Making changes is good for your website. Its like fine tuning your website and shaping it to become closer to what you want. There would be a lot of feedback from the client and involves a lot of communication between the designer and client. Even after the first website is completed, there would be more plans to further improve the site and maybe come up with an upgraded version after a few months (or years). This of course, keeps the designer in business, and keeps the client’s website up to date.
In fact, websites allows more flexibility in making amendments compared with other media. There are no advertisements deadlines to meet, an unlike brochures, that can’t be changed once it has been printed, you can easily make changes to the website content e.g. changing phone numbers or company profile, even after launching the website.
Usually the end result of what you see in a website is the result of many drafts and changes. First, you have to warm up. In the creative line, you warm up your brain to get your creative juices flowing. Even before writing this article, I had to jot down my points on paper first. So warming up is sort of a universal thing that you can apply not only in web design but in other things you do.
How I work is, first I will just come up with any design in Photoshop. Usually the first few designs sucks, especially if I’m not in the mood to design. The purpose is to warm up the brain, to start brainstorming for ideas and to get the momentum going. This goes on for a few hours until I suddenly come up with something that looks nice. The design can be further developed by combining all the nice elements from all the design samples into a new design. Sometimes I start designing one day, then come back a few days later. It helps me see things from a different perspective. Otherwise if I am designing in front of the computer for many hours, I can’t judge whether the design looks good or bad. So its like, after a few days, you open up the file and view it, then say to yourself, “What the heck was I thinking ? This design is awful, it would look better if ….”. Therefore, you can see what can be improved and make further changes to the design.
Most of the time, you can just send the first few drafts you come up with to the client, even though you may think its not that perfect yet. At least the client can give some feedback and ideas on the type of design they had in mind. Then you can make more changes. These changes would only make the site look better. Giving drafts to the client is more productive than completing one perfect design only to be rejected by the client. At least you can find what they want early on. After a few years, the designer will be more experienced in judging what clients like and therefore changes will be minimal.
When the client makes a lot of complaints after viewing your design, then you know its just not what they are looking for. It’s as simple as that. Nobody can read minds. After all, designers need feedback. Changes are to be expected.
As a client, just tell the designer that “you were expecting something else” or “the design needs more work” and give some examples and ideas. The client acts like an Art Director for the freelance web designer, directing the designer what kind of look they want to achieve. The client knows best about their own company, marketing strategy and the kind of corporate image they want to project.
Please don’t freak out and make a big deal out of it like giving a long lecture or sarcastic remarks. Its as if it’s the end of the world. I really hate it when the client does that (it must be my designer ego getting hurt). Unless you are paying me big bucks then I won’t mind and you can say whatever you like. Clients who say “Even I can design something like that...” really get on my nerves. Well not now, a few years ago maybe. Now I’m more ‘matured’ I understand what the client is going through.
Then there was another client, I submitted the first web design draft to him. The first draft looked very plain with a simple blue masthead. So at night around 9pm, he called me up to lecture me, “This is not what I want ! .. etc etc” I was really upset after that. Finally he gave me a sample site that he liked so I designed the site based on the sample that he gave me. He was very happy with the design and said he received compliments. So, moral of the story is, one of the easiest way to communicate what you want to the designer is to show them a sample design that you like, and that this is exactly what you want. No need to give long lecture.
Therefore, most of the time, the first draft is not the final draft. So please don’t freak out if its not what you expected.
Exceptions to this rule would be clients who will accept anything that the designer comes up with, like a reiki master or meditation guru type of client who believes in energy fields, karma etc and believes that whatever that comes to him is what he’s suppose to receive. I had a client like that, so I was rather surprised that he liked the first draft and didn’t require anymore changes. Well, its good because I got paid immediately. Makes me a bit guilty though, like a nagging thought that I should have designed a better one for him. But if he likes it the way it is then so be it.
Don’t be shy to ask for changes. Just write it out in the email or give me a call. No change is too small. Its all about attention to details. Its very normal in this line of work. Of course I do get frustrated a little when clients request a lot of changes but that’s part of the job.
I used to think it was absurd to request for changes many times until I worked in an animation studio. We were working on a TV series called Higglytown Heroes, a children’s cartoon series for Playhouse Disney Channel. Being sort of a Disney production, the Overseas Supervisor and Animation Director had to be very picky to maintain the quality of work. So, there I was, starting my first job as a 3d character animator, and I had to quickly learn up the controls in the software, filenames and the animation process. My first scene, was just a few seconds, and I had to make changes more than 30 times. That’s right. More that 30 changes, for a scene that is shorter than 10 seconds. Submit for approval, then animation gets sent back for retakes. Took me over a month to make the scene good enough. I was starting to get worried. Then the Studio Manager called me in and asked if everything was ok and suggested that they transferred me to another department! I got really upset after that and said no I would like to stay on the Animation Team.
Well, that got me really motivated to work harder and catch up. Eventually the scene was approved. The next episode was better. I got most of the easy scenes and since I was starting to get the hang of it, things were getting better. I already had an idea of what they wanted. I was very happy when the Animation Director said I improved a lot.
Anyway, back to the topic of paying attention to details. Working at the animation studio made me notice a lot of things on how they work with the client. The client was in US and they would request for changes in the animation. Line by line of comments for each scene. We get comments like, objects in the background not overlapping properly, or using the wrong mouth shapes, or … oh I can’t think of anything else. Well, its a lot. That shows how much detail goes into an animated TV series Imagine animating for a PIXAR movie, the level of detail and quality control must be even more thorough. But they are not picky for no reason. They have a good reason to be picky. If it is a mistake that people will notice when they watch the animation, then corrections definitely have to be made.
So yeah, that job stint, got me conditioned to be patient and keep cool when handling customer comments and changes. So, go ahead, whatever you want to change just let me know.
Of course, being a perfectionist is counter productive. We are not aiming to make the website perfect. Even in the animation studio, we had time constraints, so the Overseas supervisor would say, this animation is not quite right yet, but just make it good enough to show the client, and then we would enhance it later when the client requests for retakes. For websites, I’ll just hand in whatever I can come up that is decent enough during that period of time.
When you help your customer maintain and update their website, it is an opportunity to forge a long term working relationship with the customer. You can keep in touch and may still be working for them after a few years! In fact, I have a few clients whom I have known for at least 3 years and I’m still updating their website for them and doing some graphic design work that crops up from time to time. Of course you have to be selective of who you work with. Usually if the client is nice to work with and I enjoy doing design work for them then I will keep the client. Likewise, if you are a client, you can decide whether to continue to work with the designer on a long term basis.
Its good to grow with the company, even though I am a freelancer and not really employed on a full time basis. There would be new projects coming in and more work, so its like getting a regular income. Its also good for the client because they don’t have to waste time finding another designer every time there’s a new project. After all, the designer would have all the files, company logo, photos and other materials required, from the previous project. Also, the designer would know the client’s preferences.
Therefore, making changes is a good thing. It’s a way to ‘warm up the brain’ and generate more creative ideas. Each new design would be better than the first few designs. It is also a process of communicating your needs to the designer, and a form of quality control. Finally, maintaining a website for a company is a good opportunity to work with a client on a long term basis and grow with the company.