In Articles Aug 6, 201019
The Things Clients Expect Designers to Have Learned
As the web standards continue to increase, new technologies and techniques arise, which increases clientele expectations for what a designer can bring forth. Whether be it fancy gradient effects, attention to detail, or mesmerizing illustrations, there is always that expectation a client wants for what they envision for their design. Furthermore, we discuss eight things a client expects from today’s designers to have learned.
PHP
A lot of clients search for designers who can design and develop in PHP to eliminate the process of contracting two or more people. Let us dive right into why and how it is important. Clientele range from many different niches, from portfolios to corporate sites but they all have a few things in common in terms of needs. Most websites we look at today have contact forms, lightweight galleries, or a simple display of products.
While you can find many free contact forms or galleries, basic knowledge of PHP is needed to modify or customize them to suit the client’s needs. A lot of times they want to be able to manage their contact form, display of products, or gallery all from a centralized panel, without PHP knowledge this cannot be easily attainable. Therefore, it is important to begin to adapt to a PHP or development environment.
Illustration
Many new designers can whip up designs with fancy gradients and patterns; however, they cannot create basic illustrations or graphics such as a lightweight illustration of a park or even simple graphics such as chalkboards and what not. Today’s clients expect designers to have such basic skills in order to whip them up a few things they might need to make their website stand out. With a plethora of free quality tutorials on how to create basic and advanced illustrations, there is no reason not to learn how to do it.
Creativity
While there is nothing wrong with browsing the net for inspiring designs, clients want their designs to stand out with new original ideas to enhance their image on originality. In fact, with so many pre-made designs out there, proving to your client that they made the right decision choosing you is ever increasing in difficulty; however, this proves your originality and ingenuity. Therefore, adapting to a creative environment or creative thinking gives you the upper hand on design allowing you to impress clients every time.
Logo Design
Logo design also categorizes under illustrations and creativity as a logo is the unique icon your client’s customers will remember. While it is wrong for clientele to think that a redesign includes a logo design, clientele expect it as a part of the package. Having the creativity in design to create a unique logo for your client’s niche expands on your portfolio and customer base. Therefore, emphasizing on illustration design is an increasing demand for designers, becoming a must for some clientele.
Clean PSD, Clean Code
A lot of clients want security for their future, they want to make sure if they hire someone a few years down the line that the person they hire can easily pick up from where you left off. With that said, it is in your best interest to offer a well organized, grouped, labeled, and layered PSD of the design or certain graphic elements that might be changed in the future. Clean code is also another thing clients look for but cannot distinguish the difference.
However, by properly commenting and organizing your code, your client will definitely be impressed with the work and will recommend you or re-contract you in the future. Furthermore, this also makes it easier for them to modify and maintain their site if they need to change a few small things, which saves you time from clientele who expect you to help them out for free when they need it.
CSS 3
The demand for CSS 3 is surprisingly increasing as clientele become more tech savvy. While Internet Explorer and other similar browsers do not support CSS 3, specializing your design to the browser your client uses is what you need to do to an extent. If your client uses Google Chrome or Firefox, you can save time by creating rounded corners and shadowing using CSS 3 as it does not mess up Internet Explorer users, but rather limits the design a bit. It also gives your client flexibility to be able to change things without the need to recreate the rounded corners as it is all done dynamically.
Javascript and Javascript Frameworks
Javascript effects are becoming noticeable all over the web, it gives a website more personality and the pizzazz clientele are looking for. Therefore, learning how to code in Javascript is becoming a must even as a designer as it effects how your design behaves. There are a lot of Javascript frameworks out in the world today that help ease up the hard coding, making it a few minute step even for developers new to the language.
Furthermore, it is a good idea to browse through many different frameworks and picking the best that suits you and your clients need, and expanding your knowledge about it. Clients are not meticulous about what framework you use, but are rather for the effects you implement.
Mobile Design Skills
Many of your clients will most likely have some sort of mobile device whether be it a phone or some sort of device like the iPod Touch. What this means is, they will most definitely try out their new website on their mobile device only throw feedback at you for correction. Therefore, learning some tips and tricks about mobile design and how to approach it is definitely an increasing demand, and something you should invest time in to learn and understand.
It is always a great move to stay up to date with new technologies and demands as a designer while continuing to expand on your skill set. Not only does this increase your knowledge, it also affects your portfolio in a positive way and widens your range of the type of jobs or clientele you can accept, and most importantly, it gives you the upper hand in the industry.
19 Comments
Aug 6, 2010
Aug 6, 2010
Aug 6, 2010
That’s essentially asking a designer to be an expert at everything.
Ever heard the phrase jack of all trades, master of none?
I know plenty of people who can generate elegant code for almost any application, but can’t draw more than a stick figure. And I know plenty of others who can work miracles with a pencil and Photoshop, but mention “syntax” and they cringe. It is very rare indeed to find everything you could possibly want in one person.
Yes, a designer needs to have an understanding of all the technologies that their designs will need to work with, but if they have a trusted developer they work with to execute all the specifics, that shouldn’t be a negative.
A client should be concerned with finding the right team for their specific needs regardless of the number of members. “One size fits all” rarely fits all.
Aug 6, 2010
Aug 6, 2010
I think as designers, we have a responsibility to temper our clients expectations with a little reality. Otherwise, we run the risk of not only depressing the value of specialized designers, but developers, illustrators, and any other specialist that is connected to the product development process.
I generally run in the other direction when I come across a client that holds unreasonable expectations, such that I should provide everything they require. While I may be able to accommodate them in some cases, those expectations are typically an indication that the client doesn’t understand the importance of specialization. Those are clients that typically don’t see much success because they’re willing to settle for “good enough” as opposed to producing the best results possible, and they tend to waste your time. Like Shea said, clients need to get that exceptional results require an exceptional team; a one man show will inevitably miss vital details.
Aug 7, 2010
Illustration and logo design are not the same thing. Good logo design is beyond simply being creative and having good illustration skills – a good chunk of any logo design process is spent on research and analysis.
I agree that a basic understanding of all of these is essential, regardless of the field in which you specialise. More essential (and useful) is forming trusted partnerships with other designers, illustrators and developers that you can call upon to deliver entire projects should your client ask.
Aug 7, 2010
Aug 9, 2010
Aug 9, 2010
Aug 9, 2010
Art these days are very diluted with too much *untalented* people using the “latest Adobe CSx” jumping in and start calling themselves artists… Who cares they say, art is subjective and a lot of clients don’t even have a sense of what is good art and what good art is not… We have alot of those here in the Philippines and its not only here that its happening… Its everywhere!…
Worst come to worst a day will come where “most” of our jobs will be replaced by the “wizard, click next, next” softwares…
Aug 9, 2010
Aug 10, 2010
Aug 10, 2010
Aug 10, 2010
Aug 11, 2010
Aug 11, 2010
On the other hand, if you are referring to a “designer” as an agency or an established team, then yes, these skills are essential. And even they might still contract a hired gun to perform specialized work that they know someone else can do better.
Aug 12, 2010
Aug 13, 2010
can’t be farther from the truth, I studied multimedia and i can create vfx, motion graphics, code, create videogames and model in 3d… but to acknowledge that a single man will create a website beautifully designed, without bugs, up to the newest web standards, with a creative logo and that it would be displayed properly among mobile apps (as well as different browsers) is insane. It is like me proposing to a client that i would create a 3d website with awesome motion graphics and up to the newest standards, i certainly can, but the amount of time, effort and my bill would be enormous… This is why there are agencies and there is outsourcing and there are development/design teams, to cope with stuff like this. Highly disagree with this article, no one in their right mind (as a professional) should get a gig where he/she would be asked to do by himself/herself all of these tasks (or at least he/she would charge so much the client would at the end bail). One thing is to have experience in multiple fields/tasks, another is to be asked to do them all and get paid for it.
Oct 15, 2010
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