3 Things You Wish Clients Knew About the Web | June 27, 2006
What three things do you wish your clients knew about the web?
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1. If you wouldn’t do it to your customers in a real-life place of business, you shouldn’t do it to them on the web. (don’t make them wait, don’t hide from them, don’t blast them with loud music: be polite, welcoming and open)
2. The web works really well at providing direct connections between people. It’s really bad when used for brochure-ware.
3. Do not anger Google, the blind god. Please her and all like her, and all manner of goodness will follow.
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1. Web is not print
2. Everything will not look the same on every browser, no matter what you do
3. Think at least twice before solely relying on Flash.
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1. What a “Web Browser” is. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to explain that one.
me: “Go ahead and open your web browser”.
client: “My web what?”
me: “Web browser… like internet explorer”
client: “So you want me to open explorer, why didn’t you just say that”.
me: “Forget about it, let’s just get on with this”.
2. Resolution, resolution, resolution! Just because you have white space on the right side of your 30” Apple Cinema Display that your “IT” guy suggested you get, doesn’t mean that it is going to be there on my 667TiBook. Plus I can’t stand when people ask me how big my monitor is and expect that to correlate to how much you can fit on the screen.
“1280×1024… what’s that… I mean’t how big is your screen… how much can you put on it… like 17 inches of stuff or 20 inches.” (it just plain hurts)
3. “Yes this is easy for me to do. No that does not mean it will be done tomorrow. No that does not mean that it will only cost you $50”
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1. Second the web is not print.
2. Your screen is not the only screen resolution or size in the world (ditto this for IE as a browser).
3. Just putting a PDF online does not a community make.
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1) Yes, unfortunately even with the biggest monitor in the entire world, scrollbars are sometimes inevitable.
2) No, sorry, you cannot change the colour of said scrollbars.
3) Yes, I know other people have coloured scrollbars, but if I’m making your website, you can’t have them.
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1. Just because you’ve seen a Photoshop mockup doesn’t mean the hard part is over.
2. The web is not print.
3. It really is worth the time to make sure its accessible. I swear.
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Only one thing:
- Knowing how to built websites does not mean I can fix your broken [insert technological device here].
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- That the Internet does not live in their monitors.
- That progress is a healthy thing.
- That by using Yell.co.uk as your website is only detrimental to the overall image of their business
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1. I wish they would know how much crappy code was on the web. Maybe they will think twice next time they let their neighbor’s son do it for three pizzas and a monkey.
2. Being able to do print design doesn’t mean you can also do web design.
3. That web standards do matter!
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1. Content should not be an afterthought.
2. Features do not hide thin or non existent content
3. And finally, I’m realising that many of the clients I deal with just do not use the web to any great degree. So often people want to publish on a medium they do not use and consequently don’t understand
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1. Tables suck and CSS rules! And that’s exactly why it takes twice the time to finish a project.
2. People who don’t suffer from certain mental illnesses usually “Skip Intro”.
3. It’ll cost you twice as much as whatever you’re thinking.
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1. The launch party doesn’t mean the website is finished and will never need attention again
2. The quickest solution to a problem might not be the best solution
3. You shouldn’t be afraid of your customers (e.g. allow comments, encourage feedback, even negative feedback, etc)
(and a bonus 45678910: Your favorite color is not everyone’s favorite color not everything needs to be on the homepage the logo doesn’t need to be bigger buzzword marketingspeak is boring and ineffective your company might not actually need the latest bandwagon technology presentation and content are not the same thing look-and-feel and UI are not the same thing a website and a functional business plan are not the same thing)
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1. Visitors to your site may not be au-fe with your intra-departmental techno-babble. Don’t even think of using that terminology on a website.
2. There is one, and only one ‘homepage’. You can not arbitrarily refer to any-old page on your site as ‘the homepage’. No, not even ‘the homepage for that product’. That’s just a product page.
3. The web has conventions just as much as print. You wouldn’t want to put your catalogue index pages in the middle of the catalogue, despite your ability to do so. Neither should you want to mess with web convention, just because you can.
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- Your screen is not the only screen resolution or size in the world (ditto this for IE as a browser). I so agree to this one!
- No, I can’t just copy/paste your 200-page Word-document with tables and images right into the website. No, I won’t save it as that “techie-HTML-thingie-thing-I-do” neither.
- Why they need webhosting, and why I can’t give it for free to them…
And several other things (e.g. the fact I can’t “import” 500mb eps files directly into the website…)
Things posted above sounds familiar…
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1. You get what you pay for.
2. There’s more to a website than what you see on the screen.
3. The job isn’t finished when the website launches. Someone has got to take ownership and keep the damn thing maintained!
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1. You need to know what you want before we start work. Do not expect to come in halfway through the design and desire radical changes, and then balk when you are billed for extra hours and/or the deadline has to be changed.
2. (To echo above) You need well thought out content.
3. Brevity in your copy is key. No one wants to read 10 paragraphs when you can say what you need in two. And for the love of all that is holy, easy on the exclamation points. If you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.
(maybe that’s more like four, but you get the idea.)
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1. No, you can’t add more work and not pay more, any more than you can say to the grocery clerk - “I’m just going to take a few more things from this shelf — that won’t be extra, right?”
2. Your old Mom needs to upgrade from NN 4 if she wants your site to look right.
3. Believe it or not, just saying “We’re great! Our products are great! We’re the best! The best in the world!” won’t convince anyone to buy your product or services. Really.
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- Design is built around the content, not the other way around. You can’t just tell us, “build me a site and I’ll fill it up with stuff later.”
- Designers need something to work with. Tell us your plans, your vision, your web design likes and dislikes. Give us an outline of what you want the site to have. Give us something to work with, god damnit!
- Not everyone approaches the website the same way as you. Usability testing is f’ing important, god damnit!
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1. If I say I don’t know how to do something, it doesn’t mean I’ll pick up a book and learn it overnight. It means I don’t know how to do it.
2. I can’t read your mind. If you don’t tell me about a page you want on your web site, it won’t be on there.
3. Even though it would be faster, making your web site out of images and image maps is not smart. You’ll thank me later.
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1. If you can’t get to your web application, please check your Internet connection first! Don’t call me without knowing if Google works or not.
2. A (good) online store takes more than a week to develop.
3. Not everything is going to work perfectly from the start.
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- The way it looks in your browser is not necessarily the way it looks in someone else’s browser
- A Flash presentation created by your ad agency for distribution on CD-ROM doesn’t necessarily work well when posted on the web
- There’s a much easier and cheaper way to accomplish good search engine placement than paying snake-oil salesmen lots of money and buying keywords
Bonus item: the decisions you’re making for this redesign will have repercussions years down the line; it pays to take the time to do it right the first time.
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1. There’s good.
2. There’s cheap.
3. And, there’s fast.
Pick two.
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My wishlist varies depending on my role; I am both a web designer for an organization with distributed authoring and a freelance designer, and each realm produces clients with different misconceptions.
When the client is a content author in a large organization:
1. No, you cannot use animated GIFs. I know that you think they’re fun and create visual interest, but in actuality, the college-age audience you are trying to attact disagrees. The dancing Tux is no exception.
2. The font options for your website != the fonts on your computer. In fact, this is one of many, many things that Dreamweaver enables you to do that you never, ever should. A handful of Dreamweaver classes does not a web designer make.
3. Resolution. ‘Nuff said.
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1) If you build it, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll come.
2) Getting you on the fist page of Google takes time, commitment and money.
3) Give unto your website and it will give back to you.
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1) I seem to be selling a lot of blue on my site, cant you make it fill my screen, its so small…(Statement made after 3 months of development with intial guidelines for fixed 1024×768 resolution????)
How many more times can I hear this before I get violent?
2) but the colors dont look the same in our brochure.
3) patience is a virtue and payement is a right!
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- No, I cannot fix your email problems
- Getting you to #1 for a phrase that is unmentioned in any of the text you have given will take a lot of work and a long time on your new site
- Notice how when I load the site on my laptop it looks different to how it looks on your monitor beside it? There are lots of other different monitors too!
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1) Anyone can build a website….. but it doesn’t always mean that they should.
2) Be realistic - just because it’s on the web, doesn’t mean it should be free - if you want a product / service be prepared to pay for it… and be prepared to pay realistic prices (I actually get more requests for freebies than we have paying customers on a ratio of about 1:50!)
3) Quality counts - we’re back to point 1. OK, someone may be able to do something cheaper than you can but 9 times out of 10 I bet the saying “you get what you pay for” could probably be applied to the end result… and the client will end up paying more in the long run.
3a) (what!? - oh go on, had to squeeze this in!) - Ethics.
As a website owner I believe you have a ethical responsibility - don’t send spam, build your sites using valid code, don’t try and spam the search engines and try to make your sites accessible - if we all did this, the world (or at least the web) would be a much better place.
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1. Your website is NOT a brochure. It is much more.
2. Everyone is different. Not all of your visitors/customers are using IE6 with a 17” TFT.
3. Just because something is true today doesn’t mean it will still be true tomorrow. The web changes fast. Your site needs to be able to cope with that.
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1) I wish they knew nothing and leave everything up to us!
2) I wish they did’t think of us as technicians
3)I wish they actually knew what is SEO
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1. Designers are professionals. You should take their advice when they tell you your colour combination is a horrible choice.
2. There will be some variation in how different people see your website.
3. Comic Sans font is an abomination.
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1. No I can’t just “write some stuff” for the site. I can prepare some copy for you if you provide me with all your company’s literature and an outline of what you wish to say. Or better yet, get the people who wrote the copy for your brochure to write it.
2. “Comic sans” is: a) not cute, b) not cuddly, and c) not suitable for a financial website.
3. No I can’t turn the design you made using MS Publisher into a website - you can’t use that clipart for a start, you can’t use that knock-off of “The Simpsons” font, you can’t have text all over the place at funny angles, and finally people get really annoyed when you make text blink at them!
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Only 3 ;)
1, Animation / flash is not the best.
2, A website need content
3, I costs more money to promote a site vs to build a site.
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1. if the colleague’s son make the site, that will be crap. it means, the visitors will leave the page, and don’t look back.
2. no, the site will not be the first in the google at the first day
3. the most important is not what you (client) like, but what the visitors like. visitors don’t like big flash intros, popups, music, and other funs.
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1. The process of moving from a photoshop mockup to a working, clickable, accessible frontend is long and arduous. Complaining that nothing has changed is also wrong, since these are the designs you signed off on and we’re trying to build them as accurately as possible.
2. I’d love for the client to have a better picture of failure scenarios and option forks - instead of only seeing what happens when things go exactly to plan.
3. Believe me, I’d love for there to be less process and more back-and-forth discussion between iterations of your site. But you’re not paying enough for me to be able to build it nine times over. I need you to make decisions, with your boss and your coworkers, thinking carefully about what you’re committing to, before giving me the go-ahead on everything. And I’m happy to help you make those decisions, if you’re not sure how to progress. Don’t be too proud to ask about these things, because it might just ruin a perfectly good site.
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1. Web Standards.
2. The blue “e” is not “the internet”. It’s Internet Explorer. And it sucks.
3. Limits of what’s realisitc (and logical) for Javascript and Browsers. (No Quality Control, you can’t track the back button. No, it’s a bad idea to animate that across the page.)
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haha!! Comic Sans shouts IDIOT to eveyone who reads the web.
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1. Professional and EFFECTIVE design does not come cheap.
2. Copy is not the web developers job unless otherwise specified.
3. Your personal computer’s maintenance, fax machines, and other tech related issues are also not your web developer’s job. Get Over it and hire a tech.
We should make a one page site with all the best statements so that we can point ‘some’ clients to it.
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1. Actually, the project I’m proposing is not the same (only higher in price) than the project your neighbor’s sister’s nephew would do as part of his middle school computing class.
2. I do not wish to write your copy for you. I don’t have a clue about champion stallion breeding anyways.
3. Sorry, I cannot guarantee that your $500 website will be the number one search result on the web for “puppies” within two weeks.
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1. No money, no workie.
2. Whatever you can think of, somewhere someone else on the web has thought of it first
3. No, I don’t want to ‘share the risk with you’, when I want risk then i’ll launch my own product/site/company.
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1. That just because you have you ecommerce site built, it doesn’t mean sales are going to start automagically appearing.
2. That hosting does cost money.
3. That content is still king. Funny, I should listen to my own advice on this one.
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1. That they know how to access the web.
2. That they know how to research competitors on the web.
3. That they know how to choose the right designer.
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1. If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve with your web site, it will suck.
2. You need a copywriter. If you can’t afford one, fewer words is better.
3. There is no WYSIWYG on the web. Maintaining web pages isn’t like editing a Word document. You can’t edit an accessible site without an understanding of HTML, and you can’t change the visuals on a maintainable web site unless you’ve spent 1-2 years working with CSS.
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I’m going to repeat and also say that everything above is true and common, but here goes my biggest 3:
1. The web is not print.
2. PDF is not the solution to everything.
3. Microsoft Word is not a web editor (i.e. don’t paste from Word to a WYSIWYG editor).
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1. You get what you pay for - don´t complain to us when you hire some 15-year old hobby-coder who live next door for 50$.
2. No, you can´t edit text by clicking directly in the browser.
3. No, updates and additions are NOT free.
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1. Designing a website in MS Word yourself, and then telling your web designer to take a screenshot and splice/code it is probably a bad idea.
2. Trust the professionals. If I went to a mechanic I wouldn’t try to argue that a certain part is better than another. I don’t know anything about cars, that’s why I’m coming to a mechanic. Please, you don’t know anything about design or user experience, that’s why you’re coming to a web designer. Splash pages are bad. The web is not a book and websites don’t need “a cover.”
3. If you don’t have PowerPoint installed on your computer, and you refuse to use Firefox or even IE for that matter, don’t complain to your web designer when PowerPoint files that someone else created won’t load/display properly in your obscure browser.
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1. You hire a specialist for a reason - listen to them.
2. It’d be really helpful if you could try to have ideas about what you’d like on your site at the beginning of the project, not at the end.
3. Change your mind as often as you like, just don’t expect the project to come in on time, or within budget, or to be any good.
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just to annoy you all, a group special needs teachers did some tests with students that have severe reading disablities, and the font that came out as the easiest to read… comic sans (i nearly cried)
Just cos you all hate it (as do i) doesn’t mean we can ignore it. You all go on about accessibility and ease of use for your users, but you all ignore your own advise by refusing to acknowledge comic sans. I know its ugly, but users love it.
oh yeh, my 3 things
1. fonts that are too small (the amout of people over the age of 40 who cant read 12px text is amazing, why does every webdesigner insist on it?)
2. People who only know enough to cause havoc are always put in charge.
3. comic sans ;)
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1) Accessibility doesn’t cost more
2) Testing doesn’t cost more
3) A Quality approach always saves in the long run
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1. Web is not print
2. Everything will not look the same on every browser, no matter what you do
3. User experience is more important than any accessibility tools
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1. Will not be secure (maybe in the future).
2. Will not be stable (need investigation).
3. Will be your best bet (to be visible).
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1. The web media can bring real value to their business
2. A web strategy has an impact on operational processes & resources
3. The web design industry is an inmature industry that needs consolidation & more professionalism (transparent & comprehensive quality standards).
I basically wish that they would act for businesses the same way they would act for their own health: I am pretty sure that no business owner would accept to be operated by an amateur found of medical reviews/magazines, and all would rather prefer to be operated by a 10 years graduated & experimented surgeon…
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Not a developer, but here’s my 3 as a “user-to-a-site-owner”:
1. no, music on your site is not a good idea, people get irritated
2. don’t use flash on your page just because your competition uses it
3. give me only the essential, and get to the point!
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1. No I will not clone your competitors site exactly and “just change the colors to our company colors”.
2. No. I cannot create for you a site for $100.
3. If you tinker with the code and things stop looking right, don’t send me flaming emails. And no, I can not fix it for free.
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1. Updates cost money
2. No, updates are not included. This isn’t an all-you-can-eat-buffet.
3. No I will not update your site for free.
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1. The basics regarding image formats, dimesions, and file sizes (uploading 5mb pictures from your camera is bad)
2. Don’t expect the site to be popular or at the top of google if you don’t have regularly updated, relevant content. That means you’ll need to dedicate time and effort into this thing.
3. People can view websites using different operating systems, browsers, resolutions, font size settings, and with any combination of CSS, images, JavaScript, and Flash being enabled/disabled. It’s not going to looks the same to everyone.
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1. That it is the means of more important communication.
2. That they should be in the net.
3. That they need a professional so that it shows their image as them they want.
And more…
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- Your colleague who “spends a lot of time online” doesn’t necessarily have more technical expertise than I do.
- One negative opinion doesn’t necessarily mean everything is crap.
- No, I don’t care about IE 5 for Mac.
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1. Different Web browsers render web pages differently, I had a hard enough time getting the site looking good in IE, there is no way I can get it to look that good in AOL.
2. I will design your website, thta doesn`t mean I will also generate content for you.
3. It may look easy, but it took years of practice and long nights for me to learn to do.
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1) No, I can’t teach you everything I know in an afteroon. I have a master’s degree and many years of work experience.
2) I can be hired to build a site, but if by building a site you mean both building it and developing the content, then I don’t need you.
3) I don’t want to hear from people who know they aren’t able to design but think they’re really good at directing designers.
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1. No, you can’t have a website without a navigation.
2. No, your resolution is not the only one in the world.
3. No, I only make the website, it’s up to you to provide the content.
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1. Yes, you need content to put on your website.
2. No, putting up PDF’s or Word Docs does not constitute a website.
3. Yes, not everyone surfs the web on a WinXP PC using Intercrap Explorer 6
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bq.Believe me, I’d love for there to be less process and more back-and-forth discussion between iterations of your site. But you’re not paying enough for me to be able to build it nine times over. I need you to make decisions, with your boss and your coworkers, thinking carefully about what you’re committing to, before giving me the go-ahead on everything. And I’m happy to help you make those decisions, if you’re not sure how to progress. Don’t be too proud to ask about these things, because it might just ruin a perfectly good site.
This is just beautiful. I may make this part of my initial documentation for new web clients.
Bravo.
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Sorry about the readability above: tried to blockquote the quote material.
Textsim-shmextism.
(Failed to put a space after the period!)
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1. Putting up a website doesn’t mean the world and his dog will come in droves and buy, buy, buy.
2. You don’t have a god-given right to a ranking on the first page of Google - what have you done to deserve such a position?
3. You have to make an effort to understand what the Web can do for your business - what the opportunities and threats are - the web designer can’t make your business decisions for you.
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Just to add up a new acronime wyPiwyg
what you PAY is what you get!!!
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Clients can be a pain in the ass. But after all, we work for those so we can stand it :) However some advertising agencies will provide UI-concepts for web that look like made for print. I’ve even seen an ad agency to come up with worse design than the existing one! So just ask that client knows enough to pick his ad agency based on delivered and implemented UI-concepts.
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Excellent post and so many truths!
1. If you don’ regularly test/check what I’ve built how are you supposed to know if I’ve built what you wanted?
2. You do not know more about web design and layout than an experienced web designer!
3. If you neglect to tell me about a page/feature you wanted, how am I supposed to know you wanted it built?
…there are so many more….
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1. That client’s know what is Firefox
2. That client’s know what is CSS
3. making websites cost!
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1. Yes, there is such a thing as creating an unusable website.
2. Building a website isn’t about emulating a competitor - its about creating a usable, accessible, and fresh website - creating your OWN brand.
3. Security in your applications is important, even if you are only getting an email address.
These are just a few….
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1. No, I can’t just copy and paste your Word document and add some pictures to make a website. Well, I could, but I’m not going to.
2. The big blue “e” is not “the Internet”.
3. A web designer is more than a “guy who knows HTML”. This one in particular kills me.
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1. Web designers design websites. Just because you like some website doesn’t mean your website needs to look exactly like that. I’m a designer not a thief. If you want to copy someone else’s design do it yourself. That will be $300 for the consultation, thanks.
2. You can’t have #1 ranking on Google. Yes, I understand you have heard of SEO and there are ways to optimize your website to be search engine friendly but even if you could afford to pay someone to make your site #1 it just can’t be done.
3. You can trust me. I know what I am doing, I have education and experience in this particular field. You don’t have to second guess and nitpick every design element. Besides you will save money letting me do what I do best.
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I agree with all of these, but MUST add this:
1. Pictures for your website CANNOT come in MS Word format. If I ask for the original picture, don’t send the word doc with the image embedded again. Is that how it came from your camera?
2. Pictures will also tend to look awful if you took them with your camera phone and then somehow resized them to 3px by 3px. No, I can’t just ‘Photoshop’ it.
3. You can’t just pull an image off a site and use it in your high-quality print campaign and then complain when the printer sends it back because the resolution is too low. Not necessarily the client’s fault, but not mine either.
3.1 Just adding a PDF with your blurb on it doesn’t mean the site’s complete. Don’t you use any other websites?
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1. Flash is does not mean interactive, your site will not be “more interactive” by just throwing up some flash on it.
2. Got any ideas? Draw them on a piece of paper, let me see what you see, let´s work together.
3. Colors on your laptop differ with colors shown in CRT monitor.
4. (i had to do it sorry) Yes we can revise the design, no i will not redo it 3 times because it’s not quite what you expected (feeling sorry does not help either).
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