I read a great post on Six Revisions about Drawing the Line: 6 Things you shouldn’t tolerate in projects. There are many factors that go into making a project great and it’s amazing to me how easy it is to go from great to suck when discussing client-needs on their website. The six things are:
- Client-Centered Design – the client wants their site to be designed to their preference and not pay attention to usability, accessibility or basic layout.
- Cheapskate Clients - the client always finds a way to sneak work in (scope creep) and many times its tough to avoid.
- Terrible Logos – another result of having poor planning and even worse design – *hint* if you used MS Paint – it sucks.
- Bad Names – this would include company names and urls
- Bad (or No) Business Strategy – I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “a website is a website” and – “we’re just going to use the site as a contact page – nothing else….” Use the web to your advantage – drive business and engage customers.
- Bad Copy – there’s no excuse for poor grammar or spelling errors – ANYWHERE on a website. It’s a direct reflection on your attention to detail, knowledge, and level of education. Seriously – people will trust you more if they’re not paying attention to your horrible copy – *hint* – hire a copywriter.
These are all things that drive me bats when working with new clients. My existing clients are educated enough and care about their online presence to know that good design, good planning, solid business acumen, good copy and trusting the “web dude” are great investments!
