When it comes to marketing, websites and blogs, customers often lead with their heart. Everything from, wanting white text on a black background to changing the shade of red 5 times to get it right. What seems “right” now might not be what’s best for site visitors. Designing a site for visitors that captures the goals and branding of the site owner is our job. So what do we do when the client wants to micromanage the project?
My opinion is simple on this one. In the contract, limit the number of hours or number of versions you will design for a client post completion of 1st draft. You should gather enough info to get the bulk of the project correct on the first draft, tweak on the second draft, and finalize the third draft.
Stress up front:
- the importance of making thorough changes on the first revision
- making subtle color changes on minor elements of a webpage can disrupt the overall design
- the more we pick at the site, the longer it takes to go live and start working.
- we can always test changes later to evaluate effectiveness.
Everyone has an opinion on how something should look so lets focus on elements that meet your site goals
That being said, the design company isn’t always right either. I’ve seen a lot of designs that were very unique, pretty, or intence that had very little practical value to a visitor. It appears it was designed for design sake with no clear intention.
At Webmanna we probably do way too much for our clients. We want so much to please that sometimes we will spend weeks making little changes. This probably not the best practice. It enables clients to make contstant changes and annoys the staff who have some projects that stretch out forever and never seem to get completed. They don’t get paid until the site is completed. The main issue is the client already approved it, and then comes back and wants to try something else. We do our best to make everyone happy, and sometimes that bites us in the butt.
It can be a fine line, defining a completed site. Who says it is complete? That’s why spelling it out in a contract up front is important. I’m recommending we alter our contracts to say “3 revisions” after initial presentation. I have seen that adding that sort of deadline focuses everyone energy into getting the details right with just a few instead of a few dozen. Read about Parkinsons law of deadlines. So many changes costs everybody time and money. Further changes should occur under a maintenance agreement or an hourly fee.
Customers are Not Always Right
When it comes to marketing, websites and blogs, customers often lead with their heart. Everything from, wanting white text on a black background to changing the shade of red 5 times to get it right. What seems “right” now might not be what’s best for site visitors. Designing a site for visitors that captures the goals and branding of the site owner is our job. So what do we do when the client wants to micromanage the project?
My opinion is simple on this one. In the contract, limit the number of hours or number of versions you will design for a client post completion of 1st draft. You should gather enough info to get the bulk of the project correct on the first draft, tweak on the second draft, and finalize the third draft.
Stress up front:
Everyone has an opinion on how something should look so lets focus on elements that meet your site goals
That being said, the design company isn’t always right either. I’ve seen a lot of designs that were very unique, pretty, or intence that had very little practical value to a visitor. It appears it was designed for design sake with no clear intention.
At Webmanna we probably do way too much for our clients. We want so much to please that sometimes we will spend weeks making little changes. This probably not the best practice. It enables clients to make contstant changes and annoys the staff who have some projects that stretch out forever and never seem to get completed. They don’t get paid until the site is completed. The main issue is the client already approved it, and then comes back and wants to try something else. We do our best to make everyone happy, and sometimes that bites us in the butt.
It can be a fine line, defining a completed site. Who says it is complete? That’s why spelling it out in a contract up front is important. I’m recommending we alter our contracts to say “3 revisions” after initial presentation. I have seen that adding that sort of deadline focuses everyone energy into getting the details right with just a few instead of a few dozen. Read about Parkinsons law of deadlines. So many changes costs everybody time and money. Further changes should occur under a maintenance agreement or an hourly fee.
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