Designer & Client – A Partnership of Sorts

Posted Oct 5, 2009. Leave a comment?

I have found that sometimes web designers and clients both don’t realize and understand that developing a successful website (it was two words instead of one) doesn’t fall solely on the shoulders of the developer. Rather I find that the best possible results will come by way of a partnership of sorts. It’s a team effort. The client needs the developer’s help, but the developer needs the client’s help, as well.

Content Needs

Content is king, yet it is often treated as an afterthought. That’s a shame. The content is the message; the reputation; the public image. The message should be clear in the client’s mind and properly conveyed to the developer. But not (but shouldn’t be a start of a sentence. You need to find a different word or add a comma) necessarily directed in an absolute manner. As I wrote, making a good site is a team effort. So while the client must have a firm idea of what he or she wants to get across, the web developer has valuable experience in regards to what works and what doesn’t, how much content should be presented, and where it should be on a site. Great content is meaningless if it won’t be properly digested by the site’s visitors.
Assuming the developer isn’t the copy writer, which is usually impossible unless the developer has an intimate knowledge of the client’s business, the method of content delivery (from client to developer) is important. The site’s content must be presented to in an organized manner once pages and sections are determined. (needs to reword this sentence. Either take the to out or add another word) Content shouldn’t be given in a random fashion spread across multiple emails without regard to the predetermined organization of the site-to-be. The site’s content is usually best given as text files organized by page and section sent as a single email’s attachments or on disc. I say text files because it is usually best provided as plain text. Spending hours un-formatting a fancy Word file is difficult and time consuming. Plain text files work just fine.

Imagery Concerns

For most users, the web is a largely visual medium and should be utilized in this way to the fullest. The developer must be sure to let the client know that important content delivered via imagery will need to be backed up with text for accessibility and SEO reasons, but the client needs to deliver quality imagery unless other artistic or photographic arrangements are made ahead of time. Like written content, imagery shouldn’t be an afterthought. Ideally the client will provide a wide selection of images from which the developer can pick and choose. These images are best presented in reasonable sizes on disc or zipped up and sent as an email attachment, and organized if pertinent to specific bodies of content. Images will usually be sized and optimized by the developer so they don’t have to be delivered in finished sizes.
If no images are available, then provisions should be made so the developer can purchase stock photos and such unless, again, other artistic or photographic arrangements are made ahead of time. Personally I’ve had some clients give me a disc with a ton of high quality photos while others have only provided a single small, fuzzy photo. For creativity reasons the former is greatly preferred and can have a huge impact on the outcome.

Post-Launch Promotion

The web developer can do everything right and work in the best interest of the client if the client is given this information and both parties work as a team towards a common goal. But the site can still fail. (Can’t start a sentence with but) The site needs to be promoted. This part really falls on the shoulders of the client. The client needs to tell people about the site, advertise the site, and get others to link to the site. The developer can submit the site to search engines — which isn’t even that necessary — but this hardly guarantees success if the client doesn’t work towards site promotion as well. I have some clients that get most of their visitors from our web portfolio because they haven’t done anything to help their own cause. Other clients, with the same basic structure and site organization, have had tremendous success because they put forth the required effort to make it so. Regardless of how optimized the site is in terms of accessibility and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), without the client’s help, it’ll never rank high unless its content is extremely unique and highly sought after (a rare combination indeed). The client can request a site that reaches the top-spot on Google, and the developer can do what’s required on his or her end, but working only from one end, it’ll likely never make it to the top.