The Designer/Client Relationship

A Clients Guide, wishful thinking? Perhaps. But, perhaps a consideration.

The digital world has vastly improved the speed of design. Proofs can be sent electronically and a great amount of design can be accomplished on computer in a much shorter amount of time than ever before.

However, technology has not made the design process simpler. Designers still need time to work with your company to decide the best way to represent it to the consumer.

Deadlines and project scope must be realistic and flexible enough to deal with the unexpected. Remember that you are buying a public face to your business, and value it accordingly.

Remember that your designer is a professional collaborator and not an employee, and brings a set of skills to your company that is geared towards expanding your business.

When you hire a designer, make sure that you make them part of your business day. Keep in touch at a frequency acceptable to both of you, and the design process will flow smoothly in both directions.

Designers, like all business contacts, appreciate returned messages, even if it is only an acknowledgment of receipt.

Spend an extra hour with your designer at the beginning to outline your needs and interests, and you will save hours of time down the road in regards to deadlines and project scope. Taking the time to deliver a sufficiently in-depth project brief ultimately serves as a cost-saving device for both parties.

A qualified designer is trained to analyze your professional needs and, with your input and guidance, craft visual expressions of your business. The client should understand that this skill goes beyond the personal aesthetic and often deals with the psychology of branding and public perception, and is as individual to your company as a fingerprint.

A designer’s suggestions and recommendations on the project are not simply what clients or designers find appealing or pleasing. Good quality design is engineered to appeal to your customer. Be fair in your criticism. Ask questions instead of making statements. If something does not work, explain your misgivings fully instead of simply.

Remember that your designer is a professional collaborator and not an employee, and brings a set of skills to your company that is geared towards expanding your business.

In addition, the concepts and ideas generated together represent a contractual agreement of confidentiality/exclusivity between the designer and client. Just as the Designer will not divulge your business operations, you and your staff are obligated to do the same for our business.

This is an excerpt from Business Of Design Online featuring Catherine Morley's A Client’s Guide to Professional Conduct in the Design Industry.

To me it all boils down to one thing: Respect.

Great read, pass it on.

That's Right,

HMK

This is a That's Right repost from March of 2008, thanks to el estratografico for the cool scan.

A Better Web Site 101

The smart folks over at Inside CRM have a nice post of quick tweaks will help you keep visitors engaged.

Here's a handful of some of my favorite tips from the article: 101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site.

Copywriting
Content, specifically text, is perhaps your site's most important asset. Make sure that it's up to snuff by following these improvements.

#5 Make headlines meaningful. Be sure to change any vague or cutesy headlines to something more up-front and meaningful.

#10 Stay simple. Simplify your message simply to avoid confusing visitors, while at the same time improving conversion rates.

#18 Be concise. Make sure that your copy is only as long as it needs to be to get your point across reasonably.

Usability
If your site isn't usable, visitors will not stick around. Take these small steps, and you'll have a more user-friendly site that's ripe for conversions.

#21 Make navigation consistent. Make sure that your site's navigation is on the same place on each page so that visitors don't get confused.

#24 Never ask for more information than you need. If you're currently asking for excessive information, rethink your data-mining tendencies. When you get greedy for data, you'll turn off some visitors.

#27 Link the site logo to the home page. Visitors will expect your logo to link to the home page, so make it easy for them to find it.

Search Engine Optimization
Follow these tips if you'd like to see an improvement on your search-engine rankings.

#35 Replace underscores with hyphens. In search-engine results, words separated by underscores will run together, while hypens will create a space between each word.

#39 Update content often. Give search engines a reason to keep coming back with fresh content.

#44 Turn off music. No one wants music to greet them every time they click a link, so turn off the music — or at least offer an easy option for disabling it.

#51 Avoid resizing the user's window. Let the user be in control of their browser, or your site will lose credibility.

Design
Spruce up your site's appearance using these design fixes.

#74 Reduce choices. Avoid overwhelming your visitor with lots of different options.

#77 Stay consistent. Check to make sure that colors and design are in the same general scheme so that visitors know they're still on your site.

#86 Limit each page to one topic. Give each page a singular purpose to avoid confusing visitors.

#92 Convert PDF files to HTML. Make browsing flow a little smoother by converting PDF files to a format that's more easily readable in a browser.

Great stuff, thanks guys!

That's Right,

HMK

You'll Appreciate This, Really.

Before we even get into any more Web 2.0, how about a little website hosting 101.

Thanks to the smart folks over at Agency Byte , I now have a better understanding of How Website Hosting Works, (in plain english, thank you) and this is a perfect piece to pass along to my clients as well.

That's Right,

HMK