Web Designer & Client Etiquette Guidelines

Like any relationship, a business relationship between a web designer and client need a certain amount of etiquette to survive. Each party needs to be polite, reasonable and tolerant to make the project a success. Some clients can be harder to work with, if they don’t have a clear vision of what they want or are being too pushy with specifications that they don’t fully understand. It’s up to the web designer to interpret the client as best they can and work with them to extract the best possible result. However, the client also has a responsibility to help their designer understand exactly what their vision is and also accept they are an expert in their field.

Help Each Other

Working on a web design project needs input from both the client and web designer. Both parties together are a team and they need to help each other throughout the development process. You probably think this is stating the obvious but between the designer and client, there are many things you can do to help each other. The designer has an obligation to help the client with ideas, advice and training. Quite often a designer will simply take a brief and follow it to the exact detail… this may be OK in some instances but most of the time the brief will need further input. The client has come to the web designer because they are a professional in their field, not because they simply need the manual labour to build a website. The designer should offer creative advice on the client’s online business model, ways it could be improved and the best way to achieve their goals.

The client also has an obligation to help the web designer. Along the development process the web designer will need information, technical details and website content. The client needs to be as descriptive as possible and give as much guidance as they can so their designer has a total understanding of the project requirements.

Another area that can often cause problems is unrealistic time-lines. The client should make the effort to understand the amount of work that is needed and not expect the job to be completed in a unreasonable time frame. It is also up to the web designer to educate the client on how much work is needed and not accept the job if the time line is unreasonable… this can open a whole other can of worms that I’ll save for another article.

Don’t Be Over Sensitive

Designers sometimes have a bit of a reputation for being over sensitive when it comes to their precious work. It’s OK  for them to defend their work, as they have probably put a lot of time and effort into the project and have reasons for doing things a certain way. But it’s no excuse for being over-sensitive. Being able to take criticism comes with territory of being a designer. A good web designer needs to be able to take any criticism of their work and turn it into a positive to make the design even better.

The client also needs to take any criticism or advice from the web designer without getting offended. They may offer an alternate way of doing something or suggest a modification that might not be what the client’s original vision was. A good client should look at the reasoning behind the advice and consider it as a possibility, without taking it as a personal dig.

Sometimes others will see things totally different to you and offer a unique perspective. What might be seen as criticism is only a viewpoint from another unique individual. You should use that viewpoint to enhance what you know.

Be Professional

This might seem like an obvious point but being professional doesn’t always come naturally. When you’re meeting, both parties should be professional by conducting themselves respectfully and politely. You’re both there to conduct business, not catch up for a chat. Be aware of what you say until you get to know each other a bit better. You are unaware of the each others views, beliefs and how casual your both are. You don’t want to make a comment on your views on religion or politic if it’s going to offend the other party.

Keep Your Word

This is a must in any web designer and client relationship. Both parties must keep their word. If the designer says they will have something ready by a certain time, they must do what ever they can to meet the deadline and the same goes for the client. If the client says they will have the content ready or make a payment by a particular time, they too must keep their word. There is nothing worse than telling each other one thing and doing another. If for whatever reason either party is having problems meeting a deadline or making a payment, let each other know and arrange another time that is suitable. This also applies to meetings… be on time for your meetings. When a web designer or client has arranged a meeting, they have kept time free for each other and neither of them will want to reschedule or have their day’s plans knocked out because someone was late.

Conclusion

All these points should be common sense when dealing with a client or web designer but unfortunately to a few they are not. If  you’re a client stuck with a designer who doesn’t abide by these simple etiquette guidelines, I would start looking elsewhere, otherwise they could be detrimental to your project’s success.

The same goes for designers that might have a client who doesn’t follow these etiquette guidelines. That client will be hard to work with and could affect the way you work on other projects. If this happens, you need to evaluate whether the energy you’re putting into that account is worthwhile in the scope of the rest of your business.