Designing for the Inferior or Apathetic

8 Responses to “Designing for the Inferior or Apathetic”

1. 

   Janko
   July 28th, 2008 at 8:02 am

   I totaly agree. But there is one more reason why one doesn’t want just to fulfill the requirements - they could be junk. And who need junk in portfolio!

2. 

   Marco Tubb
   July 28th, 2008 at 8:30 am

   I agree with your idea of helping the company. I also believe that by helping them you are helping yourself. If you do decide to put the project in your portfolio, a client might see a piece of work that lacked creativity or innovation. That being said, if your work is excellent, one project won’t make a difference. Marco

3. 

   Joel Watson
   July 28th, 2008 at 9:50 am

   I don’t think there are scenarios in which you “must” design inferior products. As a designer, you SHOULD be discriminating in the clients that you take because the one’s that have crappy business plans, lack of vision and are unwilling to trust your expertise are clients that are not worth having because they will only cause headaches that no size of paycheck can relieve. That is, you SHOULD do this unless you just don’t care, in which case you have bigger problems…

   And if a designer is doing their job and engaging in proper discovery BEFORE they commit to a job, it will be easy to spot these clients a mile away and say, “no thanks”. If you still decide to take on the job even though you know what you’re getting into (crappy client), then the fallout — headaches, frustration and a hit to your portfolio — is entirely the designer’s fault.

4. 

   Zinni
   July 28th, 2008 at 10:07 am

   Joel,

   I agree with what you are saying about doing detailed discovery before committing to a project. For that exact reason I have stopped accepting RFP’s because they never allow you to have sufficient input into a project. I think there is however to produce a great portfolio piece even with a non ideal client. It does however take a ton more stress and work on the designer’s part, but it is possible.

   The project I was referring to when I wrote this article is actually the result of the addition of a new decision maker. The client allowed tons of creative freedom in earlier projects which made it worthwhile, however the new stakeholder is exactly the opposite. In the past I did believe that we were able to help this client as they were open to suggestion and improvement, this has changed though. This may mean that I no longer produce work for the client, but I think that there may be something I can do in the meantime…

5. 

   Jin
   July 28th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

   I feel your pain.

   Stakeholder change during the midst of a project is quite painful.

   I can’t say there’s a solution to all. In my experience, sometimes we as the designer have to play the politic card as the last resort. While the stakeholders want to assert themseves in the design/creative decision making, at the same time they’re aware of how the final product reflects on them, to their superiors. I’d document every design request/decision, and make them aware of it. Sometimes CCing their superiors in an email will make them think twice about what to tell you.

6. 

   Joel Watson
   July 28th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

   “The project I was referring to when I wrote this article is actually the result of the addition of a new decision maker. The client allowed tons of creative freedom in earlier projects which made it worthwhile, however the new stakeholder is exactly the opposite. In the past I did believe that we were able to help this client as they were open to suggestion and improvement, this has changed though. This may mean that I no longer produce work for the client, but I think that there may be something I can do in the meantime…”

   You made them issue change orders for shifts in direction, right?

7. 

   Zinni
   July 28th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

   Joel,

   I definitely issued change orders. I am not afraid to do do otherwise thats when things really get out of control. I was trying to see if some other people out there have some creative ways to handle similar situations for the future. Unfortunately no matter how well you prequalify your clients situations like this are going to arise from time to time.