Being a graphic/web designer for a small, cozy firm is miraculous, awesome and sometimes a little bit daunting. When we get a new client and the contracts are approved, everything comes down to me and the following obstacles: What is the new site going to look like? How will the content be organized for maximum clarity and usability? How will it function? What will it say? How will visitors respond?

Now, I do not have the final say in many of these aspects, but they all hinge on how I decide to design the site. Because I’m the design expert, and the client hired us—and me—to create a new website that encompasses everything they do, I am required to uphold their trust and prove to them that we can do what they want. Their first bit of investment is presented through me with the designs I create for them.

See what I mean about the ‘daunting’ part?

However, I am only one person, and if a client is unsatisfied with my designs, the company will not plummet headfast into Purgatory. On the contrary, by learning what the client doesn’t like, I am more able to produce something that they do like. Like the old adage says: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” And again and again.

I will say now that very rarely does a client fall head over heals in love with my first design (although it has happened before). Instead, there are many emails, phone calls and revisions going back and forth before a design is approved. I am not a mind reader after all. They know more about their business and their needs than I do. I am here to translate those needs into visual ideas, through the language of design as well as web development. And just like languages, there are many things that get lost between the words.

What I’m trying to get at is basically the same thing a sports coach would say: Don’t give up! You can do this! Don’t hold yourself back! You WILL succeed!” Don’t forget that you are the expert and without you, the client would have no website at all, or at most an outdated, functionless mess of coding. But this does not trump the fact you are working for them. Your No. 1 responsibility is to make the client happy, even when their ideas may make your designer’s soul cringe. This is where patience is required, followed by humility if the client stubbornly refuses to see how horrible a certain idea is.

Now honesty makes its move. You shouldn’t be afraid to tell the client that an idea of theirs won’t work. Again, they hired you—The Expert. Explain to them honestly why it won’t work by giving sound, understandable reasons. Don’t say you can’t do it because it’s too hard. You’ll look lazy. Don’t say you can’t do it because you don’t know how. Find out and learn how. Don’t say that you can’t do it because it will look bad without giving them the chance to see just how bad. Honesty is the key. There must be an open relationship maintained between designer and client. Just tell it like it is, in a professional manner of course.

For more references and tips, checkout this article: How to Explain to Clients that They are Wrong.

Image Source: www.deviantart.com