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View Full Version : How a Web Design Goes stright to Hell...



Harold Mansfield
02-27-2010, 10:57 PM
A buddy of mine turned me on to The Oatmeal and I've been laughing my butt off for about an hour now.
I thought a few of you would get a kick out of this:
How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell - The Oatmeal (http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell)

vangogh
02-27-2010, 11:06 PM
Too funny. I've never had a client say those exact things to me, but some have come close

By the way that site is created by Matthew Inman. He used to be the designer for SEOmoz, but has since left the company. He knows his stuff and I've always liked his designs. You can check out some of his work at Oat.org (http://0at.org/)

Harold Mansfield
02-27-2010, 11:19 PM
I'm starting to learn that if it goes too well, too fast and comes out exactly like you said it would with everything they asked for...it's not going to be good enough to make them happy because it was too easy.

vangogh
02-28-2010, 11:58 AM
If you finish quickly don't show your clients right away. Make them wait a few extra days before you send anything.

rezzy
03-02-2010, 12:01 AM
I havent experienced any of these types of things yet.

I have slowly changed my business focus to making and selling wordpress themes, however, I have a few clients coming up which could change things.

What do you all do when you clients wants to make a website "ugly"?

vangogh
03-02-2010, 11:33 AM
Generally I make a very quick mockup showing them how ugly their suggestion will be. Often seeing it is enough to get them to drop the change. More often though I just give them a price for making the changes they request, which also usually gets them to drop their request.

A few times clients have suggested things which I don't think will work as well as what I suggested, but it's their site and ultimately they can do what they want with it. In those case I'll either grab a screenshot of my version for my portfolio or just never use the site in my portfolio.

The post eborg linked to is funny and it's all based on real things. However it's also an exaggeration. I've never had anyone do exactly all those things in combination on a single site.

Harold Mansfield
03-02-2010, 12:50 PM
The worst is when, in the middle of the build, the client starts looking at sites built by teams and large corporations and wants to do the same thing...without increasing the budget.
That's when things start getting 'hairy'.

It's hard to explain to them that Time/Warner (for instance) is a multi-billion dollar corporation with an unlimited budget and has a team of people on payroll that do nothing but work on their sites.

I always explain that "I can do the exact same thing, but I will need to bring in a team of my own...this is not just simple HTML or PHP..there are a lot of custom functions and programming that we didn't include in your estimate and it can't be done by me alone in 10 days".

Most times they don't understand that...they think that code is code and we know all of it (Hardware, Software, Programming, Graphic Design, Windows, Opera, Linux, XHTML, PHP, C++, and so on) and it's just a matter of a few pretty pictures and one guy should be able to do the same work as a multi national billion dollar company with a limited budget.

One client actually wanted me to change how Facebook functions to suit their needs.

Patrysha
03-02-2010, 02:29 PM
Ooh I totally have to do a blog post on this topic. Maybe a series...

KristineS
03-02-2010, 03:01 PM
O.k., I loved that. Too funny.

vangogh
03-02-2010, 03:25 PM
I always explain that "I can do the exact same thing, but I will need to bring in a team of my own...this is not just simple HTML or PHP..there are a lot of custom functions and programming that we didn't include in your estimate and it can't be done by me alone in 10 days".

If a client doesn't get that then you fire the client. Trying to give that client everything isn't going to work. You can either remind them of the terms of your agreement and do the site you agreed to for the price you agreed to, get them to increase the budget, or move on to the next client.

Harold Mansfield
03-02-2010, 03:30 PM
If a client doesn't get that then you fire the client. Trying to give that client everything isn't going to work. You can either remind them of the terms of your agreement and do the site you agreed to for the price you agreed to, get them to increase the budget, or move on to the next client.

So true..sometimes they just need a little dose of reality to bring them back down to earth.
Most times you can't get upset at them because they really just don't know.

Usually when you say, "Yep, we can do that. Just like the BMW website...Let me call my Flash Guy, Programmer, Copywriter and Database specialist and check with some photographers in your area, so I can get you a quote and a time frame"..that pretty much ends that thought.

vangogh
03-02-2010, 07:17 PM
Yeah, I find bringing the cost into things goes a long way toward getting clients back in line. There's a point where they do have to see reality. I've seen people really think they can rebuild Google in their basement for $100. If the client things that you need to run away quickly.

I don't expect clients to know exactly how much something is going to cost and I don't expect them to know that one thing takes an hour to do and another could mean 20 hours, but I do expect them to trust me when I tell them the difference. If they can't trust me as the person building the site we're not going to have a lasting relationship.