Thread

How about taking some screenshots in different resolutions and a few browsers to show him?

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!!”  :lol:  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. 

Regards,

Hitch

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.

Good luck with your client.  If it’s any consolation, we all have one JUST like yours. 

Thanks for the comforting words!

I remember the woman who put the mouse under her foot and asked why the computer wasn’t working.

Maybe he can order some photographs from this guy. 😊

How about this: http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com/

How about this: http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com/

THAT is really funny.  I tip my hat to that guy or dame! 

Regards,

Hitch

Three years ago my phone rang about 10:00 AM on New Year’s day. A designer I had met only a couple of times was calling, and before we even got to “hi how are you?” she asked “are you taking any new clients?” I said “yes”, she said “thank you” and hung up. One second later I got an email introducing a client to their new developer. . . it was me.

The email had about 4 paragraphs in it and was carefully worded, there is no way she could have written it after she hung up, she must have hit “send” the second I said “yes”.

Before I could finish reading the email, my phone rang, it was my new client and they wanted to meet me; it was now about 10:02 AM. :ohh:

Premeditated client dumping is not a crime, but neither is letting your client go. This is never fun, but sometimes, you just have to meet with your client and tell them that you can’t, in good conscience, produce a website in the manner your client is requesting.

We had to do this early this year and it was a pain, it was emotionally draining and stressful, but not as stressful as building a non-functional website just to service the creative spirit of an un-informed client, and then fearing that people would find it an associate it with your firm.

We took a big risk and fired one of our clients this year, and it was governmental agency, and they threatened us, and wrote us nasty emails and refused our calls, but in the end, we got paid for the entire contract. It was the ugliest chapter of the year for us. But, our integrity is in tack.

You might need the cash from this client to pay the rent, so you might just need to play the game, but if you could squeak by without it, I would call up the client and tell them to find another company. Not only will you be doing yourself a favor, you might actually be doing this client and their next creative firm a favor, as he’s likely to respect their opinion a little more in the future; at least you can hope.

Flashing size 6 orange font on a dark purple background might pay your bills, but you’ll never feel good about it in the morning.

My 2cents worth.

Says it all. ‘White Space Eliminator’ sounds brilliant!
http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com/

Maybe he can order some photographs from this guy. 😊

Oh man, thats a cool website!

Kurt, you’re right about that one. A good idea. I have someone wanting a job done, and I’m thinking it could be a mistake for me, especially after saga.

The makemylogobigger site is hysterical!  I need some of that stuff.  :D The emotionator?  Patented USB interface?  LOL!

Funny stuff, ya all are crazy.
The Jack Nicholson voice-overs were pretty impressive.
come to think of it Jack would of made a great “Ad Man”,
Or heck maybe an art director.

For some good advice if you’ve never visited Andy Rutledge’s site you ought to check it out.
He’s got some great advice and general ranting in the same vein, my favorite:
“The Dumbest Guy’s In The Room”. He just launched a podcast too.
Consider me design geeky, but in good company 😉

UPDATE:

The Client has suddenly done a u-turn. Apparently some of his colleagues who had been looking over the test site and decided that the text looked ‘strange’. Yes, ‘strange’ was the word used.

So he has asked me to revert to the way it was. And with a going live deadline looming, I’m sure he couldn’t be bothered thinking about it anymore.

BUT….......

One should never under estimate a client’s attention to detail.

I have been using Roger Johansson’s excellent script for external links (See here) for awhile now.

As my clients usually have a penchant for the ‘Wow it opens in a new window script and it’s 1999’, I have used Roger’s script to make them more user friendly and accessible when there is no alternative.

What did he just say? “Could you take the ‘Opens in new window’ text and icon off those links”. Looks wrong”.

Oh Christ! I’m getting my coat. :grrr:

P.S. I like those podcasts too. Design podcasts are the future…