Should Web Design Always Please The Client?

It might seem ridiculous to suggest creating a web design that the client does not like. Surely, the person paying for the web development project should be happy with the end result? Although that is undoubtedly true, being happy with the finished site and being personally delighted by its aesthetics are two separate issues.

Often a client can be extremely self-confident and articulate about how a website should look, and the designer, striving to please, is swayed by the client's needs and produces something that suits him perfectly. While it might not seem like a problem, there is something risky about the decision to work this way, and that is the failure to consider the website's target audience. The client may have been thinking about his site's potential visitors all along, but if not, if he has merely been catering for his own preferences, then the site could suffer.

If the designer keeps the focus on the customers and the client understands that success depends on constructing a website that appeals to them, rather than to him, it will not matter if the result is not to his own taste. As well as the aesthetics, the content of each page needs to be relevant to the desired audience. It is no use planning a design around the choices of a middle-aged man if the site's users will all be teenage music fans.

At internet marketing agency Click Consult we work closely with our clients to make sure that websites meet their customers' needs.