In My Experience... | Client cluelessness: Your biggest challenge. (1295)

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Client cluelessness: Your biggest challenge.
[ Posted by Dan on November 18, 2002 | 5 Comments ]

Many of us (us = me, and my 5 readers) have experience the anguish of enlightening the client of a given web development project in the interest of faithfully, and robustly executing the business plan of said client. The cluelessness, ignorance or otherwise diminished understanding of the realities of web development and web site/application development is a huge business risk.

Overcoming that problem requires the liberal arts major in all of us to find a way to understand, relate to, and transform the notions the client may have coming into a project. One of those core things the web professional needs to deal with is revealing the fluid nature of the web page itself.

I can't count using all of the follicles of hair on my body (there are many) how many times a client/business owner, 'stake holder' or 'the guy in charge' has asked...

Can that be moved down a little?

Of course it can! In fact, the code creating this page may automagically do that in one of the other multitudinous browsing environments available to the browsing public. Please understand that HTML is merely a suggestion on how to render a page. This isn't a magazine, it's a web site.

But, what I mean is, that's up to high and isn't really important.

Well, I know it's too high, because this page doesn't have the content you promised to deliver LAST WEEK so it's just a place holder, and the footer in question is near the top of the page for reason (this is where I edit the HTML in front of them, add in a ton of paragraph tags, and ask them to imagine the tardy content made it to school on time). Besides, it actually is important since it shows who owns the copyright here, and what the terms of service are (via a link).

Oh, I see. So, what content do I owe you?

*sigh*

My biggest fear is that my job will eventually cause me to hate all human beings, or at least lose respect for them.

-Posted by josh on November 18, 2002 01:32 PM

one suggestion:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. You owe me content for this page. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.You owe me content for this page.

Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. (and you owe me content for this page.)

Nam liber tempor cum soluta nobis eleifend option congue nihil imperdiet doming id quod mazim placerat facer possim assum!

-Posted by JC on November 18, 2002 04:54 PM

Having nothing to do with your post, I just wanted to wish you a happy blogiversary. (I found you over at blogtree.com.) :)

-Posted by Danielle on November 18, 2002 11:02 PM

If it bothers you that much, then make the fluid nature of the Web one of your selling points. Let the clients know up front that you strongly believe the Web is not print, it's a different medium with different constraints. Educate clients from the beginning. Then down the road you'll be less likely to get asked those types of questions.

Completely unrelated. Regarding your poll: It's not that I don't think blogs are worth paying for; many weblogs are priceless and simply shouldn't be paid for. Others shouldn't even bother asking.

Also completely unrelated: blogiversary? Please don't tell me that's becoming a commonly used word.

-Posted by Joshua Kaufman on November 18, 2002 11:22 PM

Re:first post

reminds me of an excellent quote by Tycho (I think) over at Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com), which I will paraphrase:

"The problem with multiplayer games is that you have to play them with other people"

-Posted by Eric on November 19, 2002 10:27 AM

Comment posting has been turned off because I don't have enough time and will to deal with the constant comment spamming. I'm very sorry and will fix this sometime soon (soon = before 2004 ends).