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Hello there! Here we are again to laugh at our own stories. Our Webster superhero (brought to life by Jamie Sale) is in trouble again and we’re here to help.
Ok, we’re not going to help him but we’ll at least learn from his mistakes :)
These two particular stories have happened to me quite a few times. And funny enough, they mostly happened while I was working a regular job, as an employee.
On this topic we have a lot to learn from support guys. If you worked for/with a big company whenever you need help you’ll need to open a ticket. I often hear people saying things like “Oh gosh, I have to open a ticket just to get a new mouse pad, that’s awful”, but we should all be using these sorts of systems.
Be it big or small changes you’ll always need to write it down and make sure you can prove that the client requested the change. Also, writing every request is good because you can show you are aggregating value to the final product. Here are a few advantages:
But this is especially bad when you are working as an employee. Your boss will ask you for a million things and forget 90% of them. A good tip is to keep track of those requests via email (since I doubt you’ll make your boss open tickets to have you do stuff). At least you all you have to do is simply re-forward him his request and avoid a lot of headaches.
Deadlines, who doesn’t love them? :)
I don’t.
I mean, if they are an informed and educated deadline, they’re great. But mostly they are a guess made by someone who doesn’t have a clue on how long it takes to do things. “Wait, but I set my own deadlines”, yeah, and you are doing it wrong (don’t worry, so do I!).
We often forget about how long it takes to do simple things. So if someone asks you to add new feature to the project, when you estimate how long it takes you remember that you’ll need to:
But often you forget that actually you’ll need to:
Ok, we are not the #1 people to set deadlines, but what this has to do with that stripe? That was all the client’s fault, right?! Yes, it is, but if we (experts) often can’t set realistic deadlines, you can imagine what a great job the client will do. He just wants things done as quick as possible, and if needed he’ll ask you to work overnight and why not, on weekends.
What you can do is to show him that you actually don’t work 24×7 (and if that’s really needed, charge at least a much higher rate) AND it takes a lot more of work to do than it seems. I know that clients won’t understand this at first, but if you have a good relationship at some point they may even understand that you need to have social life :)
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I'm a web designer and entrepreneur from Itajubá (MG), Brasil. I love writing about obscure topics and doing some cool stuff. And also I do some FREE stuff, check it out: http://www.roch.com.br/
Monday, August 27th, 2012 16:18
Oh the first comic is so true. We can’t always protect the client from themselves as designers now can we!
Thursday, August 23rd, 2012 04:55
HAHa i like the amnesia. This is the design YOU sent me. Killing joke.
Monday, August 20th, 2012 03:17
Me too don’t like Time Lines. Its make me pressurize. Designing is an art and it takes time. I design anything until it satisfy myself. If i m not satisfy with my crated designs how client would be.
Thursday, August 16th, 2012 13:16
i love the illustrations….clients really need to be handled properly
Friday, August 17th, 2012 12:17
I was just about to say the same thing. I love the “Amnesia” illustration :)
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Divyansh
Thursday, August 16th, 2012 13:16
i love the illustrations….clients really need to be handled properly
Kevin
Friday, August 17th, 2012 12:17
I was just about to say the same thing. I love the “Amnesia” illustration :)
Logo Design Ideas
Monday, August 20th, 2012 03:17
Me too don’t like Time Lines. Its make me pressurize. Designing is an art and it takes time. I design anything until it satisfy myself. If i m not satisfy with my crated designs how client would be.
Pinfan
Thursday, August 23rd, 2012 04:55
HAHa i like the amnesia. This is the design YOU sent me. Killing joke.
DaBomb Media
Monday, August 27th, 2012 16:18
Oh the first comic is so true. We can’t always protect the client from themselves as designers now can we!