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Communicating effectively with your clients is key to the success of  your projects and the structure of your freelance business. The process of communication begins before the client even agrees to have you work on their project, and it should remain as a constant throughout your entire relationship. When a client expresses their needs and wants, you should convey concern, attentiveness, and assurance. You will need to understand that there are clients with whom you can minimize communication as their not interested in updates every single hour of the day, while others want you to hold their hands throughout the entire design process. Know which clients deserve what amount of attention and degree of communication.

Within this article we’ll take the time to break down a few points that will help you effectively communicate with clients. Please note that there is not one set of rules for communication that can be used for all clients. Every single client is different in their own way, and each should be treated in that manner. These tips will serve as a guideline. You can apply them, and modify them as you please.

Listen and Learn

Save the sales pitch for a different niche like automobile sales. Your clients will more than likely help you equip yourself with the right tools to “sell” them, if you listen. A client’s project has everything to do with what they need, what they represent, what type of customers their trying to reach, and less about you. For this reason, it is very important that you listen carefully to the details they provide. This will help you do your best, not your average on the job. While you’re listening or reading what your client’s saying, make sure you have something in hand that will allow you to take notes. That way you can regurgitate your clients needs in your own words for better understanding.

Ultimately, the less you blab on about your business and yourself, the more your client becomes interested. Give your clients enough room to talk and express themselves, don’t jump on every word they say. That can cause some discomfort. Sometimes it pays to just listen and be attentive. Learn when the right moment for you to give suggestions arrises, and take advantage of it, but don’t be too forward. Remember you need to give them some space when they speak, but not enough space that’ll disinterest them. You have to find a balance.

Working with a System

If you’re working with various clients at a time, then you know how difficult it can be to keep mental records of every word, document, and suggestions sent by a client. This is why it is important to fuel effective communication by having some sort of system in place. Developing your own system for keeping track of communication isn’t the most difficult of tasks. It can be as easy as having a separate folder on your desktop for every client containing all of their emails, notes, and suggestions.

If that might seem like too much of a hassle, then you can resolve to an application similar to Basecamp. Basecamp makes sure that everyone is on the same page, allowing you to keep a record of every message relayed, set tasks, and track time. However, it doesn’t matter if it’s your own method or using applications such as basecamp, it’s important to setup some sort of system to help you remain organized. Being organized gives way to a more effective level of communication as you’re not always scrambling trying to remember what client said what and who needs what. If you don’t keep a good record, then chances are there will be times when you need to ask a client to elaborate on what they’ve previously said. This can easily give a client the impression that you don’t listen, pay attention, and are unorganized.

Getting the Client Involved

A large majority of clients you’ll come across have very little knowledge of the various elements it takes to design a website. Most of them know what they want, they just don’t know how to turn it into a successful website or illustration. Apart from the chatty clients, there will be times that you’ll find yourself working with one that doesn’t have much to say or suggest. This is where you get them involved. Try to give them a summarized idea of what you need from them in order to produce the best possible work. You can devise a quick list of what’s expected of them and send it over. That way they can feed you the correct information all at once, rather then you having to call them a hundred times to figure out what they want. This is where collaboration meets communication.

Reasoning with Your Advice

If you decide to go ahead and give your input, make sure you can explain why you’re giving that advice. Many times a client will want you to add or make changes to things that you don’t think will be effective for the scope of the project at hand. This is where it’s important to demonstrate to them why it is they should take into consideration your advice. Always remember to cover your bases. This is far more effective then designing your own concept only to find out it has been rejected.

Using Examples

Using good examples compliments effective communication. Sometimes explaining a concept or suggestion just doesn’t cut it through email or on the phone. When this happens clients will appreciate you much more if you can provide real examples. Consequently, you’ll end up clearing up a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. For example, if you wish to nest specific elements in various locations throughout the layout, it would be an ideal choice for you to send them a wireframe of how you plan on structuring the site.

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When you are creating a website (or hiring a web/blog designer to create one for you), there are specific items you need to be aware of. Things that normally wouldn’t cross your mind. For the average person who wants a website or blog for their business, they are after one very important thing – sales. Now, they may tell you that they want the big flashy logos, or the overdone textures/gradients, but it is the job of a well skilled web designer to steer their clients in the right direction.

Below are twenty do’s and don’ts of effective web design. Study, read, (re)read and print this page. It will help either make or break your website. And don’t hesitate to let us know of anything we might have left out, in the comments below. We love getting your opinions on things and discussing the articles with you – after all, you’re quite possibly the coolest people in the world.

DO: Keep your page structured

In the recent months we’ve seen an explosion of great grid layouts and css files. The most famous (in my opinion) being 960.gs and one of the cooler, more light weight grid systems being the 1kb grid. Following after the structure and balance of a great magazine/newspaper, these grid systems help lay out information in a structured and easy to follow format.

Example

DONT: Just place boxes everywhere

We’ve all seen these types of websites before – 20+ boxes, all different sizes, nothing lining up properly and not on piece that actually grabs your attention because you’ve just ran into a whirlwind of craziness. if you’re a web designer and you cannot properly place items in a structured environment, well, I would’t really call yourself a web designer.

DO: Focus on what’s important

Are you building a website for a business that sells one specific product? If so, make sure that’s the focus of the home page. Allow yourself space on the inner pages to place calls to action for that specific item. If you’re building a blog that gives out freebies or writes tutorials, make sure they’re getting the proper amount of focus and attention. Websites like WOO Themes do a great job and putting forward what their main focus is – wordpress themes.

Example

DONT: Place irrelevant ads across your page

If you’re going to try and make money from your website/blog, do yourself a favor and lay off the excessive advertisements. If your page loads and has 70% ads and only 30% content, odds are high that people will leave and never come back. Making your ads the #1 priority is a bad idea. Try blending them in and making sure they don’t take away from the content.

DO: Choose the right color scheme

Knowing what your readers emotions are will help you in choosing the proper color scheme. You won’t want a bright and ‘loud’ color scheme if your website is in the meditation niche. You’ll notice that most punk rock bands have CMYK color schemes (pink, yellow, black and blue), while a doctor/medical website will generally stick with a lighter, more ‘open’ color scheme

Example

DONT: Overdo it with 20 different colors

Having every color that is inside the 64 set of crayons on your screen will not only look bad, but it will annoy your readers and drive them away. Your colors should blend well together, not clash. If you’re not good at picking color schemes, I’d suggest a site like Colour Lovers which has user generated color schemes posted. Find the right color scheme (at most, 5 colors) and see how much better your designs turn out.

DO: Make it easy to scan your pages

People will not spend 5 minutes trying to figure out what your website is about and what it has to offer. The best way to ensure you’re getting the right information out to your reader is to make the page easy to scan. Use proper H tags (similar to how this post is using h3 tags) to focus on the important items. You can also use pull quotes, block quotes and images.

Example

DONT: Write one paragraph per page that is 1,000+ words long

If there’s one thing that stops me from subscribing to a blog is that the posts are literally 1,000+ words and have no paragraph breaks. This, and they normally don’t even have blog words or any indication that there’s anything important inside their content. Break your content up and make it easier to read – please, and thank you.

DO: Keep it simple stupid

It’s a proven fact that sign up forms with more than 3 items (usually – name, email & one other item) will have a significantly lower sign up rate than the easier forms. People HATE doing things for too long – so don’t over complicate things. Make things as easy as possible for your readers by pretending a 4 year old will be viewing it. It definitely helps get things out in the open where they need to be.

Example

DONT: Go on and on (and on) about nothing

Rambling, excessive LOL’s, too many smiley faces and random dribble will drop attention spans of your visitors. You want them to stay – act like it. If you have a personal blog where you write about your life, thats one thing, but to randomly post about what you ate, or where you went yesterday on your business website will definitely drive people away.

DO: Focus on killer copywriting

Words matter. Keep them short, sweet and to the point. If you have trouble writing copy that attracts the readers attention to where you need it to go, hire someone. Copy is just as important as the design of your website. Choosing the right words for sign up buttons, page headings, navigation items and calls to action can be the difference between 50% sign up rate and a 90% sign up rate.

Example

DONT: Stuff your pages full of keywords

Google isn’t stupid. Neither are your readers. If your page has the main keyword for your site stuffed into each paragraph 30-40 times, it will not only read very poorly, but you’ll be penalized. Writing should flow naturally and should only mention your keywords where they fit.

DO: Set your navigation up properly

If you’ve got a sign up page on your website, maybe you’ll have your main navigation in a blue color, while the sign up button is in a green color. Regardless, you’ll want to make your navigation easy to spot and easy to use.

Example

DONT: Make your readers search to find something

Your readers shouldn’t spend 30-40 seconds trying to find a contact or about page. They also shouldn’t have to click through three pages just to get to a sign up form. Get the important things out in the open. For the items that aren’t required to have a strong focus on your website, you might want to invest in a search box – I HATE when websites don’t have a search box. Web design 101 maybe?

DO: Optimize your load times

If there’s one recurring theme in this entire article it is the fact that visitors are impatient. You need to build your website with optimal speeds and allow your page to load in around 1-2 seconds. You can do this by making sure your css files are compressed, using the google hosted javascript files and ensure your page is coded and designed with optimal speeds in mind.

Example

DONT: Make everything on your page an image

Text on a website is there to be exactly what it is -text. There is no need to make the text blocks of your site jpg images. Also, making your website background 1MB or more in size will also cause your page to load very slow. I’ve seen websites also use 2 different javascript libraries and load 10+ plugin scripts for them in the headers and their websites took around 20 seconds to fully load.

DO: Choose the right fonts and sizes

I’ve only recently got into typography and have realized that it is a highly important aspect of web design. Making your section titles the right size and making sure the fonts you’re using will greatly effect the experience your visitors have when viewing your websites. Generally speaking, you should use one main font for the content and then you may switch the titles of the pages to a different font.

Example

DONT: Have 5 different fonts in 10 different sizes

Picture this: Page titles are in times new roman, content for those pages are in Arial, navigation links are in comic sans and the sidebar is in impact (yes, that impact). How ugly does that look? Now, remember that vision the next time you want to build a website with 5 different fonts.

DO: Make your page visually appealing

The world may tell you that people don’t judge a book by its cover, but thats a lie. The first thing people see is the web design you’re branded with. That first impression better be a good one. Utilize textures/gradients that give your website depth and draw attention to the beauty of your design. I would strive to ensure each of your website designs are accepted to galleries like css mania.

Example

DONT: Throw a bunch of crap together and think you’ll do well

Animated gif’s are your first no-no. After that comes the marquee scrolling text and the jumbled mess of text and graphics that resemble a 13 year olds myspace page. It isn’t cute and in case you’re not aware of it, it’s no longer 1980. Things have changed and people don’t expect to see something that looks like a 7 year old made it. If you’re a professional, act like it and make sure your designs are up to par.

Here’s where you come in

Below is a comment box. We’d love to have you use it and let us know what you think. I’ll even make sure I respond to any of your questions, because, lets face it – you’re important to us here at Web Design Ledger.

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When building a new website or re-designing an existing one, web designers are faced with all kinds of significant challenges, including keeping the client happy, creating a site that gets results, and catering to users at the same time. During the design and development process it’s easy to get distracted and overlook the significance of usability. Since we’re the ones creating the site, we know it much better than any visitor will, and sometimes it’s easy to forget about the impact on users.

Building a truly usable website requires the right kind of priorities and testing. With the emphasis only on creating a great-looking site or one that is effectively monetized, usability can easily wind up taking a back seat. Throughout the design and development process, make an effort to view the site as if you were a first-time visitor and see if it changes your opinion on the strengths and weaknesses of the site.

In order to improve the usability of your work, focus on specific aspects of the design that will influence users the most, and make sure that the site holds up in these areas. Here is a look at 10 things to consider.

1. Clear and Logical Navigation

When usability is mentioned, navigation is usually part of the discussion. Without the ability to easily move through the website, visitors are unlikely to find what they want and they’re more likely to leave quickly without really getting to know more about the website or the company. Clear navigation on the other hand will make it simple for visitors to maneuver through the site as they choose.

The navigational approach will greatly depend upon the type of site. Blogs, for example, tend to have navigation that is not quite like any other type of website. The typical blog visitor knows that post titles on the front page are links to full posts, that category links are usually in the sidebar and that date-based archives will allow them to browse through older posts. E-commerce websites will have a different approach entirely, which will focus on helping visitors to find the right products. All of this comes back to usability. When visitors arrive at a specific type of site, they’ll expect certain things, and navigation is a big part of this issue.

2. Clear Communication

Have you ever been to a website where you have spent a few minutes looking at several pages before you could even determine the site’s purpose? I sometimes come across sites that do a poor job of communicating the products or services provided, and I usually wind up leaving if I can’t find something that’s understandable. One of the key issues involved with usability is communication.

There is so much that is involved in communication online. Headlines, taglines, images, colors, design styles, they all say something to visitors. An effective and usable website will clearly communicate it’s message to visitors, and ideally that message should be consistent throughout the website.

3. Targeted, Focused Content

The actual content of the website is often overlooked in discussions on usability, but it will have a strong impact, whether positive or negative, on the experience of visitors. A good website will have a specific audience that it is targeting, and content that is catered to suit this audience. Whether the content consists of blog posts, products for sale, service descriptions, tutorials, videos, or any other type of content, it should be created with the audience in mind.

A website with content that isn’t focused on a particular audience will lack a purpose and will be of little value to visitors. Remember that visitors are coming to a website to find something of interest to them. Hopefully, many of the visitors share similar interests (which will be the case if the audience is appropriately targeted), which makes it fairly simple to provide the right kind of content, you just have to keep the audience in mind.

4. Style that Suits the Audience

Every website will have some people that love the design and others that hate it. No design will ever please everyone, but it should be suited to fit the interests of the target audience. Although no two people will ever have exactly the same opinions on different styles of design, generally people who have similar interests or fit into different demographics will have similar likes and dislikes.

The style that is used for a site’s design should always be influenced by the target audience. For example, grungy websites are often used for extreme sports and for rock bands, two types of sites that are frequently visited by young people that will appreciate the grunge style. You won’t see an effective website for a retirement home with the same style of design. Similar differences in style can be seen in the likes of various cultures.

The look and feel of a website will have an instant impact on users. It’s possible that the minute they first visit a site they’ll feel more comfortable based strictly on the style of design. When a website uses a style that’s embraced by the visitor, it’s a subtle message telling them that they belong at this website and that they’ll fit in.

5. Lack of Interference

A user-focused website will not include such interferences as flashy or annoying advertisements, intrusively located ads, pop ups or pop unders, or anything else that can damage the ability of the user to read and interact with the site. Yes, some of these items are effectively used for legitimate purposes on many websites, but it’s my opinion that they help to accomplish the goals of the website owner and are not used for the purpose of improving the user experience.

If your priority is to create a site places the user’s needs and interests above anything else, interferences should be minimized or eliminated. In the real world, websites usually have other goals, such as making money, that don’t always match up perfectly with the requirements for maximum usability. In these cases you’ll have to use your best judgment, but be aware that any type of interference can take away from the user’s experience.

6 – Ease of Contact

A percentage of visitors to a website will want to contact the owner for one reason or another. Maybe it is to inquire about services that are offered, or maybe it’s about an issue they’re having with the site. Whatever the case may be, some people will want to contact you, and the ease with which they can do so will have a strong influence on their experience on the site.

Not being able to find a way to contact the owner can be extremely frustrating, and it sends a clear message to the visitor that their feedback is not a priority. A few times when I first started blogging I tried to track down other bloggers that were stealing my content. In most cases these people had no contact form or email address listed on their sites. Often times they had very little information about themselves or about their blog. What they did typically have was AdSense. The lack of a contact form communicated to me that their site was built to make money from AdSense and they didn’t have any interest in other bloggers contacting them about stolen content.

Since visitors will be entering your site on various pages, it’s a good practice to include a link to contact information on every page. Think about where you typically will go on a website to find this information. Many websites include a link to a contact page in their main navigation menu and/or in the footer. If the site is large and a link to the contact page isn’t feasible in the primary navigation, most visitors will go to an About page if they’re trying to make contact.

7 – Readability

The user experience is greatly impacted by the readability of a site’s content, particularly on blogs. Two different websites can provide the same exact content, but if one is formatted well for readability and the other one is not, there is a huge difference between the two for visitors.

Most visitors will have no interest in reading word-for-word all of the content on a page. Being able to quickly scan a page or an article for relevant content is very important. You can make this easier on visitors by using whitespace, bold text, headers and sub-headers, lists, etc.

8 – Not Focused on the Website Owner’s Wants

A user-focused website is, by definition, giving priority to the wants and needs of the users. This means that the priorities of the owner will be secondary. Of course, it’s still important to achieve the purposes for which the website exists, such as selling products, but it needs to be done in a way that focuses on the user. Rather than thinking about a website being created around a product or service, think of it as being created around meeting the needs of the user and allowing the product or service to be a part of that solution.

A website’s visitors will be able to tell when they are not being considered by the owner or developer and when the only priority is to get something from them. Obviously, this is not the way to enhance the user experience and make visitors feel at home on the site. In most cases it’s possible to accomplish the goals and objectives of a website and the company as the same time as meeting the needs of users.

9 – Anticipation of User Issues/Questions

Regardless of how well the designer creates a site to meet the needs of users, some visitors are bound to have questions or issues while on the site. The development of a user-focused website should include consideration of likely issues so that they can be addressed easily. Although you will never be able to avoid all of these situations, minimizing the number of unresolved issues will go a long way in improving the user experience.

If you’re seeing signs of problems, such as an unusually high number of questions through a contact form or a very high exit rate from a particular page, steps should be taken to address the issues that exist and make the site more user-friendly.

10 – Accessibility

The topic of user-focus can never be complete without mentioning accessibility. If a visitor is unable to access the site, it is seen as the ultimate sign of a lack of user-focus. In truth, most websites are not 100% accessible. What’s most important is that your site is built to be accessible to your target audience. For example, a slow-loading, flash-based site with lots of elements to hog bandwidth may not be usable to absolutely every visitor, but they can still be effectively used in some cases where the target audience will have access to the site and all of its features.

The issue of accessibility is obviously too big to cover in depth in this post, but it is extremely significant in the context of user focus. Ideally, a site will be accessible and usable for all visitors, but you certainly want to make sure that it’s at least catering to the target audience.

What’s Your Opinion?

On the subject of user-focused websites, what do you look for as signs of designer and website owner’s priorities? As a designer, what are your goals for creating a website that meets the needs and desires of users?