Lead your goals and your clients goals
This post is a piece of the article 10 guidelines for Kickass World Class website
I have made these mistakes more than once and I am going to start off with a bold statement:
Considering you have the right skills, you will be as good as a Designer as you are flirting with other people.
After reading this topic, it might make sense to you — in that case congrats, you have what it takes to be a real Designer — if it doesn’t… well, good luck.
This is probably the most important and extensive part of your process. For the simple fact that you will deal with it all the time. Yeah, all the time.
You have to lead your goals and your clients goals. Please remind them you are part of the process for a reason. Shallow Designers and introverts may not get the point. That is also OK.
The fact is, shallow Designers and bad Art Directors don’t design for people and barely address the business needs associated with the project. Nothing against any of those involved. I am a shallow Designer myself with a lot to learn. But this type of professionals design for their ego or, at most, for other Designers to judge.
You can actually feel the bubble in these cases, we push pixels and make it look cool, fresh and [please insert cliché word here]. Well congrats, the client is gonna love it… and then ruin it - with a “3-pages-small-feedback”.
And you know why? Because we made it all about us.
I have read a great interview with Dan Mall for 99U where he explains the same kind of frustration you may have as a Designer:
“If you’re worried about how a client is going to react to something, you likely could have addressed that issue at an earlier stage. It’s better to have those conversations earlier so that you and the client know that something is right rather than having to convince the client that it is. Good design start very early in a process.”
There is nothing more offensive for me than “it looks nice” kinda feedback. Maybe it is just me, but as a Designer I feel disrespected and misunderstood. And you know the worst part? It is actually my fault, our fault. We constantly led people to believe visual aspect is all that matters, so they gonna judge you as a makeup artist, a kid in a playground and never as problem solver. The more you keep the client out of the loop, the harder it will be for them to accept your Designer point of view.
For the sake of good communication with your clients, you must lead the process and act like the kind of professional you are — a problem solver. The more effectively you iterate with them, the bigger the chances for them to trust you and let you do your thing. So be confident and let the client feel safe with you.
There seems the be an underlying problem when considering our interaction with clients. Lack of context is one of the biggest reasons our ideas get rejected — Not that they are not good enough — but people sometimes don’t get it because they don’t have the big picture in sight. They need context.
Contextualising is also when a Designer suddenly becomes a salesman, for the sake of triggering the other side’s understanding. Making them realise good Design just doesn’t sell itself:
Most great business ideas are not so clear and fashionable at first. Sometimes we forget that Design as an industry is not the same anymore so you better adapt. And you ask — But why should we do it if great Design is simply understandable and doesn’t need explanation?
Well, because it still needs to be sold. Again, learn how to flirt and you’ll get a different perspective. Sometimes, it has little to do with the quality of your work. I would rather say it is more about the trust and confidence you are bringing to the table. Never to get confused about those two.
If you want to stay alert about the way to sell your ideas more effectively and avoid some silly problems, maybe you should consider Mike Monteiro’s talk about the “13 Ways Designers Screw Up Client Presentations”
So keep that in mind. You may have the best website idea in sight, the best team ready to make it happen and the best client for that project. However, if you don’t lead the process and sell it properly, you are just getting ready to go to war - and you gonna get hurt.
(read the other posts on 10 guidelines for Kickass World Class website making)
