10 Things That Drive Everyone Crazy in Web Design (Funny Unless it Happens to You)

The contract is signed and you’re ready to embark on the exciting project of building a new website for your business. Before you get started, it is a good idea to look at some of the mistakes that are commonly made in all phases of website projects. Avoiding these obstacles from the beginning of the project results in a stress-free, efficiently-completed website.

1. Not Having a Clear Objective and a Solid Plan of Action

I previously discussed the importance of setting S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely) business objectives for your website.

However, the objective alone is not enough. There must be a solid plan of action designed to achieve the objective. It should be backed by market research, stakeholder and customer interviews, competitive analysis, and more. Your web developer should provide you with a plan of action as part of their proposal. Make sure you read it, understand it and agree with it.

A customer came to us, and when asked repeatedly about their objective, consistently responded, “…a website that works better for my business.” We immediately slammed on the brakes and sent a worksheet to the customer to establish S.M.A.R.T. objectives. Only when concrete business objectives were set, did we continue. The customer was happy with the outcome, and as we learned later, our project was their fifth website redesign in two years. All previous websites were built with the same “better for my business” objective. None of the previous websites actually improved their business.

Bottom line: Ensure that both you and your web developer understand the key objective and that you have a specific and a realistic plan of action to arrive at your “destination.”

2. Interfering and Doing your Web Developer’s Work

Let the web developer do the work you hired them to do. When it comes to creating websites, many people think they know better than their developer. They simply don’t and neither do you. Teams of professionals spend their entire careers perfecting their skills. The best thing you can do for the project is let them do their job. Provide constructive, relevant feedback but don’t interfere, and don’t do the work for them. When in doubt, give your web developer the benefit of the doubt. Listen carefully to what they have to say. After all, you hired them for their expertise.

A customer took some graphic design classes in college many years ago. When the time came to redesign the company’s website, she dusted off her 1996 version of Corel Draw, and every revision of the design we proposed was followed by her rendition. This psychedelic nightmare looked more like a 70’s tailgating banner than a modern website. The customer was having fun designing her website. Our design department was weeping and loading up on Prozac. The catastrophe was averted when we asked if we could present her design (for feedback) to an independent expert. Feedback contained mostly expletives. CorelDraw quickly found its place back on the shelf, and the design team finished the project, which was to become an award winning website.

Bottom line: If you micro-manage your web developer, not only will it wreak havoc with your project, but it will result in a mediocre, unattractive and dysfunctional website. After the fact you will have no one to blame but yourself.

3. Designing for You or Your Boss

In addition to the previous mistake, one that unfortunately happens too often is when the customer undertakes the role of a designer. It seems so easy: “Let’s try this picture…Change that color…Move this here.” Bad idea. Again, you are not a professional web designer. It is important to understand that the website you are building is not to satisfy your personal taste, or that of your boss. It is designed for your customers. Inevitably, some may not like it, while others will love it. This is where a web developer’s expertise enters the picture.

There are bosses and then there are BOSSES. This one was THE BOSS. From the first meeting we realized it was going to be “my way or the highway.” The entire marketing team was scared to even think differently than their President (let alone voice their feelings). The President was very opinionated and, even worse, 100% wrong every step of the way. When asked about his responsibilities, the Marketing Director admitted that his head was going to be on a platter if the website didn’t perform. We mailed him a nice porcelain plate that said “His Way” on it. It was heard loud and clear, the Marketing Director found a way to take the project into his own hands and followed our lead to a successful outcome.

Bottom line: Don’t build a site that you or your top executives will like. They are not your website’s target audience. If they insist, give them this to read.

4. Making Assumptions and Lacking Proper Communication

“But I assumed this was included…I assumed you will write and populate the content!”…We assumed we can change anything we want!” Do these statements sound familiar? Have you ever been in a situation where you and another person are clearly not on the same page? Unfortunately, this also happens with website projects.

The last thing you want is a surprise that a feature you feel is essential to the project is actually outside of the project’s scope or developer’s capability, and will take extra time and incur greater cost. Think about it: Did you communicate to your vendor the specific need or requirement? If not, it is unreasonable to expect that your vendor should understand your expectations. After all, they can only price out and deliver what you requested. Just as you are not going to sign a blank check for your project, you cannot hold a web developer responsible for an aspect of the project that was not communicated to them.

“Why didn’t you tell me it wasn’t included?” a customer asked. We inquired, “Did you communicate this requirement to us?”, “Did you see it in the proposal?”, “Did you ask us to include it in the proposal?”
They responded “No” to every question, and subsequently got the point. We quoted and developed the feature separately, and the issue was resolved. We also explained that the customer didn’t lose any money, because if they had requested the feature initially, we would have quoted it separately anyway. We did, however, lose time, and the customer’s expected completion date was not met because of this lack of communication.

Bottom line: Talk to the web developer every time something is not clear or if you feel they’re not clear on a particular detail. Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself, and summarize what they tell you. At that point, ask them to reiterate their understanding of what you conveyed. You may be surprised how many details are caught in this process.

5. Changing Your Mind and Getting Hung Up on Details

“Let’s remove it…No, put it back…Let’s try it in green…No, blue…No, that’s too blue…Let’s go back green.” Not only will you drive the designer crazy, you are wasting time and money. At some point most companies would start billing you extra for waffling in this manner. What’s even worse is that you are throwing a wrench into the entire project flow.

Change of direction is the number one enemy of proper project planning. For some people it has to do with their indecisiveness. Others decide to take the designer role by requesting that their web developer try every possible color combination (see previous section “Interfering and Doing your Web Developer’s Work”).

If you can’t adhere to the project flow, you’ll go in circles. You’ll be late and over budget. The solution is simple. If you make a decision, stick to it. If you are not sure, give the professionals you hired the benefit of the doubt because of their expertise.

Despite our advice, a customer decided that the way to achieve the best possible logo design was to try all possible combinations of fonts, colors, shapes and taglines. It took them almost six months and thousands of dollars in going back and forth to decide on something… decent. Our designer had created a logo that blew theirs out of the water in six hours.

Bottom Line: No detail is too small or insignificant, but obsessing on aspects that aren’t relevant, have little impact or marginal improvement, may cost you very real time and money.

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For 5 More things that Drive Everyone Crazy, please read the original article:
10 Things That Drive Everyone Crazy in Web Design & How to Avoid the Stress