{"id":44719,"date":"2020-11-17T07:19:38","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T07:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glassmountains.co.uk\/?p=44719"},"modified":"2020-11-17T07:30:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T07:30:43","slug":"do-clients-have-to-like-their-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glassmountains.co.uk\/campfire\/do-clients-have-to-like-their-website\/","title":{"rendered":"Do clients have to ‘like’ their website?"},"content":{"rendered":"
When we are designing a website for a client, I try to always keep a sharp focus on the client’s target audience(s) – the people to whom the website needs to engage with – as that is the star we need to sail by.<\/p>\n
This is especially important when discussing initial website designs with the client as without the frame of reference of this ‘target\u00a0audience<\/em>‘ the client will (quite rightly) fall back on something else – their personal preference.<\/p>\n That’s not to say clients don’t need to like their websites – they do (despite the clickbait title!) – it’s just that if we agree that the basic purpose of a website is to move a defined online audience from one state to another, then a client’s unqualified*, individual preferences should not<\/em> be the primary driver in the design process.<\/p>\n (*by ‘unqualified’ I do not<\/strong> mean the client is not qualified to give feedback – I mean that the feedback itself needs to be qualified).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In short: we need to justify the elements of the design and explain the rationale of why something has been included.<\/p>\n Reading the above you could be excused for thinking that the act of presenting and getting feedback on designs with clients is a very confrontational process – it’s not like that at all! I’m just trying to convey that I think it is the purpose of the designer\/agency to use their experience to steer the design in the right direction – one that solves an online problem – not just to do whatever ‘keeps the client’<\/em> happy.<\/p>\n When processing feedback on visual designs, a key question is whether it makes sense to the target audience? Does the change, or the inclusion of the element make their<\/em> life easier when using the website?<\/p>\n If I, from the design agency perspective, feels like the suggestion doesn’t help, then I’ll say so – and give justifications. If, after I have explained to the client our reasoning, the client still wishes to do so – fine – the client is the client at the end of the day. As long as I am happy we have done our best to explain the pros and cons, then I feel we have done our job.<\/p>\n So, there we go, a short and sweet post today :) Feel free to share your experiences below or, better still, jump over to our Facebook Group<\/a> where we can more easily discuss.<\/p>\n Joel<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we are designing a website for a client, I try to always keep a sharp focus on the client’s target audience(s) – the people to whom the website needs to engage with – as that […] Read more <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nProcess<\/h2>\n
Does it make sense to the target audience?<\/h2>\n