There’s no denying the fact that there’s a lot of design-challenged clients out there. They’re everywhere, in fact. The problem has become extensive enough that someone even put up a site where people can go to rant about them. If you haven’t met clients like this yet, keep designing. They will find you.

We’ve all been there

So you’re in a meeting with a client, and it’s all going well. He looks like the smart type, a real businessman. He tells you what features he wants the website to have, and his demands are reasonable. You give him a quote, and he’s satisfied with the price.

But then he pulls the switch. He leans forward, looks you in the eye, and says, “Our company wants to stand out from the crowd. Could you do the site in purple and yellow?

Yep, we’ve been there:

• I want to use the Laker’s colors. (This one happened to me, but not exactly as described above…)
  How about Comic Sans? In fact let’s use it everywhere…
  Are you going to make it in Frontpage? I want it made in Frontpage.
  My ten-year old son is a designer too, and he says…
  But it’s so easy in Powerpoint! This Flash stuff sucks.
  Can you do that cool text stuff like you can in Word?
  It needs more, I dunno, it just needs something.
  I’d like every navigation button to be a different [bright and flashy] color. And I want each page to match the color of the button that links to it. (This also happened to me…)
  But I don’t want whitespace.
  Etc.

So very, very sad.

Why are they like this?

I blame Microsoft. No, seriously, it’s not the Linux fanboy in me talking. Frontpage, Word, Powerpoint, and any number of other WYSIWYG programs have skewed our customer’s view of the design world. Good design is seen by many as something that “anyone can do”.

If they can do animation in Powerpoint, than it should work the same for the website, right? And it doesn’t end there. Many people believe that we designers are gods, and can do miracles, such as taking that fuzzy 300×250 picture of their chihuahua-crossed-with-a-pitbull-and-a-daschund, and creating a poster out of it. Or a website. If we don’t deliver according to their tastes, we are branded as a waste of their time and money.

(Of course, there are probably many other reasons as well, but that would take too long to write.)

Fortunately, not all clients are like this.

What’s the solution?

Well, here’s a few thoughts:

1. Client Education

This is a tough one, at least for me. Then again, I’m not a very smooth talker when I’ve just been presented with any of the ideas listed above. I’ve found that some people trust you just because “you’re the designer”, and will follow your suggestions. Some won’t.

2. Client Finds Solution

This did actually happen to me once. Again, thanks to the “you’re the designer” phenomenon, sometimes the client will automatically retract his suggestion, and present you with something workable.

3. Dump The Client

A last resort, because frankly, it means dumping money as well. It could also be hard if you’re in a binding contract. If you can dump them, do so as nicely as possible, without lying.

Something like, “I’m sorry, but the project just doesn’t match with my design style.” will usually work. Offer to suggest some other designers.

Feedback

So tell me your stories. Did you succeed in educating the client? Did you give them what they wanted? Did you dump them? How do you deal with troublesome clients?

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