Designing for Clients

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1

Hello,
I’ve just started my first “in house” web design job, and I’m having trouble hitting the mark with clients. There are two other designers, who have more experience, and we usually make 2-3 comps for the client. I’ve done a bunch of designs, and none of them have been selected yet. I don’t think it’s a matter of the designs looking terrible (If was that bad, they wouldn’t have hired me), but interpreting what the client is looking for, sometimes with just notes on paper of what they want to go by.

I’d appreciate some tips from experienced designers.

Thanks

2

hey mate,
my advice to you is to before starting design try to understand as much as u can from piece of paper provided to you from client and then look to best sites featured on many template sites from there you can chose best of the design, which relate your client needs and then try to make something similar but unique using your client content and logo. That is what most of the designer been doing but not always i refer any site but its very useful many times :slight_smile:

3

Hey man, you are seriously cool! I love your style, I love your signature link, and I love your directness.

I’m gonna learn from you dude!

I sometimes do exactly what you suggest. Copy the gear. Tweak it a bit. Roll it out. Get the green. No worries baby!

4

[ot]

But how on earth did you know about that?

The internets, baby.

Though while I don’t keep up with Bruce’s stuff much anymore, I’m not into HTML5 really, but his writing style reminds me of… me. Lawlz. He’s goofy and friendly and fun and very relaxed, plus I loved Geocities ZenGarden : )

If you were talking about Emaar’s page, I don’t even remember giving him a solution… Deathshadow ended up doing a recode for him.[/ot]

5

Andrew and anyone else who’s curious, for off-topic posts, just mark up your text with [ ot ] and [ /ot ] (no spaces).

6

[ot]You are an extraordinary woman!

You are referring to the offer made to me by Bruce Lawson – the guy who’s helping to develop HTML5. But how on earth did you know about that?

PS. This comment is off topic but I don’t know how to put it in one of those dinky crimson boxes.[/ot]

Off Topic:

PPS. You wrote a really clever comment on the CSS forum a few days ago. It was in reply to a gentleman from Pakistan who had a 700px offset. Your solution was something which had never occurred to me. Bravo!

7

Most clients like a clean look style layout. Not much graphics but with a very striking appeal. Just get back to the basics and you’ll never go wrong.

8

I am not a designer but have you asked the other two for honest feedback or tips as to why they seem to be having an easier time?

It may be just one of those things you get better at, though if you don’t ask your colleagues enough questions you will find it harder.

Obviously don’t pester them but it doesn’t harm to glean the odd tip as they are basically working from the same stuff.

9

I find that research is the best way to get a handle on what their looking for. I understand the issue of not having much to go on, but do they provide you with their existing website or what their business is aimed at? Based on those kind of intimate details you should be able to investigate their competitors, the types of clients they deal with and get an idea for where they currently stand. It may seem rather simple but doing some comprehensive Google work on how their niche will relate to their clients will help you get an idea as to what will work under the circumstances. Obviously you don’t need to become an expert in their field, but knowing with a little more accuracy what they will be expecting through their current business practices gives you more of a psychological picture you can work from (going from emails alone just gives you one side of the picture). Hopefully this is along the kind of lines you were looking for! :slight_smile:

10

I never produce detailed comps at the start. Instead, I tell my clients to expect a series of samples, ideas or concepts. I explain that these concepts may initially be rather crude, but over a few days or so will evolve into something more substantial. This approach works well: it gives me leeway in the early stages; and it gives clients a greater understanding of the design process.

Does this make sense? If not, here’s an example. Take a look at the website I made for <snip>. It was finished last October.

It features at number 7 in this list of <snip>; it features at number 15 in this list of <snip>; and it was accepted by more than 30 website design galleries. All in all, it was probably the most successful piece of work I’ve done since my CSS Zen Garden design, Mozart.

But it began life as nothing more than a crude idea, <snip>. Not exactly impressive, is it? But the client didn’t mind since they knew in advance what to expect.

Soon after, I offered <snip>, and at this point the client took a bit more interest. They asked me to pursue this idea: it evolved into <snip>, and after that things were fairly easy.

Another example. Last week I finished this website, <snip>. Believe it or not, my first idea was <snip>. Isn’t that awful?

Next I tried this, <snip>. That got the green light, and rapidly became <snip>. This generated a lot of feedback (most notably about the size of the letters), and so with a bit of tweaking evolved into this, <snip>. At that point I switched off Photoshop and managed the rest of the design in the browser.

Ultimately, you need to be honest about your strengths and weaknesses. Are you really capable of interpreting a client’s brief and producing a detailed comp? Or would you be happier evolving things step by step? I personally would hate to work in a design studio that placed constraints on the way I work.

Put it this way. Last Friday I was paid a chunk of money to re-design this website, <snip>. I don’t know yet what I’ll do. But the client has seen the library of samples that I’ve produced for former clients: he knows how I work; he knows what to expect; and he has full confidence that I’ll be able to bring the new design to fruition. And you know what? He’s right. I’ll get there. It might take a couple of days; it might take a bit longer. But I’ll get there.

As I said, know your strengths and weaknesses, and try to make them work to your advantage.

11

[ot]

Hey, did Bruce ever send you that kilo of what he was smoking yet? : )

Mozart was always one of my fav ZenGarden designs.[/ot]

12

I like designing of web pages, that is why I am learning it from a good institute now a days, I want to be a web designer.