Intuitive Designs - Custom Web Design & Illustration Services

Why do we present one initial web design concept? Isn’t that a little arrogant? What about giving the clients the option to choose? Isn’t that what they are paying for?

These are some of the types of questions we’ve been getting lately. Strangely, this issue didn’t come up much before, but now that it has, I figure it’s a good time to take a moment to talk about it.

First, a little background. The first three or four years we were in business, we would present three initial concepts. That seemed like the standard thing to do.

But after awhile we started to notice something happening. Most of the time, two of the concepts would be pretty similar. It seemed like there were only so many ways to skin a cat effectively and after we came up with the best solutions we could, it didn’t make any sense to do further changes beyond maybe a different color treatment or similar.

The thing is, that third similar concept is not really a whole other concept and only gives the illusion of having an extra choice. It didn’t feel right to do that, so we then decided to do two concepts instead. Koldo would do one concept and I’d do the other. It seemed logical. That way, the client would get two different designs from two different designers. But, that didn’t work out how we hoped either.

Finally, we decided to start presenting only one concept in most cases. Here are our reasons for doing so.

1. Time and Cost Savings: Part of the way we work and we live in our personal lives is to respect limited resources. We hope to do the best we can with what we have available and that often means looking for ways to make the web design process affordable and productive for our clients. We want to make sure that the website provides a good return on investment and wasting precious time and resources on something that doesn’t provide enough gain doesn’t make sense. Which leads me to…
2. Avoiding sub-par solutions: In our eyes, when we work on several design concepts, there is one that is always clearly the strongest solution. I’m not talking about the one that’s prettier or has the impressive graphics either. I’m talking about the one that we know will work the best for the client’s particular situation and project goals. I think most designers will admit to themselves that they almost always have worked towards one best solution and present the other ones they explored along the way just because they have to. What’s the point in that? Is that really ethical?
3. Avoiding Frankenstein solutions: This is probably the worst occurrence because it pretty much guarantees a sub-par outcome. What happens here is that the client feels forced to make difficult choices when presented with several options. Instead of guiding the client and saying, “This is what we believe will work best for you.”, we throw everything into their court. The natural reaction is to pick and choose one thing from one concept and another thing from another and so on. This ends up creating a final solution that doesn’t have the original impact and is also not totally cohesive.

With careful thought and planning, there really isn’t a lot of need for additional concepts.

Doing enough research upfront

We hope, with each project to come close to hitting the mark the first time around. If this doesn’t happen, it means something went wrong during the initial planning phase.

Somewhere along the way, we misunderstood something, the client’s goals didn’t get conveyed to us well enough, or we just didn’t go over the initial planning process thoroughly enough together to make sure we were on the same page. In these rare cases, we offer to do another design after we have gathered more information and discussed the project goals further with the client. This is at no extra cost to the client even if it means a less profitable project for us.

If this is the case though, presenting several designs in the first round wouldn’t have avoided the problem. It would have just meant two or three designs that missed the mark instead of one.

Working in a relationship based on mutual trust.

This is a touchy area. If the client insists upon several concepts because they feel unsure we will be able to help them reach their goal with one, there is a much larger issue at play. Hopefully, we have the opportunity to address these types of issues before we commence a project, but if it comes up later on in the project, it can cause a real mess.

If there is a lack of trust on the client’s side, it’s a real possibility that the client will not like whatever we do for them, no matter how many concepts we provide. In such cases, we often recommend that they look for another firm that can provide what they are looking for.

Pleasing clients vs. giving them what they need.

We all want our clients to be happy. That’s a given. We also want them to feel satisfied with working with us. But, these shouldn’t be our main goals. Our main goal should be to come up with the best solutions we can for each project. Sometimes those solutions are ones that clients may not like the most, but that’s not a good enough reason for not presenting only our best work.

Of course, clients know their businesses better than we do and their websites should be a good representative of their business. But, presenting solutions that aren’t good enough just to please a client is highly unprofessional.

Products vs. Services.

Here is the thing that a lot of people don’t understand when purchasing a custom web design from a designer. What you are buying is a service, not a product. It is logical that people think they are buying a product. We live in a consumer-based culture.

But, when you hire a web designer to do a custom design, you are paying that person for their expertise, experience, and time it takes to come up with a custom solution just for you to fit your needs. This is different than say, purchasing a Wordpress theme and then picking the color you want. That’s a product.

Cutting corners?

All that said, does this mean that we cut corners, we aren’t working hard enough, or spending enough time on on our designs? I don’t think so.

The thing is, when we work on a design, we go through a complex process of working on several different ideas and concepts before the client sees the final result. Very rarely does it happen that we come up with a good design without careful thought and on the first try.  Just because the client doesn’t see the other stuff doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a lot of work behind that design concept. The final result has just been narrowed down to what we think is the best solution.

How long does it take?

Well, in case you’re curious, we usually spend around 20-25 hours from the very start of the project until the presentation of the home page design concept. This includes research time, going through wireframes and mood boards and revisions to those along with the corresponding discussions with the clients, and exploring several options before coming up with the final result. This is compared to spending just a few hours on each of several different concepts.

The cost may or may not be the same, but the solutions will likely not have been as well thought out and given as much time as they should have. It only gives the illusion that more work has been done, but doesn’t mean the client is actually getting more or better work for their money.

***

Designers and people who hire designers, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Designers, how many concepts do you present and what are your reasons? Clients, how many concepts are you looking for when you hire a designer?