Good Designers have empathy for their clients

Good Designers have empathy for their clients?

A designer is so much more than someone that makes things look pretty, we need to understand what you're after, more than just understanding the brief.?

We need empathy to do a good job. Designing anything requires a lot of intellectual and emotional investment. Sometimes we get accused of being oversensitive. It used to make me feel stupid or even weak. Now, I'm proud to say that it's probably because I have the guts to invest so much of myself do to a decent piece of work,?

To do a good job we not only need to get into our customer’s head but make sure the job is done effectively, even if those two aren't aligned.?

You can lead a horse to water...

For example, I've had customers so focussed on the look of their website they've insisted on features that will make the site slow and less likely to be found in Google even with my advice. So, is the customer always right? Of course not, it depends on what they want the outcome to be. So we also need to be coaches too, steering the customer in the right direction. Our guidance is based on gallons lot of experience which sometimes gets overlooked. It’s upsetting when a? customer does that, anyone would feel the same, especially if you want the thing you're designing to be successful. By successful I mean, in terms of website design it should pay for itself: being found in Google, representing the customer well and the information easy to find and read, that’s the point of the thing you're creating!

Get what you're given?

I'm not one of these designers, I don't think it's good to tell people what they should have and make them pay for it, regardless. I trust my customers to know who their customers are. If I think they need guidance I'll make suggestions and respect their choices. I've been quite horrified by designers who've said in mock jest ‘oh don't give them a choice or you'll never be done’. I can tell they weren't joking, I've also heard of website designers who've created a website and wanted to charge the earth for minor changes. My sense of integrity and deep empathy means I couldn’t walk away from a job if I felt the customer wasn’t 100 percent happy.

Empathy from a designer is about listening to what's needed

If you're after a simple website, I'll create you a simple website, not an entire multi-thousand found marketing campaign when you just need something simple that gets you found in Google. I'm also happy to work with marketing people if my customer brings them into a project. Being flexible means I can help produce a tailored solution that works.

This goes beyond simple understanding, the development process requires questions, conversations, explanations for why something needs to be done a certain way, and I need to understand how the customer feels about their business and I think I can’t help feeling what they do. I think most designers have this much empathy integrity and it’s important that we do.