Comments on: Clients Aren’t Stupid

By: Joshua Fuson

Joshua Fuson — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:18:27 +0000

I think some of the issue is the “bike shed effect”.

Most people would not argue the finer points of designing a nuclear reactor – because they have no clue, and they know they have no clue.

With a bike shed, many people will argue the finer points of how it is to be constructed, down to the proper color of paint, even though they are just as clueless as they were with the nuclear reactor.

It’s not just an issue of “explaining” things to people. If someone has their mind made up that things are to go a certain way, and you violate that expectation (even for their own good), don’t expect them to be uber appreciative. Many people would rather be right than be rich.

By: Endre

Endre — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:33:50 +0000

As we are the professionals we have the responsibility to be able to talk to our clients. We have to make them understand our world just like we would talk to our grandmothers.

There is no need for jargon to express our own world.
If people are not able to express themselves simply they might not understand themselves.

By: WPWebHost

WPWebHost — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 03:32:48 +0000

Still there are clients that are considerate and some aren’t. We will just have to bear for that sometimes.

With past experience, I have learnt that client who paid, will expect you to do everything including their laundry sometimes.

By: Jason Devins

Jason Devins — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:42:38 +0000

Some clients are just plain ol’ stupid. I’m not even talking about self managing their website, I’m talking about things like managing their business.

When a client calls to complain that their website is “broken” and has an attitude and you come to find out that the reason their website is broken is they didn’t pay their phone/broadband bill so it’s not their website it’s the fact they have no internet…what do you do?

By: Eric M.

Eric M. — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 05:09:03 +0000

David Tele Ogundeko, I’m a Web Design virgin compared to everybody who has commented on this post. I’ve been teaching myself everything I can about HTML, CSS, best practices and on and on and on. I’d love to have a job like yours in the world of Web Design. While I’m a virgin in your world I’ve been working in the “high tech” field for over 30 years. Specifically in the relational database development industry. No, not designing database…..building data servers (Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, ASE are a few examples of data servers). I had the title of Senior Engineer but my real job was to make sure that my fellow Engineers never lost touch with the fact that actual human beings used the compiled versions of their code on a daily basis. I also made sure that they implemented the features and functionality the customers/users wanted. If you think the “Client from Hell” is tough try telling a multi-million dollar customer that the Engineers think their feature request is stupid.

What I’ve learned over the years is that it’s the client who feeds us, puts a roof over our heads and cloths us. What I’ve learned is to treat them with the respect they DESERVE no matter what.

I may be a virgin in the world of Web Design but I’m hungry to enter it. And, I know that when I do the lessons about clients that I’ve learned with come in very handy. So David, keep up the attitude about clients…I’m coming for your job.

By: There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client | Retail Marketing Strategy

There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client | Retail Marketing Strategy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:37:27 +0000

[...] Clients Aren’t Stupid, Web Designer Notebook [...]

By: David Tele Ogundeko

David Tele Ogundeko — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:30:31 +0000

From my experience, it is even much better if the clients do not know the tech jargons, because when they do, they feel like they are some sort of expert on the matter, they interrupt you when you try to educate them on some matters and believe that their knowledge guarantees them a “fair” price on the job.
You give them a quote and they say “hey, it’s just HTML, I’m not asking you to code in PHP”.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. We all know clients can be very unfair when it comes to dealing with web designers. It comes from their perception of what we do. Frankly put, they do not see us as professionals in the likes of Architects and the rest. When they walk up to a lawyer, they don’t dare underprice, not even when they deal with other professional services providers. We are professionals in our own right, and what we do is also pretty hard with how the internet evolves everyday leaving us scampering to update our knowledge constantly. That’s hard work. They don’t see that. They merely see a computer. And that’s wrong. I’ll call it career discrimination.
It isn’t our job to educate them on what we do, it is their own prerogative. The best we can offer is a user manual and that’s all. Because people buy cars doesn’t mean the manufacturers have to educate everyone on the intricacies of automobile engineering, they give you a user manual and that’s it. You want more, go learn yourself. We are service providers, not tech-handymen. We deserve a measure of respect. And we deserve our prices. Our tools are not getting any cheaper, no thanks to Adobe and Apple. We also deserve to live good lives like other professionals do. We deserve our pay, we work hard for it. We also deserve our respect, if not more than other professionals. Web design education never ends, there is always a new version of html and css and then some geeks might come up with a new programming language and then we all have to be abreast with it. It’s also not easy sitting in front of a computer screen for long periods of time. We might enjoy it, but that is our own personal satisfaction, not reason for the clients to devalue our work, because we do not live busy work lives based on their own definition of busy work lives. We are professionals and it is about time they started seeing us that way.
So I love Clients from hell, since we can’t fight for our rights for fairness, we can at least laugh about our career prejudice….

By: Ravikumar V.

Ravikumar V. — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:27:17 +0000

what you say about clients is a truth one…

By: Guy Labbé

Guy Labbé — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:31:19 +0000

What helps a lot about communication between client and designer is when the client hires a consultant to take care of finding designer/developper, and manage the project. This way you talk to someone that understands all, and often the client is 100 % confident to his consultant, so that’s pretty nice work being made in the end.

By: There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client | PixelRaves

There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client | PixelRaves — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:59:13 +0000

[...] Clients Aren’t Stupid, Web Designer Notebook [...]