Webmaster Articles > Working with Clients
Whether you work for an agency or an internal web team, working well with clients is integral to the success of your web projects. Here is a collection of articles to help you do it better.
Jump to a section:
- Understanding clients
- Communicating with clients
- The client relationship
- Process
- Difficult clients
- Getting paid
- Legal stuff
- The business case for web standards
- Wrapping up
Understanding Clients
12 Breeds of Client and How to Work with Them
There are loads of different types of clients out there and chances are at some point you'll get to meet all of them. So let's take a look through some typical clients and see if you recognise a few of your own in there!
Cheaper Over Better: Why Web Clients Settle for Less
Why clients hire bad web designers — and what good web designers can do about it.
Understanding Organizational Stakeholders for Design Success
A design must meet the business needs of the company, and must be supported by disparate members of the management team, in order to be actually implemented.
Stakeholder Analysis: Winning support for your projects
Stakeholder analysis is the technique used to identify the key people who have to be won over.
Having trouble getting clients to see things your way? Maybe it's time you spoke their language. When it comes to commercial web design, it's all about the business case.
Communicating with Clients
There is no more crucial step in a client's project than the initial creative discovery meeting.
What Web Design Clients Need to Know
Sometimes web design clients don't understand that building a successful web site doesn't fall solely on the shoulders of the developer.
Getting design approval and then a project completed for a large corporate client is usually about trying to keep the dumbest people in the room from shooting themselves in the foot.
The discovery meeting is likely the most important moment in the life of a project. There is another vital aspect to this initial meeting: the specific questions asked.
Some key questions to ask your clients when designing quality sites for them
Many web designers have a terrific opportunity to shift from being web designers to being marketing consulting for their clients.
Documenting work keeps clients informed of and satisfied with your performance
Here's how one consultant lets his clients know about the tasks he completes on their behalf using a Work In Progress sheet.
If you spend the time to educate your clients or managers at the beginning of the project, it will be repaid many times over by better decisions later on.
Using Site Evaluations to Communicate with Clients
Performed as part of a sales proposal, a site assessment can help you speak knowledgeably about solutions to your potential client's problems.
Ten Quotable Moments: Challenges and Responses for UI Designers
The following ten things have been said to me by actual clients and represent common and very human reactions to a new wrinkle in the process of building software: design.
Stakeholder Management & Planning: Planning stakeholder communication
Stakeholder management is critical to the success of every project in every organization. By engaging the right people in the right way in your project, you can make a big difference to its success.
If a client says he wants his new auction site to be "like eBay," what does that mean? An artist hears "It has a tacky color scheme." A developer hears "It's scalable to 20 million users." A user hears "It has feedback ratings on all sellers."
Why is it so Hard to Make Products that People Love?
Personas provide the shared vocabulary that bridges the different points of view within the company.
Remove These Words From Your Vocabulary
These words tend to put the client on edge and can form a barrier across the relationship that you are trying to form with them.
Often, when we meet with design teams, we'll reserve a few minutes at the tail end of the meeting to do an unusual type of wrap-up.
The Client Relationship
When the designer/client relationship should begin
I have been considering the point at which this relationship starts and wondering whether the designer should actually be engaged earlier in the development cycle.
How a Core Relationship Strategy Can Help You Increase Profits
A practical strategy to identify and enhance relationships with your best clients - and resolve your issues with the others.
What's Your Client Relationship Like?
Client relations aren't easy, just as personal relationships can be challenging. But are they that different? When looked at closely they seem pretty similar.
Beyond Strictly Business Relationships
Many of us tend to keep our clients at an arms length. I've had more success and enjoy my work a lot more by moving beyond the "strictly business relationship".
Five suggestions to keep your business running smooth, your clients happy, and your reputation on a pedestal.
Developing a relationship with a client takes work. You need to be actively building a relationship with that client, beyond just the project.
The Resistance: Designers and Clients Go Head-to-Head
As no military plan survives contact with the enemy, no design concept survives contact with the client.
Proposal + Engagement = Marriage
I recently took the time to notice that the various terms we use in the early stages of a project closely resembles one of life's greatest and scariest moments. Marriage.
