Comments on: Introducing Client Centric Design

By: Paul Boag

Paul Boag — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:41:00 +0000

There comes a point in my opinion where if a client insists on an approach despite you having explained it will be detrimental, then you have to just give them what they want. However, I have to say if you have the patience this rarely occurs.

By: gianpi

gianpi — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:30:00 +0000

In theory I agree with you: it’s quite immature and unprofessional to say you won’t work with people that “don’t get it”. However I think you and josef are talking about slightly different situations.

In your case you’re assuming to work with reasonable individuals that have their ideas and can contribute with vital feedback and information (and that’s where I totally agree with you and your client-centric design).

But I had to deal more than once with clients who would make decisions about small details, and with no real rationale. I got this once: “Here I want a slider instead of a button, because I don’t like buttons”, and while we tried to explain why in that specific case it wasn’t a good user experience, he didn’t move from that, and the only reason he had was this “because I don’t like it”. This repeated all along the project, in similar situation, and please keep in mind we were hired specifically for our UCD approach, to make the best product for this guy’s customers, and not for his personal taste.
So are you really giving this person a good service if you lead the project by being client centric?

Ultimately he’s paying for it, so of course we do our best to explain our suggestions, but we end up doing it or walk away, but I don’t think picking and choosing the clients is always wrong either.

By: David Cameron Hickox

David Cameron Hickox — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:13:00 +0000

Yes yes. I have learned to basically never email clients. What you want is a dialogue that carries you throughout the development process. Email is a place for dictation, not dialogue.

By: David Cameron Hickox

David Cameron Hickox — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:09:00 +0000

I’m excited for this new series and I do think it combats a growing problem in our industry. What I’ve found is that a lot of times client feedback does dramatic improve your results. When we’re done with an idea or design, we naturally want someone to sign off on it entirely so that we can be proud of ourselves and move on. But often we get so deep in design decisions that we don’t see to total picture from afar and can’t recognize when we’ve wandered off base from the initial concept and goals. However inarticulate client comments can be at times, I find that the designs I end up with after 2 or 3 rounds of client revisions are much better than my original concept. What starts as “GD why do I have to be concerned with this foolish pursuit” often ends up with “dammit, they were totally right” by the end of the process.

By: Andrew Ingram

Andrew Ingram — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:23:00 +0000

There seems to be some confusion within this article as to what argument it’s making. It starts out wondering why people are abandoning client work for in-house stuff, and goes on to describe how to build a better relationship with clients.

A lot of what you’re saying is about how clients know their customers best (which is often, but not always, true), but as web designers (and developers and UX people) we have to engage in a LOT of discussion/meetings with clients to build up the relationship and learn what we can about the customers. For some web designers, this relationship itself is a large component of what makes their job so fulfilling.

For others, however, we just want to spend all our time building stuff – good stuff. So we look to build in-house. We choose to either scratch our own itch, in which case we know what our customers want because were ARE our customers. Or we join an organisation with customers we can strongly empathise with (my first job working in-house on the Forbidden Planet e-commerce site was an example of this). The idea being to cut down the number of discussions required to know our customers and spend more time building good products. Because at the end of the day, I get my kicks out of building things that I *know* people enjoy using.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that choosing to go in-house isn’t in conflict with your values. Everyone has their preferences. I would go so far as to say that many people start out doing agency work because (let’s be honest) it’s probably the easiest way into the industry, so it’s unsurprising that the tide is from agency towards in-house. But I would expect to see this a a stable thing, there’ll always be a steady proportion of people who are happy doing client work, and there’ll be a steady proportion of people who realise they’ll be happier doing in-house, so make the switch.

By: Nick Bramwell

Nick Bramwell — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:38:00 +0000

Great first episode to the new series.

Already thinking about how I can develop better long term relationships with clients. Probably by having monthly Skype/telephone chats to discuss how the Web site is working and how we can improve it.

By: Janko Bosch

Janko Bosch — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:22:00 +0000

That’s in interesting point. Can you expect a client to know as much about interfaces and the shifts that are happening continuously?

In my experience clients simply choose solutions that they already know. Because they’re familiar with it. It’s part of our job to introduce new ways to navigate that are emerging. Simply because they will be the norm within a year.I believe there’s a tension in that area. The old methods of using interfaces might not hurt business but it doesn’t help either. Can you tell us more how you deal with clients who lack internet knowledge to judge solutions correctly?

By: Petra Dueck

Petra Dueck — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:17:00 +0000

I bought your book and am ready for this podcast season.

My husband snorted in agreement when I told him I thought I might really need this sort of podcast right now. 16 years of ‘bad dates’ with clients have built up enough neuroticism that I think I just need some good therapy so I can love client work again. I love clients but I have a hard time loving working for them any more. Looks like this is just the program to help me with this. Looking forward to the next show.

Miss your weekly podcasts.

By: Andrew_Sharman

Andrew_Sharman — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 07:49:00 +0000

Really enjoyed listening to the podcast and the interview with Mark Boulton was particularly enlightening. I would agree that the key to a successful client relationship is having face-to-face meetings and telephone discussions as much as possible. Email is good for enabling a constant conversation with a client during a job, but the nuances of speech do not come across very well in type - and that’s an essential part of persuasion and negotiation. Looking forward to the next episode!

By: Luke Schumann

Luke Schumann — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:24:00 +0000

Maybe “bad” clients are the way they are because they’ve never had someone teach them how to be “good” clients. To help them understand why they’re being “bad” and how you as the “expert” can help them be “good.”

It is our job as “experts” to respectfully articulate, gently teach, shape and mold, build and contstruct the web design industry into a solid, reputable industry that clients will grow to learn and understand how it works. If a client enters into a contract with you and all they’ve ever known is a salty taste from previous bad experiences, then you’re already behind the 8 ball and IMHO that “breakdown in trust” is entirely your responsibility as the “expert”.