[Sigia-l] Free lunch...and drinks too

[Listera]

Eric Scheid:

> Nice question, but how about you start?

I wasn't holding back. :-)

As a consultant, I have to consider many different projects/clients. Almost
universally they ask (pretty much up front) what I think of their
site/app/etc. Some, as you can imagine, go further and ask what I could do
to improve it. I flatly refuse.

The reason is very simple: design is contextual. And context (for something
as complex as large sites/apps that I deal with) cannot be adequately
covered in a phone conversation or a half-hour meeting. And without context,
the success or failure of a site/app means nothing to me.

For example, yesterday four people from here wrote me off-list to ask me
what I'd do to redesign the McMaster homepage. I have no idea, because I
don't know what the context of the design challenge was. I'm not about to
make a fool of myself by "solving" the wrong problem, however graphically
satisfying it may be to me. Design is problem solving not graphical
beautification.

So, over the last decade, except for one occasion, I have never given away
any design consideration in any form to any client. It goes against the
fundamental notion of contextual design practice that I hold dearly.

Insistence by the client for a freebie treatment betrays something else:
their inability to parse the competency of a designer, by looking at their
past work, talking to them, engaging them in an exercise of problem solving,
etc. It's far easier and less risky to reject a specific design solution
(however inadequately contextualized it may be) than to actually do the hard
work of duly considering the potential capabilities of a specific designer.

----
Ziya

"Innovate as a last resort."