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Communication and transparency between designer and client from the "get-go" leads to trust, flexibility, diplomacy, collaboration, and creativity. Designers are not mind readers, so it is important for designers and clients to develop a partnership by working together collaborating ideas and asking questions that explore and specify all key factors, details, and goals of a project. A good web design company knows that what its client is demanding and what they are not able to explain.
Fears, desires and budget should all be discussed
with your designer before your project commences. These conversations can be
revisited throughout the process. Express any concerns and/or desires you may
have as it relates to the project or your organization. Talk openly about your
budget. Although conversations about money are sometimes uncomfortable, it
should be treated no differently than that of timelines and overall project
goals. Having shared understandings around these will help ensure you are
presented with solutions that address the above while being realistic about
your resources. Patrick Zarrelli is
running Dependable Website Management and his company likes to maintain the
friendly and understandable relationship with their clients.
Don't be afraid to ask your designer or design team
lots of questions. Often, the most basic questions lead to conversations and
feedback that are vital to meet the goals of the project. Don't be afraid to
ask "stupid" questions. The seemingly stupid questions can reveal
critical information and provoke deeper conversations that may influence the
success of the project. Expect your designer to ask you a lot of questions too. Patrick Zarrelli has an exceptional sense
of understandability that what his client is
trying to explain, he knows before them .Your designer will most likely
learn about your organization by doing their own research to get familiar, but
hearing about the organization in your own words will often reveal more meaningful
information. In turn, these conversations and words can inspire the creative
process.
The way you communicate feedback is important.
Providing feedback to your designer is part of the process but not all feedback
is created equal. Be prepared to explain your feedback. Designers put a lot of
time, research, and energy into the solutions presented help your designer understand how you arrived
at your conclusions, so she is fully informed on how to make the appropriate
next steps in the design process. For example, saying that you would like to
change the call-to-action button color is not as valuable as telling your
designer you want that area to stand out more because one of the main goals of
the site is to get users to click on it. With the latter feedback, your
designer can help you assess what changes need to be made to really make that
happen. Focus on providing quality feedback based on the strategic goals of the
project rather than things like color and fonts. While the visual aesthetics
are valuable, a solution that looks nice but doesn't solve the problem is a
disservice and a waste of time for everyone.
Hopefully this article has provided some insight in
successfully improving and maintaining your relationship with your design
partner. This article isn't comprehensive there are many different ways to
effectively communicate and build a good designer-client relationship, but good
communication leads to shared goals, which will strengthen any of the
relationships you currently have and help build a solid foundation for future
designer-client relationships.
