Sketches like the Mitchell & Webb one above resonate with many designers. At some point in your career you’ve had a moment where you proudly present the result of many months work, only to hear “Well blue isn’t really a favourite colour of mine, can we try something stronger?” or “Just putting this out there: our competitors uses five dropdowns and we only have three…“.
Those pesky clients, it’s as if they don’t know the type of feedback us designers want. You’d swear that this was the first in-depth design project they’d ever worked on, right? Have they forgotten everything they learned in design school?
Good feedback is part of the job
It’s tempting to blame your client for getting useless feedback, but it’s not always correct. Clients aren’t naturally equipped to assess whether a given wireframe, or photoshop composition meets their needs, especially not if this is their first significant design project.
Every time in my career that I’ve gotten useless feedback it has always been because I hadn’t asked for anything more. Attaching a file to an email and asking for any thoughts the client may have is a sure way to get any thoughts that the client may have.
Explaining yourself
It can be quite frustrating, but you simply have to explain your process to clients. There has been a lot of discussion about whether clients should have to understand the processes, I believe it they do. A client is not equipped to critique a deliverable unless they understand what it shows, what assumptions you’re making, why you designed it that way, and what influence this deliverable has in the next steps in the process.
This cuts both ways. If a client approves things with only a cursory glance, it’s a sure sign that they either don’t understand the deliverable, or they don’t understand their own business and its goals. Either way, you will pay the price at some point, and changes will cost a lot more then.
Yes, there are truly irrational people you can’t help, who will stomp their feet and pout until they get three sidebars and 4 shades of red, but they are the exception.
Successful projects rely on good feedback, and part of the process is making sure you get it.
7 Comments
Oh, I could actually cry watching that video (and reading this post). How very true…
Posted by Jen at 11:38 am on 18 August, 2009.
The primary reason I’m not a designer is that I have a lot of trouble expressing what I *like* but very little issues finding fault with the stuff I don’t. That would also make me a nightmare client. Or maybe just ‘human’.
After listening to you in Cork last month, Des, I’ve gone out of my way to NOT put my opinions to developers. To try not a prescribe things that I have a preference for which cannot be articulated properly. It’s difficult for someone who knows what they don’t want to just be open to anything that comes in.
My solution so far has been to tattoo ‘HOW’ and ‘WHY’ under the eyelids of my eyes. They’ll remind me to answer the important questions.
Posted by mj at 11:58 am on 18 August, 2009.
I love that clip. And what you’re saying applies to practices other than design, as has lately come home to me in my own (editing) work. I’ve begun to be far more explicit about what I’ve changed, why I’ve changed it, and just why my edit is an improvement… And I’ve found an enormous drop in the number of edits and further changes I get back. Clients don’t want to be treated like idiots, but they do appreciate having things clearly explained to them. It’s also a pretty good standard to set myself - if I can’t explain why a change is necessary, then it probably isn’t. Now I’m just wondering why it took me so long to get that through my head. Equal parts ego and frustration, probably.
Posted by Elizabeth at 2:04 pm on 18 August, 2009.
The problem isn’t explaining the process, the problem isn’t the design, the problem is the clients you accept and work with. You want and should seek clients that want you and your expertise. A client that says “I like this, but what do you think?”. A client that realizes you know design better than they do.
Posted by allan branch at 2:55 pm on 18 August, 2009.
I think its very important that clients understands the process involved in both design and development. After all the end product is theirs, they’re paying for it.
However, as you’ve said Des, if it the client’s first time through the process you have to be prepared for a certain amount of hand-holding. When the most obvious solution is not the best but is all the client sees - then I’ve found myself doing a lot of hand-holding and some heel diggin-in too. Although it can be a fine line to walk.
Posted by Phil at 2:33 pm on 19 August, 2009.
I love you guys!!! Your blog helps me a lot with my job.
Keep up the good work. Best of luck!!!
Dileep - Sri Lanka
Posted by DileepNK at 6:39 pm on 19 August, 2009.
The flip side that I encounter somewhat regularly is the client that receives explicit instructions about what they are getting and what is expected back from them, and simply ignores them. Educating a client is really a process, and there is an art to delicately saying things that could be paraphrased as: “I’m sorry, did you actually read the email that I sent along with that mockup?”
Posted by TomK at 11:24 pm on 4 November, 2009.
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[...] Traynor writes about how to get valuable feedback from your clients. He writes from a designer perspective, but the key points just as well apply for [...]
Posted by Schauderhaft » How to ask for a critique at 9:38 am on 30 August, 2009