This is especially for Wildhoney whom I know reads reddit.

http://theoatmeal.com/story/reddit_how

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i <3 theoatmeal,

My personal favourite (I relate to it on so many levels):
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

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Both are excellent reads, both are also true.

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The tool I likely used to answer your question.

I do not think the comic that sketchmedia linked to is true, different people have different tastes, it is the web designers job to give the client what they want, in the end if the client is happy with the job then the web designer did his job right.

The only thing i got from that comic is that whoever made it is an idiot, and they probably think they know everything about web design and what people wants.

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Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
~ Albert Einstein ~

Spoken like a guy who hasn't had these kinds of clients (either you're lucky, or you're well hidden). :)

I have had so many of those situations, "I LOVE IT! Can we change this?" to the point of dropping the graphical side of web design as a for-hire skill. Most people don't know what they want, and they don't know what is the best way to accomplish goals. As a designer you need to have the ability to say I'm sorry, but you're wrong (hopefully in a tactful way), otherwise I guarantee you will wind up wondering where you put that loaded gun...

That is true but most people knows what they like they just do not know how to do it and if a designer is getting paid to build that person a website then the person who is paying should get what they are paying for.

If someone came to me and said "i want things in my website are are deprecated" then i would tell them that i can not do it, or if they kept telling me to change stuff over and over because they could not make up their mind then that is a different story.

Now if someone came to me and said this is exactly what i want and they had examples and pictures, then i would make them exactly what they asked for even if i think it looks like garbage or not, because i am not getting paid to build myself a website i am getting paid to build the client a website.

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Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
~ Albert Einstein ~

The client is paying the designer for their expertise. If they don't want their moneys worth, than they should probably pick up a book and learn it themselves, simple as that.

I have more than once put out work that I refuse to have in my portfolio simply because I did what they want and knuckled under to what I knew was best for them. I don't do it anymore, and I'm making more money per job now, and my clients trust me.

The bottom line is the guy isn't an idiot. He sounds like one of us, and I can relate to it. There will always be times when a client pays you to do something you don't want to do, but that doesn't mean we can't have a good laugh at it privately amongst our own community.

No the client is paying a designer for their expertise in coding, not to tell them what they want, if a client already knows what they want then it is up to a designer to give the client what they want or to pass the job up and not get paid for it.

And if it was not for clients paying designers to build them websites, then designers would not have jobs anymore, so i think that any designer who laughs at what a client wants is an idiot, and i still think the guy who made that cartoon is an egotistical idiot.

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Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
~ Albert Einstein ~

Erm, Knight, clients pay designers, let me broaden that up - clients pay servicemen for any service that they themselves cannot or are not willing to preform.

Designers are creative and as such are tasked with the job of creating a design which will communicate the intentions and purpose of the business.

The client is effectively paying you to be creative. Unfortunately micromanagement to the nth degree stifles this creativity. Clients often do not know what they want but think they know how they want it. This is wrong, the latter cannot exist without the former.

In reality, clients generally only know what message and purpose they want the website not, as you're implying, what they want design wise. Yes, input it appreciated to better get a scope of the design should be like and ultimately the final decision belongs to the client but there is a line where the client is simply WRONG.

White, blues and light greys look nice together.
Red, Orange, Green & random splots highlighter pink purple do not.

From where am I pulling these assumptions? Dealing with clients on 6 and 7 figure projects every day at work.

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I suppose I can't speak for everybody here, but my clients pay me for more than just coding. They pay me for my experience, and knowledge of what works and what doesn't. Maybe I'm weird like that?

Oh and I would never suggest laughing at a client, or ridiculing them in any way. As a consultant, agency, or freelance whachamacallit, the ability to talk to a client is nearly as important as the work you can produce. I've spent hours on the phone discussing projects with people, for free, to land the next gig. I've been introduced to new technologies that I might not have discovered otherwise as a result of listening to them. At the same time I've had to tell quite a few that certain concepts of theirs are a bad idea and why. I've never lost any clients from doing this either.

The guy isn't an egotistical ass. He's just another guy who has made an exaggeration out of the kind of client we've all had to deal with, and fear the most. Take it for what it is, a good clean joke.

If a client wants those colors then that is what he wants, he is paying the designer not the other way around, no matter if i like those colors or not in the end if that is what the client wants then that is what i am going to give him.

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Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
~ Albert Einstein ~

Quick question for you; How many clients of yours have gone to college for internet marketing? interactive media design? Spent endless hours reading books, following blogs and reading online documentation? Hell, how many of them have taken color theory?

I rest my case.

A person does not have to do any of that to know what they like.

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Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
~ Albert Einstein ~

But however they do if the site is to be usable and accessible.

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Yea the client would need to know all of that if they were building the site, but the client is paying the designer to build the site.

Now if the client wants the site to be pink and green and have a picture of his dog on his site then that is what the client wants, and he does not have to go to college and read books and all of that to know what he likes, it is his choice what he wants the site to look like.

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Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
~ Albert Einstein ~