Quote:
Originally Posted by sarettah
This is one of the hardest things (imho) for some clients to understand.
I have to ask questions to effectively work a project. Some think it is a pain in the ass because they feel that their communication is completely, utterly clear. and it may be to them.
Good stuff here bf  |
It is a very very frustrating thing for most clients, including myself. A lot of clients, again including myself, do not have the technical skills or understanding. I just know how I need something to work and look for me to be able to use/sell it. However, I concede it is necessary evil, especially on larger projects where you are mapping out all of the things to a project.
While most ideas, or websites are days/months/years in the making of notes and links. When it comes time to get a bid, I basically spend half a day working out the project. That includes links of what I like in this site, or that site, how the navigation is going to work, and look. I will build a PDF of cut and pasted images from the different site examples.
If it requires a view point from the admin, surfer, worker bee, I try and include all of those as well. Just as I am not a designer or developer, most of them are not sales people and possess the marketing knowledge I have for my niche.
This I have found extremely helpful, but it frustrates me to no end. But I will say, it gives me much better end results, and ultimately that is what matters. So you can think of it as investing in your own final product by putting in this additional effort. It saves you a lot of time, frustration, back and forth foolishness.
That doesn't mean we do not find sometimes things that will not work, or must be changed in the middle. This happens often. I can't think of a single project that was 100% from beginning to end as mapped out. But as long as you do not expect your designer and programmer to do changes/modifications all for free, you should be fine.