Comments on: Getting Design Approval: The Single Mockup Theory

By: Cristiano Rastelli

Cristiano Rastelli — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:17:53 +0000

I generally use two approaches: I present or a single mockup (the best one out of a series of grahical attempts) or the early grahical attempts (through Basecamp) using an agile approach and involving the customer in the decisional process.

By: Steve Rose

Steve Rose — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:16:54 +0000

I have come to dislike the idea of showing the client a variety of sites to try to understand their likes and dislikes. I believe websites should be designed graphically to suit the likes and dislikes of the site users, not the site owners, and too many site owners are unable to separate these two very different ideas. I prefer to ask site owners, "What perception do you want your site users to have regarding your company/service"? Then I try to give them a design that fulfills that goal.

By: Darren Hoyt

Darren Hoyt — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:21:08 +0000

I believe websites should be designed graphically to suit the likes and dislikes of the site users, not the site owners, and too many site owners are unable to separate these two very different ideas.That’s a great point. When I broach this with clients, they often suggest that they know their industry very well, thus they are part of their own audience and can identify with what users need. Sometimes they are projecting these needs on their users and it doesn’t work. It’s not directly addressed in the article, but yeah, Audience is obviously a major part of the strategy process.

By: Tor Løvskogen

Tor Løvskogen — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:25:03 +0000

At my job we just present one mock-up with several secondary page mock-ups, because it’s just the best way - no Frankenstein :-)

By: Michelle Sullivan

Michelle Sullivan — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:59:40 +0000

It has been my experience that if presented with several different mockups a client will more often than not go for the ‘mashup’ of designs - a bit of this, a bit of that, much to the frustration of the designer.

By: Heidi

Heidi — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:43:54 +0000

Steve Rose said:"I believe websites should be designed graphically to suit the likes and dislikes of the site users, not the site owners, and too many site owners are unable to separate these two very different ideas."Amen! I actually turned down an otherwise attractive position in an agency because the client I would be focusing on could not grasp this concept. The attitude was very much "we know what our visitors want," and the expectation was that I would merely code what the client asked for, not what they actually needed.

By: Aaron Russell

Aaron Russell — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:15:56 +0000

I think there’s a lot of sense in this article as I’m sure we’ve all come accross the same situation: you create three mockups - one really creative concept, one really conservative concept, and one middle of the road concept. Sure enough, nine times out of ten the client picks the ‘wrong’ concept - the middle of the road idea. Why did we even give them the option?However, I think there’s more to this. We have to accept that as creative types, we’re always going to prefer that slightly more leftfield concept - that’s our nature. The client who’s expectations are shaped somewhat differently to ours, is probably hoping for something a bit more conventional than we would like - a ’safer’ option. Does that mean that we’re right and they’re wrong? I don’t think so.The argument of this article can work the other way too, because if you present only one option and the client doesn’t like it, then time and budget can get spent bending the concept to something the client does like. Sometimes providing multiple concepts allows the client to feel involved and have some input into the overall decision, without the project turning into design by committee or some beastly frankenstein.

By: Naomi Niles

Naomi Niles — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:48:07 +0000

Total agreement here, great article! We started offering 1 concept about a year ago. We explain to them that we’d rather give them 1 strong concept rather than several weak ones and they seem to understand that. Often they still request more than 1 and we honor that too, but I agree that almost always, 1 concept gets better restults. Anyhow, when you offer more than one, there’s always one you know is better and the client picks the worse one, right? Or the frankenstein mish mash, which is yuck too.I agree with Steve on putting too much importance in what type of site the client likes. This can be helpful depending on the level of knowledge they have about the industry or web in general, but sometimes they don’t really know. It’s up to you either way to research their industry as much as you can and make something in line with that.Interesting about the Mood Board idea. I never heard of that! We pretty much do wireframes on all sites nowadays, whether the client sees them or not. I think it helps the design process a lot later.

By: Harry Roberts

Harry Roberts — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:10:29 +0000

Brilliant article, thanks!

By: johan

johan — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:10:40 +0000

Sometimes I dont have to redesign/change anything, though this depends on the client’s input and last minute overhaul changes.Usually we have two stages: proposal and after clients give their opinion changes and refinement go on that what the final website will be.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:16:58 +0000

Great article and great comments. I’ve been providing my clients with two design drafts up till now and I think I’m going to change that now to one homepage design and a couple of secondary "inside" pages. I give all my clients questionnaires where I try to dig out as much information about the sites that they like, dislike, colours they like and so on. That often yields a lot more information than when I meet them face to face because they seem to take a bit more time on the questionnaire and are under no pressure to give answers to me. So I try to take their "likes" and build them what they need and make as many recommendations as possible if they are erring off onto some sort of web monstrosity.

By: J. Jeffryes

J. Jeffryes — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:17:24 +0000

I’ve been doing this for a few years, the key is to have a very solid process, where the client approves and has input into the requirements list, the site architecture, the wireframes and the color scheme before they see the design. If you’ve done that, then they already have some idea what the concept will look like, and it’s easy to get them to sign off on it. If you just ambush them with a concept from out of nowhere they will resist, and demand changes or new concepts.

By: Darren Hoyt

Darren Hoyt — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:33:16 +0000

because if you present only one option and the client doesn’t like it, then time and budget can get spent bending the concept to something the client does like.Our standard contract only provides 3 rounds of design feedback. If by the 3rd round we feel like we’ve done our best work and are presenting something that represents best design and best practices, but the client is still displeased, we hit the brakes and decide whether to re-cope the budget or to offer the client ‘other options’ (aka, referring them elsewhere). This almost never happens, FWIW, but if it’s clear the client is going to insist on a piece of work that we don’t think is good, we’d rather them work with a firm that suits them better than to prolong a doomed process. It’s up to you either way to research their industry as much as you can and make something in line with that.Interesting about the Mood Board idea. I never heard of that! We pretty much do wireframes on all sites nowadays, whether the client sees them or not. I think it helps the design process a lot later. I give all my clients questionnaires where I try to dig out as much information about the sites that they like, dislike, colours they like and so on. That often yields a lot more information than when I meet them face to face because they seem to take a bit more time on the questionnaire and are under no pressure to give answers to me. If you’ve done that, then they already have some idea what the concept will look like, and it’s easy to get them to sign off on it. W3c, or sketchpad.

By: Darren Hoyt

Darren Hoyt — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:16:58 +0000

The argument of this article can work the other way too, because if you present only one option and the client doesn’t like it, then time and budget can get spent bending the concept to something the client does like.

Our standard contract offers up to 3 rounds of design feedback. If after 3 rounds the client is still displeased but we feel like we’ve done our best design using best practices, we will hit the brakes and re-scope the budget. Or, we offer the client ‘alternatives’ (aka, refer them elsewhere). FWIW, this almost never happens, but I’d rather them work with someone whose tastes and process suits them better than to prolong a relationship that isn’t working.

It’s up to you either way to research their industry as much as you can and make something in line with that.

Exactly. If the client is giving a deer-in-the-headlights look when asked for input, it’s up to us to dig deeper to research their industry and competition. Granted, if it’s clear the client isn’t equipped to offer timely content or feedback, it’s sometimes necessary to add additional design hours to the budget for assembling content and experimenting. A more prepared, on-the-ball client always pays less.

I give all my clients questionnaires where I try to dig out as much information about the sites that they like, dislike, colours they like and so on. That often yields a lot more information than when I meet them face to face because they seem to take a bit more time on the questionnaire and are under no pressure to give answers to me.

The questionnaire approach can be really helpful. FWIW, I usually give them a copy a couple weeks before the kickoff meeting so that they have some things to discuss in person. Even when the responses aren’t 100% helpful, it’s a good conversation-starter, and a reminder that they will need to actively contribute to the project, not passively expect results.

If you just ambush them with a concept from out of nowhere they will resist, and demand changes or new concepts.

Before the end of a kickoff meeting, I try to have something already sketched, either with the Best4c tool or even drawn on paper. If nothing else, a list of homepage modules that we both agree on, so when presented with a mockup later on, they won’t feel surprised or ambushed by the layout.

By: Jon Kokke

Jon Kokke — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:13:52 +0000

We generally use a single mock up approach for all our work. We find that using a workflow of a project sheet (either filled in by the client or by us and the client), writing a spec & scope document (usually with wireframes), then presentation of visual (usually 2-3 key pages). We then have a meeting and produce any amendments. Often we can so these in the template / build stage.

By: Aaron Mills

Aaron Mills — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:32:10 +0000

This is a really great post. I have been so frustrated with offering 3 mockups. I think you are so right to offer one. This also places the finances of the design budget into the slot of "really discovering what the client likes to get it right the first time" Great ideas, love the blog

By: Kirk

Kirk — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:40:58 +0000

I work for an agency as a creative director and have found that very few clients will accept the 1 mock approach. I have tried this idea and when our AE is speaking with the primary stakeholders, rarely will they go for this approach. As the creative director, it is my responsibility to steer them in the right direction and they usually pick the best design. From there we build the interior comps based off of the approved index comp.

By: MJ

MJ — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:48:14 +0000

It’s usually the clients with no artistic taste who are very picky!

By: Johan

Johan — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:21:52 +0000

- Mostly clients set up the wireframe?- Many clients often include references to sites they like. - Without the necessary content a mockup seems sterile?

By: Debi K

Debi K — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:09:24 +0000

Great discussion. What about presenting a single mockup, but allow customers to collaborate on the design using a program like Gliffy? This way you can allow them to specifically suggest what types of changes they have in mind (but you still have the option to revert to earlier versions). No matter what trends occur, people always want their opinions heard!debik at gliffy dot com

By: OneHipSista

OneHipSista — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:02:57 +0000

I like this theory. I always thought I was giving clients options by doing several mockups. In reality, I’ve always produced one really detailed comp; then reproduced the same layout in slightly different color schemes - making the client think they were seeing something different. I actually listen to clients and what they think they want but ultimately, I’m the designer and I know what I’m doing.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:25:35 +0000

Absoletely true. Spend as much time and resources in the planning stage, really learn the clients likes and dislikes, and then present them the one. Your pitch should be, this is what we think is the best solution for you. The more versions you give them, the longer it will take and usually overall the worse and more muddled and unfocused it will be.

By: flashy

flashy — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:32:09 +0000

Nice post, do you have any on how to defend logo designs….I always have pronlems with that :(

By: abdul

abdul — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:34:21 +0000

This is a really great post. Excellent atricle…

By: Sonali Sengupta

Sonali Sengupta — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:00:11 +0000

Brilliant post, thanks for sharing.

By: Klans

Klans — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:12:21 +0000

Good insight. I normally work on 2 drafts based upon a series of questions, slected reference sites from the client, my own research, and the corporate identity of the company. Generally, people like to have choices and providing 2 well conceptualized drafts solves this. It also shows that you hae done your homework and is serious enough. At the end, it’s up to the agent to direct a disgruntled client into closing on a concept.

By: Ryan Battles

Ryan Battles — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:55:38 +0000

I had never thought about suggesting only one markup. It makes perfect sense though, especially if you do good homework on what they are looking for. I really liked the idea of projecting a CSS gallery to get feedback. Thanks for the article.

By: acms

acms — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:39:53 +0000

Great resource for a begginer like me. Thanks.

By: jhonnight

jhonnight — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:34:49 +0000

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