The more you work at any job, the more little things and lessons you learn. This is no different with web design. As a web designer for the past six years, I have learned a great deal about how to work clients to come up with the best designed possible for them up. Sometimes you won?t always love the designed, but as long as the client does, it is a job well done. I?d like to share just a few best practices that I?ve developed over many years of doing web designed for a wide range of clients.
My absolute best practice, which I highly recommend to every designer, is to ask the client to provide you with a document that displays a few of their favorite web sites. Underneath each URL, ask them to provide a paragraph or two of why they like the site so much. Tell them to be as specific as possible. Also, have them include any bits about the site that they actually don?t like. This document will help you greatly in crafting your design for the client. By receiving this, you are getting a glimpse at the client?s tastes; you?re seeing exactly what they like and can tailor your design to what they like.
To go along with the list of sites that they love, you?ll also want to get a list from them of sites that they don?t like that are also in their industry. Again, you?ll want an explanation of why they do not like the sites. This will help you in avoiding design elements that they do not like. This is just as important as the list of sites that they love. Ensuring that you design something that leaves out elements that they hate is important.
Another key eve aspect of a web site that you should dedicate a good amount of effort and studying on is navigation. The navigation is critical to the usability of the site and thus it demands that you fully understand what the client wants. After understanding this you want to develop the cleanest method to organize all of their information. Once you have the client lock into the peaches that they want in the hierarchy of how to let the navigation, you can really begin to think about where you?ll place the navigation on the web site.
These tips may seem kind of obvious, but they weren?t things that I was always thinking about when I first started doing web design. I was always focused on churning out the best designed rather than focusing on a designed that matches the client?s likes and dislikes. This method of focusing on their likes, dislikes, and navigation has drastically reduced the amount of revisions I need to do before designing something that the client absolutely loves. Hopefully these tips will help you become a better designer too.
Tags: Favorite Web Sites, Eve, Hierarchy, Peaches
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