How to deal with clients that doesn’t understand your designs

This is a very spicy topic, not much of you are willing to say what you think when it happens, and I understand but this is what happened to me this past weekend and how I deal with that in order to finish the project I have been doing for the past 4 months.

  1. Be patient: Nothing is more stressful than a desperate client but at the end of the day, they see the product in a different eye than we do. We imagine how the transitions will look, or sometimes we actually do the transitions, or why we select that shade of blue instead of a darker one, and many many more things. So try to listen to de client and be patient explaining the product.

What happens to me in this aspect is this, we struggle 30 minutes on how my client will select a day and an hour to create a shift for her company… This simple thing makes 30 minutes of my time fly away.


2. Understand that when the design isn’t clear, it’s your fault and not the developers fault: As a designer and developer I have control on the components I design and develop but sometimes I don’t do one thing, either design or develop. When my only role is design, I have to be very specific about what I did and how the workflow of the website/app should look and feel, that’s when prototyping tools come in handy.


What happened to me was that I was in charge of the development of an app and the designer was never worried about explaining the client or me how things should feel, how the interaction between components should be, so when I was talking with the client showing the workflow, we had some problems design wise.


3. Always bring a prototype with your designs, even if it’s Single Page Website with only 3 buttons in it: Why? It not only gives more credibility to your work, but it can help to show to the client how the real product would look like when it’s finished.


In my example, I didn’t have a prototype so I was flying solo in terms of look and feel.


I’m not saying that this is the secret key to deal with clients, but it’s the way I handle mine and only this time I had a problem. There is a lot to improve and I would like to hear what are your tips in the matter!

NYC Design

A publication for designers in New York and followers all around the world. Design thinking is what makes us write here on Medium to share with the designers of the world.

Roberto Moreno Celta

Written by

UX Designer & Front End Dev. Love for food, movies and video games.

NYC Design

A publication for designers in New York and followers all around the world. Design thinking is what makes us write here on Medium to share with the designers of the world.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade