I am designing a site for a new client. I showed him visuals and mocked it up. He was happy. Built the thing, fairly happy, but I was getting negative vibes. Was it the layout, colours?
Eventually after much back and forth he asked me that that he wanted everything on the front page to fit in the window. He didn’t want any scrolling. Ummmmm I said well you have a lot of news and info on the front page. He replied that he wanted it there and could I push everything up. Of course I explained that people do not have a problem scrolling. This was inconceivable to him.
His solution is to kill all the leading, maybe even make it negative and reduce the text size from 12px to 9 or 8px!
I explained that the text was laid out using proper leading and that it all flowed nicely. Also people will have a problem reading it. After much discussion and getting nowhere, he asked me to implement his brillaint plan.
I ended up just agreeing with everything. Really now, just wanting to finish this job, get paid and take my credit off the site.
I haven’t encountered this sort of ignorance before, but it takes the biscuit.
You’ve got to email me a screen shot or a link, hehe, it reminds me of one of the owners of a print shop I worked for a few years ago. I’m sure you’ve probably already heard this, too, but it feels appropriate to link to it again: Make the logo bigger!.
That song is good alright. I will post a visual when I get around to wrecking it for him. I know it’s only a few lines of CSS, but it will take time, mentally, to prepare for it.
Oh how I explained that his monitor size and res was one in many! But I think he is convinced that his is the standard. Oh how god awful it all sounds. The client just wants his way whatever happens.
The only thing I can think of is to setup tracking on the site right away so you can actually see what the typical screen size/resolution visiting the site is. That way you can make the argument from actual data from the site.
But I admit, your current plan is probably the most reasonable
Ridiculous...When I was doing the original BestBuy site a lot of CE products had a lot of specs, went on for many pages down. We did a study to see if this was a problem, used the long page and the same page splint to multiples. Ended up people didn’t mind the vertical scroll at all (within reason), they’re used to doing it in email and word processing docs. A few months later someone else released a study that verified ours. Horizontal scrolling is a whole different matter.
Bet once you get it redone there will be enough negative feedback to change it back...don’t discard your original CSS :-)
To bad you don’t have access to the boss machine, you could just change the default sizes on his machine and allow him to wallow in his eye-strained world.
Oh my G-d...teeny font sizes with NO changeable fix suck. You could at least offer an alternative stylesheet with high contrast, large font sizes, etc. for people who can’t afford ZoomText or something like it. (I <3 my ZoomText).
This is why I’m seriously going to found a web company entitled Accessibility Assholes, Inc.
I am designing a site for a new client. I showed him visuals and mocked it up. He was happy. Built the thing, fairly happy, but I was getting negative vibes. Was it the layout, colours?
<SNIP for brevity>
His solution is to kill all the leading, maybe even make it negative and reduce the text size from 12px to 9 or 8px!
<SNIP for brevity>
I ended up just agreeing with everything. Really now, just wanting to finish this job, get paid and take my credit off the site.
I haven’t encountered this sort of ignorance before, but it takes the biscuit.
@Dave_H:
Y’know, I invariably have bizarre client moments, although different than yours in type, but not essence. I usually try to find examples of whatever dimwitted thing they are trying to do, OR, an example of what I’m trying to do...whichever works. What business is he in? Retail? Online Magazine? I would find a direct competitor with an easy-to-read and navigate site, and show it to him...somebody with BIG biz. Somebody with a BIG font. If he’s an online mag, show him any Conde Nast publication online. Something along those lines.
In the head-slapping client moments category, I had a client who came late to the joys of email. I was doing a project (I primarily do RE Project Management) out of this client’s office in 2004, as he was discovering email for fun and profit. My office was literally right next to his, not 8 feet away from door-to-door (and I live and die on email). He would YELL down the hallway “Hitch, show me the such-and-such Critical Path!!,” and I would yell back “Here! I’m sending it by email !!!” Moments later, he would yell “SEND THAT EMAIL AGAIN!! IT’S NOT HERE YET!!” I was never quite able to get him to understand that the email didn’t move magically through the air directly from computer to computer, but, rather, had to “travel” all the way up to the satellite and back, (as I put it to him). The hysterical part was that it would have been faster to walk the freaking thing over to his desk than it was to go through the Abbott and Costello routine.
Yep, ain’t technology grand?
Good luck with your client. If it’s any consolation, we all have one JUST like yours.
To bad you don’t have access to the boss machine, you could just change the default sizes on his machine and allow him to wallow in his eye-strained world.
The boss machine sounds sinister!
I have done a few examples for him of browser shots etc, but not budging.
I was never quite able to get him to understand that the email didn’t move magically through the air directly from computer to computer, but, rather, had to “travel” all the way up to the satellite and back, (as I put it to him). The hysterical part was that it would have been faster to walk the freaking thing over to his desk than it was to go through the Abbott and Costello routine.
