5 things NOT to say to a web designer (part 1)
Whilst running Jojet I’ve listened to countless questions from potential clients; which is great – I love to guide them through the maze of on-line options. However, some questions just make you think “oh dear!” and “here we go again!”:
1) “How much is a 5 page website?”
We wouldn’t expect a builder to accurately quote if all we told him was that we wanted a “5 bedroom house” – that’s simply not enough information. So let’s not expect a reputable web design company to be any different.
All websites are not equal – a ‘page’ is not the standard economic unit used when calculating website cost!
Imagine a web page on your site which simply displays an email address and then compare this to a page which has an embedded HD video, a 3D demonstration of your latest product and a freshly designed, illustrated logo. These two pages are completely different; the effort and cost involved will also be different.
The only web agencies which may quote by the page are ones looking to sell you a standard CMS with little involvement from themselves. Such tools can be great for blogs but are not so suited for a highly polished, client facing, search engine optimised, lean, mean, lead generating machines.
2) “I just want a simple site…”
Ah! ‘Simple’! Now isn’t that the rub? Think of the iPod. A design classic. It’s simple. Really simple.
This simplicity was not arrived at by random accident. It was the product of a deep understanding of design, of user behaviour and many other factors.
In truth, all websites SHOULD be simple. Simple to operate by your intended target audience. That simplicity is arrived at via a detailed analysis of the information which each page needs to convey and adjusting the visual ‘weighting’ of each chosen page element till the ‘balance’ best fits the needs of your users.
Simple aint easy.
3) “…but someone else quoted a lot less?”
Just be careful that you’re not comparing apples with oranges.
Some web design companies will quote based on a off-the-shelf template, no included SEO, no consideration of usability and you supply all the copy etc – cheep and cheerful. However, another web design company may be quoting on a bespoke, hand-built, SEO optimised, copy proofed & user experience optimised website. Both websites but, on closer inspection, completely different beasts.
Be careful of making this false comparison and be doubly careful about making a “false economy” – cheap is not always cheerful! If all you need is a throw away 3 page site then fine, but if you’re looking for your site to be adding bottom line value to your business then that’s a different matter.
4) “we had to pay the previous web designer so we haven’t got much budget left”
Ok. Imagine this scenario. You hire a cheep and cheerful plumber to install a new boiler in your lovely home. He makes a right mess, the boiler is not connected, radiators in the wrong place, pipes & water everywhere…basically a disaster.
So you fire him and, instead, hire a more reputable plumber to sort it all out (that ‘false economy’ again!).
Now, if you tell the reputable plumber that you can’t afford to pay him the full amount because you had to give some money to the previous plumber, what do you think will happen? You’ll hear the soft click of the front door as he walks away.
It’s a shame that the wrong person was brought in for the job in the first place, a great shame BUT this is not the responsibility of future tradesman; whether that be plumbing or websites.
5) “but surely that’s included in the price?!”
If you hire a builder (see a pattern here?) to build your 5 bedroom dream house and then decide you want a garage – you would most definitely expect to be charged for it. It’s the same with websites.
A reputable web design company will want to ensure that all of your requirements are succinctly captured & documented. They’ll do this for both of your benefits. This way, at the outset of the project, both parties knowexactly what is being built and what is included in the price.
With Jojet we always write the following into our requirements documents:
If you feel something is missing from this document then do not assume that it is included, please raise it as an issue. The quotation provided only covers what is explicitly detailed in this document.
COMING UP IN PART 2
Many of these questions raised here are completely understandable though. As consumers we are much more used to dealing with plumbers, builders, lawyers etc. Now we don’t necessarily understand how these tradesman do their work but we do understand how to deal with them. The web is still relatively new to business and so this understanding doesn’t fully exist yet.
We’ve had a little fun here but, in part 2 we’ll take a good look at the questions business should REALLY be asking.
p.s.
Jill Olkoski also wrote a great article on a similar topic. Read it here.
Seriously liking this article, can’t wait for part 2. You’ve got to include the one about “my son’s nephew’s cousin’s grand-daughter’s twice removed best friend has a computer and they said they can do a website for me”.
oh yes! That old chestnut! I’ll be sure to put that one in on the next revision
How about:
- I don’t know what I like, but I’ll tell you if I don’t like what you design.
- I don’t know anything about design, but can you make my logo bigger?
- I like different bits of the two designs you’ve mocked up for me, can you just put the bits I like into a single design please?
Saul
ah yes Saul! Some golden ones there indeed!
It’s interesting you mention multiple designs. As a rule my company never normally offers this choice. We’ll offer one and we can then iterate through a series a revisions until the client is satisfied. If (and this has NEVER happened!) the client is totally dissatisfied then we can start again from scratch at extra cost however, as I say, this has never happened – perhaps because our process guides the client’s thinking along the way.
The client needs to be made aware that the design is less about them and more about their target audience – without grasping that concept, everyone in the client’s organisation will have an opinion about the design!
Interesting that you only offer your clients one design route. We’ve found that this can actually be counter productive as you change it and change it.
We normally go with three routes. Then the client can actually “buy” one route and it’s less likely to be tweaked to death.
It takes longer initially, but saves time in the long run. We’ve learnt from very painful experience!
PS A client once asked me to fax over a Flash banner…
Thanks for you comments Oli, in my experience I’ve found that when companies offer multiple design options the following tends to happen: the design company only really likes one of the designs (and that is the route they want the client to go) and the other two are pretty much poor cousins – a bit of a waste of time. I’m sure that’s not the same with you – it’s just my experience.
Also by having multiple designs you open the door to the mix and match problem – this could be good but, more often, this is bad.
I think the key is geting constructive design comments for the client; whether they like the colour blue or not is irrelevant – how the design will appeal to their target audience(s) is the key. If you ask someone “what do you think of this design?” they’ll tell you – it’s just too wide a question without context.
Great comments here everyone – thanks
Joel
p.s. “fax over a Flash banner”…interesting….”sure, what version of the Flash player does your fax machine support?”. The mind boggles!
Hey Joel… great article. Often use the building trade myself to try and explain website scope to clients… seems to work well. The way I see it… Specification = blueprints, site architecture = house size and structure…. and creative overlay = decor!!
I also love it when clients do not take on board the advice and recommendations of us as professionals. I don’t think I’ve ever told a builder that my way of putting up the foundations and electrics is the way I want it done!!!
Great writing fella… keep em coming
D
Glad you like it Dan! Experience has taught me that explaining pricing and issues in terms of what people are used to dealing with (i.e. builders, plumbers etc) helps reassure them that there are common sense reasons for things costing money.
Part 2 is more about hints and tips to make sure things “go right” from day 1 – if you have any pearls of wisdom to add that’ll be great!
Joel
Joel. Great article mate. I sat here reading it and chuckled to myself as you and I both know we’ve seen this so many times before. And you know what… I don’t think this will ever change or go away.
Looking forward to part 2.
quite Steve,
we’ve both been on the receiving end of some very strange client specs!
Part 2 will be more about how to avoid these pitfalls – any hints and tips you’ve picked up along the way will be gratefully received.
Joel
That’s amazing! It wish it was possible to send this out to clients, or to use the builder analogy when you’re having a tough conversation about things being out of spec! Instead, we just huff and puff and squeeze more out of the budget…..
Great blog item, more please! IF you can share any tips about how you get clients to understand these items whilst maintaining a positive working relationship, that would go down well!
Hi Laura,
thanks for stopping by (lovely site by the way!). I find the builder/plumber analogy to be very handy – it works in most circumstances!
Firstly (and this took me a long time to get my head around) – not all clients are right for you. You don’t have to say yes to every client – it’s not just about whether they want to work with you – it’s the other way around as well.
The problem with a client who’s a bad fit for you is that they’ll always be a bad fit; they won’t get what you do and will always think you’re ripping them off because cousin Jimmy can do a WHOLE website for £150. They’re unlikely to be the type of client who will recommend you and be good advocates for your business – this is bad – as I don’t know about you but recommendation/word-of-mouth is a very good source for us.
You’ve got to get client buy in right at the start – they need to under stand the process and why it exists for their benefit as much as yours. I take great pains to explain our process and why it is the way it is. If they buy into that process then that already qualifies them in as the type of clients who are a good fit to work with us. If they don’t like it then that probably saves us a load of grief.
Hope that helps
Joel
Joel – I was thinking about your point that the design of site needs to be right for the target audience, and not for the client themselves, which I agree with wholeheartedly, although this can be a hard point to make with people when their board members “don’t like purple”.
However, what are your views on your OWN site? Or any agency’s site for that matter? Our target audience is huge, wide reaching and sometimes hard to define. It’s hard for us to cater for everyone, so instead we’ve tried to showcase our work and our personality as any agency. Is it right for us to produce something that pleases us? I think when a company is shopping around for an agency, they want to see creativity, something exciting, a bit different, dare I say it something “cool”. If we based our site on a B2B audience and their typical aesthetic, I feel it would be very different…..
Thoughts?
Hi Laura,
a key phrase I say to clients is that “your website is less about YOU and more about THEM” – them being their target audience or audiences. Clients need that frame of reference before they give an opinion – because, as you probably find, people find it very, very easy to give opinions on website designs (it’s a easy thing to do)- getting constructive feedback is the key though. I’m always pretty robust (but diplomatic!) with making the client accountable for their feedback. I really think you need to drill this in to clients from day 1 – if you get this bit wrong it’s like having a bicycle when you actually needed a people carrier – it’s not fit for purpose.
Your own site? – good point – in all truth when anyone ever says to me “our target market is everyone” this typically means they haven’t really thought about it hard enough. If you put aside some quality time to identify the attributes of your target audiences (perhaps using personas etc) then you would soon be able to arrive at a list of what is important to them and be able to hang your website design around that. That is exactly the process we are going through as our site is 18 months+ old and really does not represent us/our products & services well. What’s that saying about cobbler’s children?
Joel
Hi J and friends.
You’ve probably seen this already but what the heck. It’s priceless and pertinent.
http://www.youtube.com/benferrier#p/f/10/VfprIxNfCjk
Ben
A pertinent (if rather expressive in it’s language!) video. Another classic one which always makes me laugh is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY