Have you ever done a design for someone and they had no idea what they really wanted? I have someone who can kind of explain his thoughts for the overall look, but not in the right terminology and while its not a geek talk conversation I am trying to have with em but when I say "what do you want the site to do". TGIF!

I'd say more often than not, the customer is incapable of expressing themselves clearly in a fashion that web designers could utilize. Therefore its up to us to make service as user friendly as possible.

I do simple images in paint/ps giving examples of layouts or request that they show me a list of sites that they like.

It might be better if you ask them to take a look round the internet to see what they like about other websites, which will help you get a feeling of what they are after. I do this all the time as some customers tend to think we are clairvoyant

I get this all of the time. The thing you have to start to do is put yourself in their shoes. There are plenty of times in your day that you go to buy things that you know limited things about. The person helping you has to "dummy down" the information. Don't get frustrated with the client, but try to break it down in terms they will understand. If they want things that aren't practical explain why they aren't good to do.

Last week was just a really long week and I had to vent so first off thanks for hearing me out. Now onto the rest, the client has stated "I was a kick <butt> website" for the longest time but now he knows what he wants which is good - we can get things in gear and moving along now.

And I always try to put myself in their shoes, just sometimes they are tight and fit funny - then I wish I had my slippers on.

Seriously, you've never tried the "you'll take what I design and you'll like it!" strategy? That works every time! If they don't like it, they just won't pay you.

Any agile enthusiast will tell you, that as a rule of thumb.. MOST customers dont know what they want.. even fewer can boil it down to what they need.

One good strategy is to plan upfront, several review stages.. Bring your designs to the customer relatively quickly.. dont dally on too many fine details.. get the initial "draft" in front of them as soon as you can..

This will allow them to tell you that they failed to tell you last week what they "really wanted was... x" which happens pretty much everytime in my experience. Even those most talented interviewers Ive met deal with the same issues.

So if you konw up front its going to happen, plan for it.. and make it work for you.. get them looking at your drafts over short "sprints" of time.. that way, they can feel like they are taking part more and in the end you will end up making fewer "fixes" to a design.

Good luck!

I wish I always had my slippers on...lol.

Originally Posted by highanddry

I'd say more often than not, the customer is incapable of expressing themselves clearly in a fashion that web designers could utilize. Therefore its up to us to make service as user friendly as possible.

I do simple images in paint/ps giving examples of layouts or request that they show me a list of sites that they like.

Exactly. They really don't know what they want. When I was starting out, I used to get so frustrated when they ask me to do things and when I do them they go "But that's not how I wanted it!"

So yeah follow everyone's advice and give samples of sites that they like, so you can also get an idea.

Exactly. They really don't know what they want. When I was starting out, I used to get so frustrated when they ask me to do things and when I do them they go "But that's not how I wanted it!"

Unedited post from a client after seeing my first draft.

"good idea with a cover page ive be looking at other sites and they all have them they also seem to have on the cover page a HOME GALERY CONTACT BIO section you can click on for specifics well have to discuss what we want in these headings to make them stand out ! weve also noticed some sites have pictures with a closeup box in the corner of the same picture howbout that also on these web search pages they start a bio about the product or person ive noticed thets what makes me want to klick on that site first by what they say know what i mean."

My reply was something along the lines of what email client and browser are you using?

I swear this was his reply.

"sleep time whats a brouser or email reader"

I've run into this before as well. I usually ask them to give me the top 2 or 3 sites they like - too many and you might not be able to narrow in on what they are actually looking for.

Originally Posted by larryc

Unedited post from a client after seeing my first draft.

"good idea with a cover page ive be looking at other sites and they all have them they also seem to have on the cover page a HOME GALERY CONTACT BIO section you can click on for specifics well have to discuss what we want in these headings to make them stand out ! weve also noticed some sites have pictures with a closeup box in the corner of the same picture howbout that also on these web search pages they start a bio about the product or person ive noticed thets what makes me want to klick on that site first by what they say know what i mean."

My reply was something along the lines of what email client and browser are you using?

I swear this was his reply.

"sleep time whats a brouser or email reader"

haha! Okay first of all... the instructions itself made me a bit dizzy. Is this really a direct quote? There are such things as punctuations... -__-

and.. "what's a brouser" ??? hahaha! man.....!