Mark Poppen

Happy Camper

Recently I had a conversation with a young designer who told me something like “When my client approves my design, I’m happy, even when I know it can be better”. This inspired me to write this post, because I think he’s wrong.

The client

Usually, clients hire you, because they can’t design their own website. This can be for many reasons like, no interest in computers, not having an internet connection (trust me, it happens), they lack creativity or they simply don’t want to learn. They come to you, because you’re an expert in your field, or at least, that’s what you made them think, ’cause why else would they choose you over someone else? Anyway, they chose you, because they trust you doing a better job than they could.
A happy client is someone who likes what you create for him, but better yet, likes the results, like having customers that tell him “I found your place through your website”.
The other category is the client that was being pushed into getting a website by others, but doesn’t really want one, because it’s costing him money. This is the client that’s likely to tell you “yes” to whatever you design for him.

Both these categories are valuable clients!

Show others

9 Out of 10 times I run my designs through other designers to make sure I didn’t miss crucial design elements. When another designer tells me something is wrong, or there’s something that could be better, I change it, even if my client approved the design already. Of course, I show the revision as well, making sure he still likes it, but a designer’s opinion is worth at least as much, if not more than the client’s.

Why, you ask? Simple: clients don’t see the difference between 10% opacity or 15%. They don’t notice the 1px width-difference. If their site generally looks alright, they’ll be fine with it. Now, again: why is designer-feedback so important? Because it makes yourself grow as a designer, it makes you more of a professional, and your next designs will look better because of the feedback you get from your colleagues. It also makes you more credible as a designer. When you put the site in your portfolio that’s “meh..” because one client thinks “it’s good enough”, other clients may notice the flaw(s) in the design and will not hire you because of it.

Paul Boag mentioned one time: “It’s simple to ask the client for his opinion, but that’s irrelevant. You should ask what his target audience will think of the design”.

Like Andrew Locke says: “Marketing is everything, and everything is marketing”, and that is so true. People can’t tell you’re a great guy to work with from looking at your portfolio. You have to impress them first. Once you’ve achieved that, Mr. Nice guy kicks in.

Let me know how you handle critique from clients and other designers. Do you show your designs to others, beside your client?

Tags: Business, happy client, marketing, tip

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 9:18 am and is filed under Business, Design, Learning-experience, Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.