Today, Brian Haught over at Smashing Magazine asked “Who Do You Design For: Clients or Users?”.
Understandably, Brian didn’t have a lot in the way of answers. I can’t fault him too much for that, it’s a difficult question to answer. It’s also one I’ve asked myself many times over the years and one whose answer is core to the design philosophy here at Blue Flavor.
From Brian’s post:
“Now ask yourself, “Who are you designing for?” By definition, your job is to communicate a message via images and text. But, as a businessperson your goal must be to meet the requests of the client. If you go against the client’s explicit requests and produce a user-centric design, oddly enough you’ll have an unhappy client. Now the flip side of the coin. If you cooperate, lay down your sword, turn off the grids and produce what the client has demanded, the design will fail and in turn you will fail. The bad design will always come back like Rocky and smash you right in the face.”
The gist of what he’s saying is that a good designer designs for his or her audiences but the pressures of client work often get in the way of that, forcing you to abandon user-centric principles in order to please your clients. It’s a tough situation for a designer to be in.
Our Answer
It’s pretty simple really. Ultimately at Blue Flavor we design for our clients, but in doing so we have to design for their audience. Anything less would be unprofessional.
So, the answer should be: Both.
Of course it’s not all that simple. Part of a designers job is being able to educate and sell a client on design decisions. Keeping a client from being their own worst enemy is Job Number 1 some days.
I want to be clear, in my opinion, designing to a client’s wants, or misguided perception of needs, when they’re in conflict with what is best for them is never, ever a good idea. Of course, it’s important to make sure you understand a client’s goals, so you can make an informed decision about what it good for them, but it is true that client’s often don’t know any better.
Which is why they came to a designer for help in the first place.
Sure, there are times when you’ll get a client who you simply can’t persuade or one who just doesn’t listen. Those jobs should be avoided. It’s better, in my mind anyway, to dissolve the relationship than to compromise your integrity as a designer and/or damage your clients brand/rep/etc. with their users. That’s how you avoid getting, as Brian puts it, smashed in the face.
I’ve found that taking the time to educate your clients, and forming a relationship that allows for candid talk, is the only way to go. It’s hard, no doubt, but anyone who thinks design is easy isn’t doing it right. Design for your clients and your users, take the high road. You’ll be a better designer for having done so.
Educating the client is one of the biggest challenges we face. Whenever I see design that moves me it is always one of the first questions that runs through my head. “How in the heck did they get the client to OK that!?!” Followed by “Damn, they’re be good.”
We ultimately design for the end user, but we strongly believe in the “the client is always right” thought. The reality is that we might not always agree with the client, but we are providing that client a service and while we strive to provide them with what we believe to be the best deliverable, the real objective is to provide them with what they want.
A lot of our design work is more strategy than anything else; helping the client better understand their audience, content and creating a strategy that brings all of that together in a unique, usable and stylish design.
On thing I find a lot among designers, is that I believe many “designers” actually don’t design for clients or users first … but for “other designers” first and foremost.
Got to agree with the article that in my own personal mind (altough it not always happens in the firms I work for) its better to do the right things in design than produce what you know is wrong simply because a client requests it.
Days, Weeks, Months, Years later when they wake up and smell the coffee and/or someone they respect tells them all the things wrong with their site or project they will forget that they pushed for these elements or think less of you for not being able to be strong on producing what you know is right.
While a client should get what they want ultimately they want to get their message across right, keep and convert site visits and produce something users actually want to use, so to do something you know will alienate visitors will only mean you fail your brief and in the end fail the client.
I agree with ending relationships with clients where they are forcing you to do something that is wrong however until I have more say in the firms I work for this decision isn’t always mine :(
Good article!