So hi there! New to this forum. Needed a place to vent.

 

I'm a bit new to webdesigning. I've been doing it for years for myself and friends and within the last year decided to go pro. I still have a lot to learn, though, and I was hoping for some advice on some problems i'm having.

 

I've done about 8 jobs and I haven't had much of a problem. But the job I'm working on now is just driving me nuts. Or, I should say, the client is driving me nuts. And because I'm new, I'm thinking maybe it's something that I'm doing wrong.

 

1. I don't know about you guys, but I can't design based on someone's 'feeling'. Everytime i ask her for specifics...what colors do you want on the site? what image out of the 200 you sent me do you prefer to be used as the image that represents the website on the front page? stuff like that... she answers me in what she wants the website to *be*. she goes into how she feels about herself and spirituality how she wants her life to be and the type of person she is.

 

NOT. HELPING.

 

How do you deal with these types of people? i keep trying to get her to focus and i think it's coming off as sounding bitchy. but i'm not sure what else to do. I actually had this problem on my last job as well and I'm thinking I'm doing something wrong. people need to hire shrinks to talk about their feelings, not a web designer.

 

2. Clients adding more onto the job than stated in the contract. I'm currently doing a job for 300 bucks. she also hired me, for 1500 bucks, to update the site as need-be throughout the year because she doesn't know code. it's an interior design site and it's supposed to be 10-15 pages. i told her it was okay if it went over a bit because she keeps coming up with ideas to add to the site. it was fine as long as it didn't get out of hand. now it's turning into a 40-50 page website. meanwhile i'm still trying to get her to focus on colors for the site!

 

i know i have to be firm about the contract, and i'm no shrinking violet, but i don't want to lose the job, either.

 

 

3. Clients who have bad taste. How do you deal with having a completely different aesthetic than the client? i'm having a hard time separating my own style from hers. I do clean, sleeker designs and i'm learning she has more of a neon colors/80's style tackiness. there seems to be no middle ground. I honestly don't know how to design the type of thing she wants because it's so foreign to me.

 

4. i'm mostly a graphic designer but i also design in html and some css. i know html extremely well. i also know photoshop like the back of my hand. I do not know flash or xml, etc. i repeatedly state this all over my business site and in the contract and yet people still ask for things i can't do. how do i explain what i do to someone who has no concept of what html or flash are? i tried telling her that i can't do anything that's 'animated'-looking. that's mostly flash. I can do lots of tricks with photoshop but she wants me to draw a candle with burning flames getting higher and higher for the intro page. i'm like... um, no.

 

5. ignoring me. often she sends me these epic long mails with information and i go to the trouble of answering every single thing, only to get a 2 word response from her. i wrote a whole mail on the steps we needed to take in order to get the site going and she sort of ignored it, going straight into her spirituality-mode-of-insanity talking about what her life-goals are. how does this help me pick out a color for your links?

 

okay... long post but i needed to vent. any help is appreciated. i'd also love to hear your own horror stories to make me feel better!

 

Kate

Perhaps you need to spiritually connect to your clients. Here's an idea that may or may not help:

 

1. Sit down breathing deeply

2. Commence the client understanding mantra

3. Allow the client's life goals and abstract depictions of her future website to saturate your mind

 

 

 

 

...but in all seriousness now, it sucks when clients provide a non-concrete response with no direct visual ideas. I've had one 'nut' client which wanted to connect most of the web elements to historical events that related to his profession. Now, there's no problem in doing it if it doesn't harm the GUI. But it usually does, and makes the site look le lame.

 

As for clients with bad taste, it's often a lose-lose situation. They receive a product they think is beautiful but most of the world thinks it's horrid, and you receive something not worthy for your portfolio, since when people look at it they assume the idea came from your noggin. I just recently had the typical situation where my client and his kids designed the logo and won't consider changing it, and it doesn't blend with the site at all.

 

The candle idea sounds horrid! Check out some non-profit organizations that are starting up and you can likely get some better clients.

Sounds to me like your client wants you to translate her ramblings spiritual discourses into a web design - perhaps accept that you won't get a straight answer from her, and get one with the design you think she might be hinting at. Sorry if it's a bit vague.

 

On the subject of flash/ animations etc, I would use this technique. Next time she asks, plainly say: no, I can't do that. It's not in my skillset. The next time she asks, politely remind her of this, and then just ignore any further requests along this line. Sounds harsh, but having to repeat yourself is a waste of time.

 

With regard to the project swelling way beyond its original scope, you need to put some rules in place. Say you'll do x number of pages for the original quote, and that every extra page on top will cost an extra $x per page.

 

Good luck, sounds like you're going to need it.

 

And if all that fails, maybe try ocular's suggestions

No offence but all this doesn't sound like the clients' fault.

You are the designer you should make the decisions, you should lead the design and clients SHOULD be able to say what they want the website 'to be' - and then it's your job to create that.

If you're asking what should go here or there, what colours to use etc. or there's lots of project creep then you're not controlling things, not the clients fault.

 

Not being cruel here... I just read a lot of 'clients from hell' stories that are in fact more a case of the designer's inexperience. You just need confidence to clearly define project boundaries and lead the creative process.

 

Welcome to the forum btw!