clients and creating conflict and a lack of trust.

We need to have the courage of our convictions and talk honestly with our clients (or prospective clients) about what is possible. This might mean losing work, but sometimes things don’t match up and we should walk away.

Building a client relationship on anything other than honesty and trust will inevitably lead to finger pointing. When things go wrong (which they will) there needs to be a safe environment for discussing the problems without threats or blame. If you are not honest from the outset that is never going to happen.

Not that I am suggesting there can never be disagreements. Part of being honest and trusting each other is that you can have healthy, passionate discussions.

Having healthy disagreements

Often we are afraid to disagree with our clients. However, as I have already said, being willing to challenge is a big part of the job.

A client has hired you for your expertise. They expect you to stop them going down the wrong road and suggest alternative approaches.
How you do this is crucial. I have already talked about the need to avoid confrontation. How then do you have a healthy discussion without it descending into an argument?

A big part of a healthy debate is that it requires give and take on both parts. As a result you cannot expect to ‘win’ every disagreement. Sometimes you have to ‘lose a battle to win the war.’

There will be some issues that you feel passionately about and others less so. On the less important issues give ground so that they will know you are serious about the bigger ones.

Finally, when it comes to disagreements, I always give them the “I am the client” card. I make it clear that although I will present my viewpoint they are more than welcome to overrule me.

Interestingly this rarely happens. Although the client likes to know that I consider them in control, they are also keen to have me on board and are willing to compromise to make that happen. Once a client views you as an expert they are unwilling to ignore your advice.

This leads to some interesting scenarios where the client is desperate to convince you of their position rather than play the “I am the client” card.
I think it is important to let the client know you recognise their right to do as they please with their own website. The client must feel free to make the final decision.

Next actions

I began this post by flippantly comparing our client /designer relationship to a marriage.

A marriage has moved beyond the flush of first love and is maintained through communication and trust. With that in mind I would encourage you to:

Communicate regularly

Embrace working with clients, rather than working around them. This means recognising that regular engaging communication is as important as coding and design.

Be open and honest

Keep the client informed about any potential problems when they arise and openly discuss differences in opinion about the right approach.

The final part of any good relationship is getting to know your partner. In web design this means understanding your clients business. This is what we are going to look at in the next post in this series.

A transcript of this episode is available here thanks to the guys at Pods In Print

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Interestingly, I am not alone in this point of view. A post on Smashing Magazine, perfectly articulates the point.

Set the expectation from the beginning that you will work with stakeholders collaboratively. They will help you think through the design at every step… If the client is unwilling or unable to spend time and energy on the design as you develop it, find another client. A client who is too busy to get involved in the process is a client who doesn’t care…

Collaboration is essential to great design. No one person can think of everything or always have the best ideas for every aspect of a product. It takes a group to make this happen. This might require you to occasionally browbeat the client into being available for frequent discussions on new and developing ideas, but the result will be infinitely better.

For me this is the key. Without it, a project will at best produce a mediocre website. However, I am interested in your opinion? How do you work with clients? Do they help or hinder your projects? Let me know in the comments below.

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I came across this great article on Smashing Magazine from last November talking about web forms. The post is stuffed with great advice, but the following leapt out at me:

A form is a conversation, not an interrogation.

Order the labels logically, reflecting the natural flow of a conversation. For example, wouldn’t it be weird to ask someone their name only after having asked a number of other questions? More involved questions should come towards the end of the form.

It reminded me of the excellent signup form on Huffduffer. This signup process recognises that web forms should reflect the natural way we converse. Filling it in feels more like a conversation and less like a chore. It engages, while many forms just demand input. Websites and computers generally can be impersonal and cold. We need to work hard to counteract this tendency. Forms are one way we can do this.

Have you seen other forms with a friendly and conversational tone? If so share them in the comments.

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What follows is a run through of that presentation where I expand on the points I made in my original post. I hope it inspires you to introduce better integration between your website and social media channels.

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Thanks for subscribing to Boagworld; a web design blog, forum and podcast run by Paul Boag and friends.

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Users do not come to your site to register. They come to purchase. Even though there is very little difference between the two activities (to make a purchase you have to provide all the same information as registration, with the exception of a password), in minds of users registration is a distraction.

It was therefore refreshing to read a post on econsultancy driving this message home. The author writes:

Making customers register before they checkout is a barrier to purchase, yet many online retailers have yet to learn this lesson.

He goes on to say:

A recent Econsultancy / Toluna study found that 25.6% of online consumers would abandon a purchase if they were forced to register first.

The post goes on to outline a series of alternatives. However, interestingly it fails to mention my preferred approach. I recommend that ecommerce sites ask users to register when they have completed their transaction. This is the point where the user is thinking “what next” and provides a superb opportunity to layout the benefits of registering.

Of course, the problem with not forcing registration is that users effectively create multiple accounts. This is not great from a marketing and data hygiene point of view. However, the post makes a suggestion for dealing with this too based on Amazon:

Amazon has an interesting example of how to handle this. It will allow me to create a new account with a previously used email address, but warns me that the existing account will be disabled.

If I’m a reasonably regular customer who has simply forgotten their password, this will convince me to go down the password reset / reminder route and avoid losing my stored billing address and payment details.

However, if this is an old, unused account, then allowing customers to go ahead anyway avoids the pain of resetting the password.

Do you build or run ecommerce sites? How do you deal with the issue of registration? Is there a better way? Share your approach in the comments below.

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However, the mental association isn’t always so direct. BMW isn’t a very good example for most people because most people aren’t BMW, or even a car manufacturer. But everyone who has a website does provide a service. Even that person selling bespoke cupcakes from their kitchen to nerds across the globe is providing a service. One where the mental association can still be made because that’s just how the human brain works.

As such, it’s important to make sure that our websites perform at their best, both for business reasons and as a matter of professional pride.

How to measure page performance

Some of the best ways to test a page’s performance are also the least technical. Two of my favourites are simply to scroll the page up and down and resize the window. Watching as the browser tries to redraw the page can tell you a lot about how well that page is performing. A page that’s just raw text and images will scroll and resize more smoothly than the same text and images that’s been intricately styled.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that you should remove all styles from your pages. That’s would be silly and, quite frankly, ugly.

Let’s assume we’ve built a page, moved it around a bit and decided that we think it could perform better. The first thing we should do in that situation is try to discern where the performance issue is. To that end there are three tools that I like to use.

The first is a javascript bookmarklet by Andy Edinborough called “CSS Stress Test”. This little bookmarklet does a combination of scripted scrolling and sequentially disabling each CSS rule in turn to give you a list of the top offenders. When it’s completed it displays a table of the rules that, when disabled, saved you the most amount of time. It also tells you how many items that rule was applied to. Using this data you can modify your styles so they work better, or simply remove them completely if they’re unnecessary .

The second tool resides directly in the WebKit developer tools. For those of you who use Chrome (it’s not in Safari just yet) you can click the Profile tab of the Web Inspector and record CSS events. Once you stop recording it presents you with information about the selectors that were called in your CSS and how much time it took to parse them (a percentage of the total).

Another related feature in Chrome’s web inspector is the Timeline tab. It allows you to record events as you interact with them on the page. By using it you get a breakdown of when things are recalculated, when layouts shift or when items are painted (rendered). This tool, while a little confusing, can be extremely powerful and very useful in narrowing down exactly where the performance starts to degrade.

A few quick tips on CSS performance

1. One thing we’ve always been told is that CSS rules that target an ID perform better than rules that target a class. While this is true it’s only a tiny difference and usually not worth worrying about.
2. Generally speaking, if a page is slow to resize it’s likely a layout property (float, fluid width, etc.) and if it’s slow to scroll it’s likely an aesthetic property (such as shadows and gradients) that’s slowing the page down.
3. CSS 3 properties are some of the worst offenders when it comes to page performance. Especially animations and @font-face. Use them wisely.
4. Javascript and Flash both have hardware acceleration support in most modern browser; CSS does not except in some implementations of WebKit and even then limited.
5. Mobile is a thing and even the best mobile phones aren’t as powerful as the best computers from a decade ago.

Putting it all into perspective

When you’re testing the performance of a page it’s easy to get distracted by minutia. One thing I try to keep in mind is that the human brain has a perception delay of around 80 milliseconds. That’s 80 milliseconds of time which our brains view as a single moment. So focusing on a few milliseconds here or there isn’t overly helpful.

Instead of obsessing over getting the best performance you can, focus on the big problems that slow things down and then move on. It’s important to remember what’s truly of consequence and why we’re doing this in the first place: to improve the experience for our users. We are trying to give them the best website we can and how well our pages perform is only one part of a larger story.

As always web development is a collaborative process and I’d love to hear any other tips, tricks and suggestions the community has for testing and improving a website’s performance. Let me (and others) know your advice in the comments below.

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When we meet with clients to ‘redesign’ their websites, they are often so fixated on the challenges surrounding the copy for their new site, that they fail to think longer term. This is a dangerous mistake as Kristina Halvorson makes clear in an article she wrote for .net magazine:

Many people assume that content strategy is about content creation – but in fact, that’s the easy bit. It’s what Halvorson calls the “messy stuff” surrounding the long-term management of content that forms the real challenge. Essentially, she explains, it’s all about asking the right questions early on in the process – “Who is the content coming from? Who owns the content? How will that content be maintained and developed after launch?”

“So really it’s about working to move organisations’ focus away from launching content and towards looking at content as something that lives within a long-term life cycle. And that requires a longer commitment than just a copywriter and a project manager for the website launch.”

This is a huge issue! We recommend that our clients create a new position in their organisation, one dedicated to content strategy – a content editor.

This person is not only responsible for initial content population but also for the ongoing quality of content on the site. They are responsible for editing what is added but also (and potentially more importantly) for removing content that is no longer helpful.

If you haven’t already, now is the time to consider the long term management of content on your site. As Kristina says:

Who owns the content? How will that content be maintained and developed after launch?

What is your approach to the management of content? Is an editor the right approach or is training of content contributors more important? Lets discuss the best way forward in the comments.

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This is understandable. Code can be pretty intimidating. In fact many web designers legitimately argue that clients don’t need to understand the code on their site.

Although there is no good reason why a client needs to know anything more than some basic HTML (if you don’t then its time to learn) they should still discuss code with their web designer.

The reason it is important to have this discussion is because how a site is coded has business repercussions.

Take for example a recent conversation I had with @sheerman. He tends to focus on coding extremely lean, clean code. This is ideal if a site has to download like lightening. However, it also makes changes to the site slightly more cumbersome.

If you want to constantly update your website, including moving elements around or making design changes, then you maybe better taking the approach favoured by @emerritt, another designer at Headscape. His approach is much more flexible but does result in slightly more code that could slow down a site.

Web designers argue endlessly about which approach is best. In reality the answer depends on the clients needs. That is why sooner or later web designer and client needs to discuss code. They don’t need to get into specifics, but they do need to discuss issues such as whether flexibility or speed is more important.

Of course that is just my opinion. What do you do? Do you discuss coding with your clients? If you are a client does discussing code terrify you? Let me know in the comments.

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I know what you’re thinking. Recognising the client’s abilities and including them in the process is all well and good, but what if the client fails to recognise your experience?

This feeling of not being taken seriously lies at the heart of the tension between client and web designer. As web designers we are experts in our field and yet we are not always treated as such.

To be taken more seriously we must change the dynamics of the relationship. We need to set up a partnership of experts.

How then do we persuade our clients to see us as experts, rather than mere implementors?

Unfortunately, there are many experts that will never be recognised as such. There are physicists with more experience than Stephen Hawking and web designers with more talent than Paul Boag (shocking though that sounds)!

Becoming perceived as an expert is about more than ability. You must presenting yourself in the right way. Begin by associating yourself with expert opinion.

Expertise by association

When a client has no idea whether your opinion is credible, it is pointless relying on your own experience to justify your position. Instead you need to use sources that the client respects.

One option is to use statistics and research. There is a great deal of research on user behaviour and user interface design. For example I often refer to ClickTales research on scrolling or studies by usability expert Jakob Nielsen.

There are several benefits to using stats and studies:

• They prove you are well read and knowledgable.
• They support your arguments by providing empirical evidence.
• They add to your credibility through association.

This approach only works if the client acknowledges the ability of the person you are quoting. If the client is not aware of the expert it falls to you to enlighten them.

It may be that talking about your own ability could be construed as arrogance. However, it is perfectly acceptable to talk about the accomplishments of others. In other words you can go on endlessly about how great Steve Krug is but you cannot do the same about yourself.

That said, once you have established the expert’s credibility, they are a useful tool in justifying your suggestions and may gain you some reflected glory in the eyes of your client.

Fortunately there are ways of directly establishing your own credibility without coming across as arrogant.

Speak with confidence

A client wants to know that you can deliver. They want to believe in your abilities. You must give them that confidence.

A big part of that is how we speak. If we speak with authority it will build a client’s confidence in our abilities. However, speaking with confidence is harder than you think. It is easy for confidence to turn into arrogance.

Being an expert is not just about confidence in your opinions. It is also being willing to say you don’t know or admit when you are wrong. True experts rarely feel the need to prove themselves and are willing to admit their weaknesses.

In my experience a willingness to show weakness can go along way with clients. I often tell clients if their ideas are better than mine or if I need a second opinion on an issue I am not confident about. I don’t believe this undermines me as an expert. Instead it shows that I am confident in my own abilities and I know my limitations. It shows I have nothing to prove. Sometimes we try too hard to show our expertise. A quiet confidence is often more effective.

However, an expert is confident enough to make suggestions and propose alternative approaches. He views the relationship as peer-to-peer, rather than supplier and client. He will challenge a client, but does so with gentleness and tact. He doesn’t need to force his point of view, allowing his experience to speak for itself.

Letting your experience speak for itself

We have already established that it is damaging to blow one’s own trumpet. How then do you let a jittery client at the beginning of a project know you can solve their problems? How do you show experience instead of talk about it?

You have three tools.

• Processes.
• Project history.
• Presentation.

Let’s look at each in turn.

Processes

Having a rock solid, clearly explained and proven process is one of the best ways of demonstrating your experience. This will instil confidence in your clients.

A process implies a well-considered approach used many times. Talking the client through your process from initial sketches to final website, makes it clear you have done this before and are confident you can apply your process to their project. Where they have no clue where to begin, you have experience.

Project history

It is always good to mention other projects when working with a new client. For example when they express a concern over some aspect of the project, refer to earlier work where you solved a similar problem.
Referring to past projects reinforces your experience and makes it clear the challenges of this project are nothing new. This will give confidence in your ability to deliver despite it appearing daunting to them.

Presentation

The way you present solutions to client problems is crucial. Whether it is discussing the best approach to a specific call to action or presenting an initial design idea, the way you do this will influence how confident the client will be in your abilities.

Presenting design is something we will look at later in the series. For now it is enough to say that confident presentation gives the client an insight into the depth and breadth of your experience.

Confidence, experience and ability goes a long way to establishing you as an expert. However, what if the relationship has already been damaged? What do you do if you are dealing with an existing client who sees you in a negative light?

Dealing with a damaged partnership

Whether your client is a boss or a long-term client who treats you as a pixel pusher, it is often not possible to start a relationship from scratch. Even with new clients, things can get off on the wrong foot despite our best intentions.

Fortunately, it is possible to salvage a bad relationship with some determination and humility.

Humility wins the war

When things go wrong with a client, we rarely blame ourselves. We normally consider that it is the client who has been unreasonable and caused the relationship to collapse.

Occasionally this is true. However, in most cases there are two sides to the conflict. At the very least you need to remember that it is you who is the supplier and you that should go the extra mile.

Even if you are the wronged party, you cannot allow your emotions to colour the situation. Often our pride and a desire for ‘justice’ clouds our thinking, leading us into confrontations that damage the relationship, the website and our business.

To repair the relationship the client must win some arguments. We must stop digging our heels in because of pride. Not all disagreements are equal. Some issues you will feel passionate about, others less so. Allow the client to win over less important issues to prove that you consider them an equal partner.

However, humility is not enough. We also need to be positive.

Positivity heals all wounds

Nothing will go further in restoring a good working relationship than a transformation in your attitude. Being positive inevitably encourages others to respond in kind if applied with enough conviction and consistency.

Go the extra mile for your clients. Get excited about their ideas. Praise them for their contribution. Show you appreciate them.

Not only will the client think twice about their behaviour, it will also transform your attitude. To begin with you may have to force yourself to be positive. However, over time your actions will transform your thinking. Where once you struggled to be positive about the client, eventually you’ll begin to truly appreciate their contribution to the project.

Changing attitude and behaviour is by far the most important step to take. However, a frank and honest conversation may help too.

Having a frank and honest conversation

When there is a damaged relationship it may be worthwhile discussing the problem with the client. Notice that I say it may be worthwhile. Depending on the client and your temperament, a change in behaviour may be more beneficial than a tense discussion.

That said, allowing the client to express their frustration is a good thing if you resist responding in kind.

For your part, the key is to acknowledge the clients feelings and if appropriate your own failings. Then put the past behind you and agree to start again.

Done right this kind of conversation can clear the air and allow a new beginning. However, do so with caution.

Next actions

Establishing a good working relationship with clients is not always easy. Finding the middle way between an arrogant expert and sulky pixel pusher can be difficult. Begin by:

Changing your own attitude

Become positive, keen to help and empathetic of the clients needs. Encourage your clients to contribute and wherever possible accommodate their ideas.

Changing how your client perceives you

Use stats, expert opinion and processes to prove that you are a safe pair of hands who is an expert web designer.

Establishing some ground rules

This may involve redefining existing relationships or kicking off new ones in the right way. Make it clear who is responsible for what, with the client focused on business goals, user needs and identifying problems.

With the right ground rules and attitude, projects will start on the right foot, with a solid working relationship. However, maintaining that relationship throughout the project can be tricky. For that you need some principles both parties work within. These are the principles of client centric web design that we will look at in the next post in the series.

A transcript of this episode is available here thanks to the guys at Pods In Print

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What’s Buffer?

Buffer, if you haven’t heard of it is a neat little service allowing you to schedule tweets. Although some may raise their hands in horror at the idea of scheduling a tweet, actually it makes a lot of sense – especially if you have lots of interesting links and articles to share. I don’t want to flood the timeline of others with what I have decided is fascinating in an endless stream when I happen to be in a ‘reading the Internets’ frame of mind. Also anyone not paying attentiont to Twitter (shocking!) during that time could easily miss my pearls of wisdom and fascinating links I find.

Buffer allows me to add anything of interest to a predetermined schedule, which I don’t even need to worry about once it has been set up. I just know anything I schedule will be added to the next slot without worry about timings. It’s all very quick and painless.

The task

Although we’ve been working on mobile for many years at Headscape, this personally is my first piece of iPhone specific design work. So I thought I’d share the experience by blogging the steps of the design progress as the project develops.

The first step of the task following an initial kick-off meeting with Joel and the team, was to get to know the app itself and the anatomy of iOS apps in general. I started the process by spending time using and poking the buffer service, the current app and identifying areas where the new incarnaton could potentially be improved.

Realisation

What I realised very quickly is just how much I have used iPhone apps, yet have never really looked or considered them analytically. The apps I use day-to-day on the iPhone are so intuitive that I have hardly considered how they work or how the user experience has been subtly crafted. This was quite a revelation. A good film score is often said to be the one you don’t really notice, but it’s constantly there in the background guiding the viewer on the mood of the scene. In the same way I realised that iOS has subconsciously become such second nature to me that I don’t differentiate that wildly between apps as I find the fundamental experiences between them so similar and intuitive.

So many options

When you start to analyse apps you realise just how many different techniques have been used to achieve the same result, and new innovations are being made all the time as we build up our small screen touch language. Just consider the pull-down-to-refresh gesture, and how quickly this became part of our interaction repertoire.

Let’s consider for a moment the need to swap between two different streams of information such as accounts in an app. This could be an Instant messaging app, or email, Twitter etc. There are many options;

• using a whole screen menu selected from the app dock
• swapping by touch avatar or button in the interface (this could result in overlaid panels, slide down panels, or a jump to a selection screen)
• swiping the whole screen with page indicators (as used by the main OS app screens)
• touching the page title banner itself
• swiping the title banner (as done in Sparrow mail – with small page indicators).

But which way is most appropriate? Are they all valid? Is selecting one much more complex for the programmer than another? Which is most intuitive? Which is best?

It’s hard to know the answer to this when you have used so many ways without even thinking about the issue. If pushed, personal choice may come down to which were the quickest, most natural feeling and pleasurable to use. The designer alone shouldn’t be making firm decisions here either, the decision can only really be made in discussion with the programmer so huge development overheads aren’t added unintentionally.

Reading

This is the point at which I decided to do a spot of reading around the subject of app design to understand the different principles of interaction design on iOS.

The first port of call for many at this point may well be the HIG, Apple’s own Human Interface Guidelines, which is quite lenthy but summed up nicely by Timothy Wood at the start of his book ‘WOW iOS Factor – Apps and UX Design Techniques for iPhone and iPad’ .

Here are some of the points that stood out for me, which I’ve summarised further:

• Finite Navigation: allow users to follow a single path through your content or functionality.

• Constrained Control Mapping: buttons, etc. should be perceived as secondary elements and maintain consistent positions.

• Constrained Control Quantity: keep the number of controls that you present to the user limited or reduced at every step.

• Control Clarity: Limit the number of unique control types when possible to avoid confusing the user.

• OS Offloading: functionality can be removed from an application and migrated to the iOS settings.

• User Interface Suppression: Control elements do not need to be omnipresent. Simple actions can invoke controls as they are needed in the interface.

• Progressive Disclosure: Try to provide functionality only where and when it is needed within the flow of an application.

• Brand and Identity De-emphasis: only use brand and identity statements where it makes sense, and tone it down every-where else.

• Gestural Restraint: Limit the number of unique ges-tures required to interact with your application.

• Hierarchical Restraint: a high degree of hierarchical structure makes it difficult to design a simple and easily understood path through an application.

Apps aren’t websites

Ok, so that may sound obvious. But the process of considering the Buffer app made me realise that my 17 years of web design experience was not going be that immediately helpful when tackling the interaction design of an iPhone app. Most of that knowledge is immediately redundant, with experience of mobile app interfaces, interface guidelines, patterns, usage, trends, with a bit of knowledge of programming overheads being much more useful.

In the next part I will show how I got started on the flow of the application and began on the wireframing process.

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He has little in the way of curriculum. His objective is a simple one. He is to engage with these young people and get them excited about mechanics in whatever way works best.

His solution to this challenge is an elegant one. He makes use of his students natural curiosity, following it wherever it takes them. If they want to learn about bikes, he works on bikes. If they want to understand how an engine works, they take one apart.

He combines this with real world experience. If they repair a car and make some money from it (within the limits of being unqualified), they get to keep the cash.

This struck me as a great strategy for kids that just didn’t respond to our traditional and extremely inflexible education experience.

Learning from medical schools

This combination of curiosity and real world business experience was further reinforced by a book I am reading called Brain Rules. In this book the author John Medina points to Medical Schools as an alternative and potentially better way to learn.

Medical schools combine traditional academic teaching with real world patient care. They often have a strong research wing that allows the curiosity ignited in the learning process to flourish into new areas of research.

The answer to web design education?

It strikes me that maybe this is the answer to the education problems we are seeing in web design. Although there are certainly some good courses out there, many are teaching hopelessly out of date techniques. As web design employers we often claim that new graduates are not equipped with the real world skills we need. Equally many graduates find it hard to get a job because they don’t have the experience many employers demand.

What if we took a page out of the medical school book? What if web design courses were effectively run as web design agencies? They would take on real clients with projects run by seasoned professionals and developed by students.

These professionals would also teach more academic classes based on their real experience of working with clients, unlike many traditional lecturers who have little in the way of current industry experience.

Money earned from working with commercial clients could be used to help reduce course fees, so making the course accessible to more students.

Finally in much the same way Google provide 20% time, these courses could leave room for personal projects and research. This would introduce the much needed innovation that is the lifeblood of our industry.

I am the first to admit I know nothing about web design education. There was no such thing when I attended university. However, it strikes me that a combination of real world experience and giving students time to explore their own curiosity (in terms of personal projects) could produce the next generation of web designers to carry innovation forward.

So would it work or am I being naive? Are you a lecturer, if so what are the problems? Are you an employer, do you think it would help the skill deficit? Are you a student, would you go on a course like this? Are you a client, would you employ a web design school? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for subscribing to Boagworld; a web design blog, forum and podcast run by Paul Boag and friends.

If you are new to my feed may I recommend also:

• Following me on Twitter
• Checking out my get started guide
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• Maybe even hiring me!

Thanks for subscribing to Boagworld; a web design blog, forum and podcast run by Paul Boag and friends.

If you are new to my feed may I recommend also:

• Following me on Twitter
• Checking out my get started guide
• Having a look through the archive of posts
• Subscribing to the podcast
• Visiting the forum
• Maybe even hiring me!

I had to do this recently when working on the collateral that supports my new book “Client Centric Web Design”. I had to superimpose my book cover on a real book and also show a page on an iPad. In both cases getting the perspective right turned into a real headache. Something that should have taken seconds, took far too long.

I am the first to admit that this is probably a sign of my outdated Photoshop skills, but even taking this into account there has to be an easier way.

It turns out the answer is a website called PSDCovers. The site includes a large range of 3D objects from books to iPhones. Each item has an associated Photoshop action.

To put your texture on the object, download the action and run it in Photoshop.

There are two steps with each action. The first produces a flat template that you post your texture into. This template also includes detailed instructions on each part of the template.

Step two is where the magic happens. By running the second part of the action it transforms your flat template into the final object. It takes a few seconds to run but the results are amazing. Best of all the object has a transparent background meaning it can be easily added to any image or combined with other objects.

I am sure that a Photoshop expert could do this easily. However, I see this as a superb way for non Photoshop experts (clients) to apply their branding to a range of objects.

Thanks for subscribing to Boagworld; a web design blog, forum and podcast run by Paul Boag and friends.

If you are new to my feed may I recommend also:

• Following me on Twitter
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