Posted by: Catherine Wentworth
Category: Designers Working With
Bookmark on: del.icio.us

For new business owners, it’s invaluable to know what could, and often does go wrong. Equally valuable is being told industry specific treats.

In the first section of the Designers Working With Series, designers shared their problems with clients.

So for the (hopefully) nip-in-the-bud realities when working with writers, I asked:

When working with designers, what do you see as the top problem areas?

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Cheryl

They don’t try to understand my target reader.
They submit alternate proposals that are too similar.

Cheryl Stephens | Mentor/Muse
plainlanguage.com | Building Rapport | Building Rapport : CafePress.com

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Gerald

Number one: Ego. A designer needs to have a rather large ego, but needs to keep it under control in service of her client. Many do not do this well. My book, “Becoming a Technical Leader,” deals with this problem, as does my book (with my wife) “General Principles of System Design“.

Number two: Maybe related to number one: Inability to listen and really hear. My book on feedback (with Charlie and Edie Seashore) “What Did You Say?: The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback” deals with this problem.

Number three: Inability to surface assumptions (his or the client’s) and to do the work to clarify them. My two books with Don Gause, “Are Your Lights On?: How to Know What the Problem Really Is” and “Exploring Requirements: Quality before Design,” deal with this problem.

And, of course, many designers are simply poor communicators, either in writing or face-to-face, and my writing book and my consulting books deal with this problem.

Gerald M. Weinberg | Writer, consultant
Weinberg on Writing | The Secrets of Consulting | gerald weinberg books and leadership courses

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Judy

They just want to get things DONE. Fast. Unless they have had to write a website, they probably don’t understand the various facets that go into writing an effective website. Like studying writing, demographic, search engines, visitor trends every day, most days.

There are more things, but at least this gives you an idea. And the following is part of what I send to people who want a new website or a makeover:

1. Why do you want a website?
2. How much business do you expect it to bring in percentage over what you’re bringing in now?
3. What are your target audience demographics? In other words, who do you want to reach? Be as specific as possible (age range, profession, income, interests, etc.).
4. How does your business benefit your target audience?
5. What problems do your prospects have that your business solves?
6. What can your business offer your visitors (what’s in it for them?)
7. List features of your services.
8. Do you perceive your website as a static but attractive online brochure, or do you perceive it as interactive and offering various elements that will make people want to return?
9. Do you have a budget set up for website startup?
10. Describe your business.
11. Do you have a business slogan or “tag line”?
12. What is the approximate number of pages you have or will have?
13. Do you have any content ready that can be used as a basis for your site? Examples: Welcome message, mission/vision statement for your business, company overview, business philosophy, and why visitors should do business with you rather than a competitor.
14. How do people learn about your business now?
15. How much time will you be able to spend online, responding to inquiries, etc.? Once a day? Several times a day?
16. Do you have a company logo?
17. How can you encourage repeat visitors and referrals?
18. Who is you online competition?
19. Describe your ideal client(s).

Judy Vorfeld | Webmaster Services; Editing and Writing Services
www.EditingAndWritingServices.com | Judy’s Blog

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Liz

Listening, Personal involvement, Trust, Commitment to the Work, Ego. In a mix on both sides, make for a messy relationship in any creative endeavor.

All of which are fixed by a high trust relationship that is built on communication.

To make the best product, both parties need creative input and deep personal investment, they need to trust each’s commitment to the work, setting aside ego by realizing that what’s on the page or the screen is the work not them. It is at best difficult at moments to do that.

In a great relationship, two ground rules are set –implicitly or explicitly.
They are that:

1. It’s about the work and each person has a right and a duty to say what he or she thinks about the whether the work is going in the right direction without feeling that it will hurt the relationship or that he or she will be thought of as difficult.
2. Both people agree that when someone finds something about the work that isn’t working, if they find a way to solve it that meets the needs of both parties, the work always becomes better than if one person had won out over the other. In other words, working through problems for solutions that meet everyone’s needs gives me the best of two minds on the problem. I want an equal partner who listens and takes on my problems as part of his or her challenge. A client relationship doesn’t work for me. A prima donna makes me very unhappy. A designer who sees me as someone who comes from a place of personal taste make me what to sit him or her down to read my resume. :)

Designers need to know that they are as easily swayed by their own personal tastes and quirks as editors and publishers. They also need to know that I speak for my market, not for my personal taste. I ask for different things depending on who my readers will be.

I need feedback and partnership to get to the vision. I don’t like to make work for anyone.

ME (Liz) Strauss | Writer | Career coach | Strategic planner
Successful Blog | Letting Liz Be | Liz Strauss.com | The Blog Herald | Performancing.com | Write With ME

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Louise

The biggest problem is when designers focus only on the design. The copy is equally important - design and words need to be in harmony with each other. If the designer forgets this, it makes working together very difficult and also means that the project may not be 100% successful. Sometimes designers need to be willing to accept advice or criticism from a copywriter and be prepared to modify the design. Another problem is that designers can occasionally become obsessed with cramming in too much design, especially fancy stuff like Flash, and be unwilling to recognise that less is often more.

The main problems are not passing on a proper brief from the client (do web pages need to be search-engine optimised, for example? If yes, I need to use key words), and not allowing me any time to proofread before publication (because the copy I send will be perfect when it leaves me and errors always creep in at the design end when being laid out) - this last point is very important as the projects I work on with designers rarely involve bringing in an additional proofreader.

I’m not sure how helpful these responses are going to be as I very rarely work FOR the designer as opposed to WITH the designer. Usually, I’m hired separately by the client and invoice separately, but obviously I need to have close and regular contact with the designer as I can’t work in a vacuum. I can’t say I’ve encountered any major problems to date - so far, I’ve been lucky enough to work with designers who understand that the copy is as important as the design. Usually, the problems lie with the client being uncontactable at a crucial point or unclear about what they want.

Louise Bolotin | Writer, consultant
PlainText Editorial Consultancy

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Lynn

I have had the good fortune to work with wonderful designers. For me, the key is recognizing when there is a fit and when there isn’t. If people can tell at the beginning that their business styles, aesthetics, or budgets don’t match, they should not work together and should not feel guilty about it.

It would be a problem if designers did not return phone calls or reply to email, did not keep their commitments, or did charge for services that had not been agreed upon in advance. I am glad to say that has not been my experience.

Here is the answer to the question you did not ask:

Having a good design is the difference between having a lackluster presentation and earning instant admiration. Before any words make an impression, the design does. I am grateful every day that I work with excellent, happy designers. I count them among my most valuable partners.

Lynn Gaertner-Johnston | Founder, Business Writing Specialist
Syntax Training: Tools for Better Business Writing | Business Writing Blog

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Matthew

Briefing aside, the biggest issue with web and print designers is that they view copy as a commodity. They don’t seem to understand the writer’s process, the need for interviews and research, time to write well, edit and rework if necessary. They just see a bunch of ‘lorem ipsum’ and say to themselves “writer to insert copy here.” A bit more mutual understanding would help everyone. Not all designers are like this of course!

Matthew Stibbe | Writer-in-chief
Articulate Marketing | Bad Language

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Nancy

Not being regarded as a full partner on the project. (I must say this happens rarely; I’m fortunate to work with some very experienced, knowledgeable, and sensitive designers.)

Nancy Friedman | Chief Wordworker
Wordworking | Away With Words

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Roberta

Underestimating the time/cost needed to complete a project

• Forgetting that the work, while still very much a creative enterprise, is not about the artist — it’s all about meeting the objective of the promotion. In short, it’s business.
• Sloppy final art — fonts and images missing, items not labeled, PMS colors not identified, no folding dummy, etc.
• Too casual approach to returning calls and emails

Roberta Rosenberg | Pres/CEO
MGP DIRECT, INC. | The Copywriting Maven

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Roy

Writers can be assholes. They act as if the designer is there to service the writer. The writer can be a narcissist and forget that the designer needs to be brought into the conversation. The designer needs time, so it’s imperative that the writer meet deadlines and provide as much advanced information as possible.

Roy Peter Clark | America’s writing coach
Poynter Online - Writing Tools | Book: Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

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Tom

If I have one rant in me, it’s about designers who render headlines and copy unreadable.

We’re trying to sell something, and setting a headline in four different sizes or copy in heavily leaded 7 point type might impress design students, but if the average person can’t read it, we’ve failed.

The testing doesn’t lie; your average person can’t (or won’t) read type that’s set outside a fairly narrow set of parameters. Don’t get too cute.

Tom Chandler | copywriting : online/blogging : marketing plans
Chandler Writes. You Profit. | The Copywriter Underground

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tom

Thinking of writers as simply wordsmiths rather than idea generators. Writers think visually/idea first and words second.

tom mullen | writer & proprietor
EXIT3A.com | ANONYMOUS, JR

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Following the set format for the DWW series, next up will be How Writers Work: The Process

until the next
Designers WW,
cat