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Design Hell


jcombs_31

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like functional development is any different.

 

"We want it work this way"

-"We could do that, but this and this be the side effects, you may want to reconsider"

"Whatever, my supervisor said do it this way"

-"Ok, you're the boss"

".. two months later, just before launch .."

"We found a bug, when you do this, this and this happens. It isn't supposed to"

-"..."

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Hey Wayne, for some reason the system is allowing us to enter the same name twice.

 

Ok. I'll change it, but what if somebody has the same name as somebody else?

 

We want it so that you can't enter the same name twice. To stop duplicates.

 

--- Fast forward three months ---

 

Hey, there seems to be a problem. Whenever we try to add a person with the same name as somebody else, it tells us that we can't.

 

...........

 

Hey Wayne, we heard that you were in hospital and had tried to commit suicide.

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Hey Wayne, for some reason the system is allowing us to enter the same name twice.

Ok. I'll change it, but what if somebody has the same name as somebody else?

We want it so that you can't enter the same name twice. To stop duplicates.

--- Fast forward three months ---

Hey, there seems to be a problem. Whenever we try to add a person with the same name as somebody else, it tells us that we can't.

lmao. I've had the same thing happen to me before. Not all clients are bad, but some are hell.

 

One client in particular that I worked with was a nightmare. We (my partner and I) had a client complain about how the space between two letters in the logo was too big. Meanwhile it was just the normal spacing of that font (that he suggested). He had us actually manually move the letter in the image over 1px. There were tons of other ridiculous things that he had us do, but that's the one that sticks out in my head.

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like functional development is any different.

 

"We want it work this way"

-"We could do that, but this and this be the side effects, you may want to reconsider"

"Whatever, my supervisor said do it this way"

-"Ok, you're the boss"

".. two months later, just before launch .."

"We found a bug, when you do this, this and this happens. It isn't supposed to"

-"..."

 

 

Yeah, true.  I feel that people are a lot more picky about visual things though.  Then again, don't have much client interaction experience, so I could just be assuming wrongly ;p.

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I remember creating a mock up design for a client. They looked at it, said they loved it, and everything was fine. A few weeks later, I was in the middle of building the pages and content when they came back and said "hey, could you just change a few small things...." Those small things included changing the entire colour scheme and the layout of the webpages. I said no.

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I see people complaining all the time about clients doing things like this. These things wouldn't happen (or at least, you wouldn't have to put up with it), if you mention it in the contract to begin with.  Never assume anything goes without saying, no matter big or small, because it doesn't.  It doesn't matter how obvious or common sense or de facto something is.  If it is not clearly stated in your contract what you will and won't do, what can/will/will not happen in the event of xyz, you will put yourself in the position of having to argue with the customer, and since that's something you generally try to avoid, you will more than likely end up catering to it, regardless of how dumb it is. 

 

People laugh at and curse the client for things like this, and I do to, but I also laugh at the designer/dev for their failure to make a good SOW.  IMO that shows lack of business experience.  I mean how many times you got to go through that song and dance before you say fuck that noise, and start making that SOW TL;DR. 

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I see people complaining all the time about clients doing things like this. These things wouldn't happen (or at least, you wouldn't have to put up with it), if you mention it in the contract to begin with.  Never assume anything goes without saying, no matter big or small, because it doesn't.  It doesn't matter how obvious or common sense or de facto something is.  If it is not clearly stated in your contract what you will and won't do, what can/will/will not happen in the event of xyz, you will put yourself in the position of having to argue with the customer, and since that's something you generally try to avoid, you will more than likely end up catering to it, regardless of how dumb it is. 

 

People laugh at and curse the client for things like this, and I do to, but I also laugh at the designer/dev for their failure to make a good SOW.  IMO that shows lack of business experience.  I mean how many times you got to go through that song and dance before you say fuck that noise, and start making that SOW TL;DR. 

 

This is true, but lengthy contracts can also scare aware small business owners.  Once you start discussing the limits of the contract they may just decide to go elsewhere.  Sure, maybe you avoided a pain in the ass client, but you also lost work.  I think you have to walk a thin line with what is in your contract and what your willing to do for a customer.

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If a client is not willing to sit down and go through a contract with you, that speaks volumes about what kind of client they are going to be.  Besides, lengthly contracts scare people because it's usually full of big words that they don't really understand so they are not sure if you are somehow trying to bend them over and lube them up or not.  That's why you don't just send it to them, tell them to read it, sign on the dotted line.  You arrange a meeting with them, either in person or on the phone and go over it with them, read through it with them, explaining vocally why xyz is stated and what its meant to protect/avoid.  Explain to them that those things are not just a protection for you, but for them, as well.

 

Labeling things like "limits" is what scares people.  They are not limits, they are safeguards meant to ensure they know exactly what they are going to get, and in a timely fashion.  Clients get scared by contracts because the contractor makes them sound scary.

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