1stWebDesigner’s Life #4 – This Big & Developer Client

And here we are again, trying to bring you a couple of laughs.

Our superhero Webster continues his pursuit for the best client, and we all know that he’s quite far from it yet, right? :)

We have two more short stories of Webster’s life (which is kind of similar to ours, huh?) brought to life by Jamie Sale! We’ll be talking about crazy measurement units and clients who want to be web designers.

So, Let’s rock!

This Big

The developer client

What would you do?

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So, if it were you, how would you respond? I’ll explain what works for me in these situations and if you are in a good mood, please share your experiences with us in the comments.

Pixels, Inches… Which is the best?

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Actually, neither.

With so many responsive designs, and a lot of other crazy and unpredictable screen resolutions out there, your safe bet is: Design fluid, responsive layouts, then the size doesn’t matter.

I know that your client may say crazy things like “I want it 10 inches tall” and you could actually try to convert this to pixels (tip: you use DPI for this conversion), but in real life what really matters is the best format for each output.

Think about how people are still trying ad formats for mobile, and in the meantime desktop ads are changing too (like google punishing “above the fold” ads). Maybe we’ll experience different formats every day. That’s why people want different ads for different devices, using the same ad as you would for a desktop based site won’t give you the same results.

So the real topic being discussed here is not about “Pixels versus inches” (since we all know that inches aren’t the best to work with as a measurement on the web). The discussion is about “Pixels? Fluid? Responsive?”. Maybe you should try to explain these concepts to your client, dear Padawan. Actually soon there will be no absolute measurement on web.

So, you want to be a Web designer?

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Actually, simple tools like Word, PowerPoint and Paint may be good to share an idea. For some users they are good to help express themselves better and help you as developer understand which work flow will work better and maybe even play with those simple tools to show the client that you understand how they process things.

But whenever your client shows up with a .doc file you must tell him what it is: just a sketch. You may (actually should) consider his ideas, but let them know it doesn’t save any development time (maybe save you re-work hours).

I’ve had a client that really thought that I just pasted his .ppt file into an html file and everything was good. He didn’t even notice that what I used from his file was just the basic structure.

Those tools aren’t good to do real design so don’t let anyone waste too much time creating complex things using them thinking that it’s useful. If it has more than three colors in it, it’s a waste of time.

We all know that there’s a lot of other things that should be done before we can call it a website. But does the client?

You could explain your whole development process and where each tool is used, and where they definitely aren’t. Here is mine:

• Idea, brainstorm and main concept – Simple text editors (word, google docs), mind maps (mindmeister)
• Sketches and Wireframes – PowerPoint, Photoshop / Fireworks, wireframing tools (mockingbird)
• Final design – Photoshop / Fireworks
• Code – Notepad++

This is the main idea, but you could even break “Design” and “Code” steps down to show how much work is required to complete the project.

It’s your turn!

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Have you seen something like this? Do you have any fun stories to share? We’re waiting for cool stories to publish next month!

Just go on and comment! :)