Teaching the clients
A lot of design- and developercompanies seem to try to educate their clients to make them understand why certain things are done. The problem with saying “I make standards compliant website” is the same as telling a client something along the lines of “if I increase the lineheight, it will look better”.
In both cases the client doesn’t care because they don’t see the difference. It’s something designers and/or developers have learned to see, but for clients and consumers this is rarely the case. Clients/consumers don’t see these difference, but if they’re in a store (or browsing the internet) they almost always pick the one with the right lineheight/compliant code. That’s because although they can’t see it, they do experience that extra bit of quality.
And that’s where a lot of design- and developingcompanies go wrong… they try to educate the client-to-be that they need to have standards compliant websites and proper lineheight in their designs. To be very blunt: who cares?
Designers and developers áre problemsolvers and educators to a certain degree. But most of all, we’re in a business where most clients don’t know and don’t care what you do. They want pretty pictures that will make their company run better, and be more exposed to the public.
A lot of designers/developers are trying to teach the client the wrong thing. Instead of teaching them that they need standards, proper lineheight and that sort of thing, they need to teach their client that it’s all about the experience that consumers will have when they see the endresult.
Is it compliant code that you want to teach the client? Make sure you explain it to them by telling them that a good and good-coded website will result in a better experience.
Is it a 1pt bigger lineheight or a 2% lighter PMS-tint? Make sure you explain it to them by telling them that it’s easier on the eyes (for example) and that a consumer will feel more comfortable with a design like this instead of a design that doesn’t “feel” right.
We’re teaching experience, not technical mumbo-jumbo ;)
