At the Future of Web Design conference last week we were lucky enough to hear the thoughts of a number of speakers, but no one – in my opinion – more interesting than American freelance web designer Sabrina Dent.
In her talk, entitled “Throwing Client Collaboration out of the Window: The Stalinist Web Design Model”, Sabrina suggested a whole different way of running web design projects.
Don’t give your clients choice. Don’t seek their opinions. And just say no.
It sounds like an unlikely way to achieve client satisfaction, but Ms Dent maintains that that’s exactly what it does. It’s not just about being draconian, though – taking a look at the philosophy behind these recommendations, it all starts to make perfect sense.
Eliminate Choice. How many times have we offered a client a number of design choices, only to experience either the bitsa response (”can I have that bit from number one in number two”) or worse, design by committee. But as Sabrina pointed out, the psychology of choice indicates that in general, people are much happier with one solidly recommended choice: “this is what your website should look like”, rather than a few well thought out suggestions.
Don’t seek opinions Why waste time explaining to your client that they need a search box on their site to help users find something, when you can just get on and add it, and the site will be better and the user will be happy? Don’t get embroiled in long discussions where your recommendations, based on years of experience, are ignored – just work based on those recommendations, and everyone will be better off.
Just say no When you’re asked for something that’s either out of specification or simply won’t improve the site in any way, just say no. Again, don’t get into discussions, just make the first answer no. In many cases, clients are just asking whether it would be a good idea, and no is not just an acceptable answer, it’s the right answer, so don’t feel you’re obliged to do something, just because you’ve been asked. It also works as a filtering process – most times a no will suffice, but if a client comes back to you on something, you’ll know that’s the thing that really matters to them, and then it’s time to seriously consider the request.
Of course, to say no repeatedly and avoid collaborative working takes a good deal of experience, confidence in your own abilities and skills as a web designer, and the ability to say no without giving offence. Clients need to understand and believe that they can trust the ‘no’, that you are looking out for their best interests, and that the final result really will be better for it.
But if done well, Ms Dent argues that this system results in everyone being happy – you’re happy as a designer, your clients feel that you have a clear vision of what they require and are using your experience and expertise to their advantage, and the end user finds a better experience waiting for them when they arrive at the site.
