Working With Clients on a Design Project

A well-managed collaboration with a client lets the whole design process run smoothly, resulting in a high-quality website design or another product, and a fully satisfied client. We need to remember that the client we're working with most likely doesn't have specialist knowledge about design or, for example, building websites, so throughout the whole process we should educate them and inform them in detail about our work. If the brief hasn't been filled in to our satisfaction, we should arrange a meeting with the client.

How do you prepare for a meeting with a client?

The better we prepare for a meeting with a client, the more information we'll gather, and this will help a great deal at later stages of the project. So what can we do before the meeting itself?

Researching the client's business

Try to research the company's history, learn about its offer and its competitors. Basic knowledge of the client's industry will certainly come in handy at the meeting too.

Benchmarks

Remember that the client probably hasn't dealt with design work before, so it's worth preparing a few example projects, which will help pin down the client's visual preferences and make it easier to determine what functionality the client expects (for example, for a website, or when it comes to online stores).

A list of topics

Prepare a list of issues you want to raise in the conversation with the client. Make sure to cover topics that will let you gather as much valuable information as possible for your creative work.

Topics worth raising at the meeting:

• what the product or service does or how it works
• what sets the product or service apart from competing solutions
• a discussion of the target audience
• future plans for developing the brand
• previous experience working with designers
• if the project involves a redesign, ask about the reason behind the decision to refresh the brand's image
• (for websites and stores) an analysis of the homepage structure, section by section
• the planned deadline
• available design materials (logos, photos, renders, other materials)
• a point of contact (we should aim to have a single person who will communicate with the specialist about feedback and other project-related matters)
• a discussion of the design process (the individual stages, an emphasis on close collaboration with the client, preferred communication channels)

The meeting, and what comes next?

After meeting with the client, it's worth taking a few steps that will help organise the work better:

• prepare a work schedule, even if the dates in it are purely indicative
• create a task list, and if it's a large project, you can further split it into subtasks
• you can also prepare a short meeting summary, creating a document that will help both you and the client assess the designs and compare them with what you agreed at the meeting

As a creative soul, you're probably not a fan of client meetings and would rather just get on with designing, but a well-run meeting, preceded by proper preparation, will pay off during the creative work and have a positive effect on the quality of your designs. I hope this article makes that easier for you. If you still have any questions, our marketing agency JustIdea will be happy to answer them all.