As some of you might know, I am designing a web site. The job started off with a "play with this and see what you can come up with" and has changed to a "you have changed too much". I have spent the last day working on it only to delete what I have done because it's "too different". So here's something from my experience on what you should get from a client BEFORE you start designing.
1. What is your company about? What do you want to say? This can not be stressed enough. With this project I had to do all my research and let me tell you, it read like ancient Greek to me. Also I am not sure what content the company will be keeping. You can only do so much with the little bit they give you.
2. Do you have anything you don't want on the site that your company name might conjure up? This could be something that would really upset someone. Say you are designing for someone who's name is not a run of the mill normal name (personally I used to get made fun of for my name all the time, you remember those "jokes" right?). Sometimes there might be something that goes with the name or the service that the client just doesn't want on their site (porta potties probably don't want a plastic porta throne as their main logo am I right?).
3. Do you have a budget for images? Have you decided to use stock images or do your own? This is a big deal. You can only design with what they give you. Remember that if you use "royalty-free" that there are rules to them. Site your artist if they tell you to. Copyright law is kind of vague but blatant use of someone's property is dangerous in this field, just ask Lynx about their suit with Greyhound. Creating your own images (photos, illustrations etc) are perfectly acceptable AND it means you control what you are using and don't have to settle.
4. Communication, deadline and all those in betweens When you start working on the project, you need feedback. Frequently need feedback. You also need to send something out to receive that feed back. For instance, this site I am working on (it's taking forever it seems) I sent over what I had, they sent it back with a template (which I had) and said there were comments. Unfortunately there were no comments, so I had to wing it. While I will be sending it back to them again tomorrow, I am unsure of what the changes they wanted were.
The deadline is important if you want to get paid, as well as keeping the client. If you miss your deadline you lose that job. Sometimes you can get an extension but I would save the request for when martians are attacking and we need to run around the the old record player, ok?
All those in betweens, what this means is there will be times where the client will want something, be firm about it. Then waver about it. Then go back to the original thought, then back to your idea. Or keep changing their minds right up to print/publish time. Keep your cool, and keep records of everything! This way when someone says "we didn't know that you would charge extra for us changing our minds after the first run!" you can show them the document stating that there would be an extra charge due to the printer being extremely disgruntled about the little change.
In other words, Client might be king, patience is the all being and Knowledge is real power! With the knowledge and information we gather at the beginning of the process, the job becomes much easier. Documenting everything means that your back is covered in case of an issue. I like to think that the way I am doing this job right now, is just because I like a challenge... not because I was too distracted by the getting the gig, that I didn't ask the right questions.
What do you think? Is client king?
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