Forgoing quality for timelines
This is about what some clients want you to do in order to accomplish their overall goal, which usually ends up coming back to you the designer as a negative project both you and the customer. Maybe we could get a good rapport on how to effectively guide a client out of the mindset that having a project done faster doesn’t always equate to having it done better.
One type of client may want to have their website up by the end of the week so that they can be ready to “make money” over the weekend. But I have found that if you sacrifice your time in testing and ensuring proper usability the website will initially flop. It is best to have a good plan of action and stick to it. The client like this I have found will normally want a large project done and wait until two days before their desired deadline to get you essential project information.
Say your job is print related, staring at the MAR+APR 2008 Create magazine sitting beside me I can see a ton of work going into some of the ads placed in here. So if I was designing for something like this; where obviously deadline is an issue. I may have to steer the client out of the target issue if their overall brand or idea wasn’t properly portrayed, suggesting the following issues print deadline for a more successful campaign.
How do others handle clients like these?
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
It’s a sticky situation.
But I make calls on this based on the client, the scope of the job, and compare it to their timeline.
There are lots of variables that go into this, but there are a few routes I usually take:
* See if the client is open to rolling the site out in phases.
* See if the scope of the site can be altered to meet the deadline.
* If those ideas don’t work for them and I don’t feel like I can pull it off well within that time—or the client doesn’t have their direction together—I’ll pass.
But you’re right, having a site done very quickly usually equates to a lesser quality site.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:24 pm
And PS - thanks for the comments about MAMP!
May 1st, 2008 at 7:44 am
@Joshua Mauldin glad I could shed a little light on MAMP, I plan to do a whole post on here sometime soon about the tools I use both in development and production.