7 Tips for How to Talk to a Web Designer to Get the Best Results
Feeling like you and your web designer are from different planets? Wondering how to talk to a web designer in a way that you can be confident you’re both working towards the same goal? You’re in the right place!
I’ve been a professional web designer for 3 years now and I’m a BIG proponent of thorough and effective communication. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and practicing how best to describe what’s in my head, especially complex topics, with other people, so while I’m a professional at pictorial communication, I’m no stranger to using words to get points across as well.
In this article, my aim is to help you learn how to talk to a web designer in a way that’s helpful, fosters a respectful and collaborative environment, and ultimately gets you closer to the website of your dreams!
Don’t leave anything up to assumption.
Often it feels important to summarize your communication so that you get a point across quickly, but through all that summarization sometimes specific concepts can be communicated too vaguely.
Of course summarization can be extremely valuable in certain business situations (in an elevator pitch for instance), but it’s important to double check those things you’ve refrained from describing in detail and evaluate if they could be helpful to elaborate on when having a conversation with your web designer.
Share your plans for the future
Some helpful information that you can include when you talk to a web designer:
- How you plan to grow your business
- New offerings you plan to have in the future
- New avenues for advertising you plan to have in the future
- Target markets you previously served or want to be able to serve in the future
For example, perhaps you’re focusing on one type of service now, but in the future you’d like to offer another type of service too. That could be useful information for a web designer to know when considering how to design your site, so that it can grow with you as you expand your business.
Get to the root of your revision requests
You’re likely going to want a change or two to an aspect or portion of your website once it’s been designed, but you’re also likely only given a certain number of included rounds of revisions to your site at each stage.
Also, even if you communicate your requested changes effectively, it can sometimes look or behave differently than you expected it to once you see the revisions implemented on your site. This can be frustrating for both you and the web designer.
It can be helpful when requesting a change to consider and communicate the reasoning behind the revisions you want. This way, the designer can work with you to brainstorm the best ways to solve the problems you face with the current design.
It could very well be that the revisions you had in mind are the best ones to implement, but your designer might have different great solutions you weren’t aware of that can more directly solve your problem, and save you both some time and resources.
Communicate proactively
A great web designer will check in with you multiple times throughout the design process of building out the site to make sure that you’re on the same page with where the site is heading, but don’t be afraid to reach out and check in on your own if you’re unsure where you’re at in the process or have something you’d like to add. Waiting to talk to your web designer about something important can delay the project timeline and potentially steer the results away from what you want.
Ask questions
If you don’t understand industry jargon that your web designer is saying, don’t let that intimidate you from asking questions. It’s important that you can understand what’s going on and what you’re agreeing to, so any good designer will be happy to elaborate and clarify what they’re talking about.
Be open to interesting decisions
Poor designers tend to make design decisions on a whim, but great designers likely have a reason why they choose everything when it comes to design.
Web designers with good communication skills will likely supply their reasoning behind the decisions they make without you asking, but if you find you’re confused about or dislike a design decision, make sure to ask for the reason they chose to do it, because you might just find yourself starting to get on board and even loving it.
If there isn’t a good reason for the decision other than it looks good in their eyes and it doesn’t have to do with your brand, accessibility, or functionality, then you can confidently consider asking for a revision if you don’t like it.
Think outside the (web design) box
As someone who’s hiring a web designer, you might not know a ton about code languages like HTML and CSS, and not having that experience and expertise, in some ways, gives you an advantage.
Why?
Because you don’t know what’s possible and what isn’t when it comes to your new website.
Chances are if you talk to a web designer and developer about an interesting idea you have for your site, they’ll be able to figure out a way to do it or something similar, which in the end is way cooler than if you don’t ask, right?
And that’s how to talk to a web designer! Hopefully you found some helpful communication tips in this article.
Psssst… Still looking for a web designer? You can learn more about our web design services here!