BlogmyQuery – BMQ

by Robert Bowen

Collaboration is a beautiful thing. Two or more different approaches harmoniously coming together to create something more than any one of them could have achieved on their own. Such is often the source of the awe that inspires our breath to be snatched away by mixed media artwork. Multiple artistic mediums crossing paths and coming together in order to craft a piece of art that collaboratively conveys its message. This is one of the reasons that mixed media speaks to so many, because it is not confined to one medium from which to appeal to the viewers.



So today we are reaching across various artistic mediums to bring you an inspirational showcase from artists who have adeptly combined methods in their work. Through these works we can perhaps find a flame of inspiration that will take our creative approach outside of our usual means and methods for a fresher end result. It might even stir us into reaching outside the normal comfort zones we routinely work from to blend other methods into our projects. Take a look below at the showcase of both mixed media artists and individual pieces to get your fires burning.

Roundup

Here are some artists who have many mixed media skills and pieces in their portfolios that we simply had to bring together to feature here in this showcase.

‘Conformity Equals Crisis’ by Thomas Schostok

Hail to the King, Baby!

‘The Thing’ by Thomas Schostok

‘Song of a Bird’ by Valerie Chua

‘Glide’ by Valerie Chua

‘Sparrow’ by Valerie Chua

‘Bumble Bee’ by Variations

‘Tea for One’ by Variations

‘The Swan’ by Lovely Cristina

‘My Secret Garden’ by Lovely Cristina

‘Bursting’ by Lovely Cristina

‘Doesn’t Hold Water’ by Paperboogie

‘Nema Enters Slumberland’ by Paperboogie

‘Nervous System’ by Paperboogie

‘The Rest-House’ by Sesfitts

‘A Song of Renee’ by Sesfitts

‘Cat in the Grass’ by Sesfitts

‘Apnea’ by TAR3N

‘Fallen Print’ by TAR3N

‘Exhale’ by TAR3N

‘Molly Mixed Media’ by Derek Jones

‘Anne-Julie’ by Frecklefaced29

‘Mixed Media on Old Frame’ by Tbianchini

‘Psychiatric Hospital’ by 2xrayzerase

‘The Prosecutor’ by Messa

‘From the Edges 2′ by clijoco

‘Confessor Brings the Flood’ by 2x2x2

‘My King’ by ArtByKostasTsipos

‘Beetle and the Lady’s Slipper’ by Opiumtraum

‘Hide’ by Shawnie-b

‘CEO’ by NomeEdonna

‘Mask’ by Captain-Amazing

‘Lunar Worms’ by Life-Takers-Crayons

‘Wolf Portrait’ by Eleihna

‘Untitled Mixed Media’ by Sleepywalker

‘Mother Mixed Media’ by Phoenix2517

‘Someone Else’s Sunset’ by Greeneyedsiren

‘Cthulhu Tree’ by Loganart

‘Missbehave Magazine Baby Girl’ by Nikki Farquharson

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by Nousheen Aquil

This post contains 40 varieties of functional jQuery tables plugins that let you achieve the maximum functionality and flexibility that you cannot get with the classic ways of using HTML tables. With the right jQuery plugin, you can create dynamic tables in which users can identify and sort out all the sections they want. These plugins will help you in creating user friendly and dynamic tables with ease.

Useful Tables jQuery Plugins

Visualize: Accessible Charts & Graphs from Table Elements ( Demo | Download )
Visualize is a plugin that can scrape data from an HTML table and generate charts using the HTML 5 Canvas element. This plugin is particularly useful because the data for the visualization already exists in the page in a structured tabular format, making it accessible to people who browse the web with a screen reader or other assistive technology.

Using jQuery To Manipulate and Filter Data ( Demo | Download )
When a webpage is designed to display large tables of data, a great amount of consideration should be dedicated to allowing the user to sort through the data in a structured manner. In this tutorial, author will go over four techniques: hover effects, zebra rows, filtering, and sorting.

TableRowCheckboxToggle ( Demo | Download )
It generically adds the toggle function to any table rows you specify based on the CSS class names. It will by default toggle any checkboxes within the table row. However, you can manually exclude checkboxes based on name, id or css classes in the script.

Tablesorter ( Demo | Download )
Tablesorter is a jQuery plugin for turning a standard HTML table with THEAD and TBODY tags into a sortable table without page refreshes. tablesorter can successfully parse and sort many types of data including linked data in a cell.

Grider ( Demo | Download )
Grider is a plugin for jQuery that makes your life easier when you need to edit or create a table that handles a list of items. It helps you to do calculations in a very simple way.

Tablify – Fancy Tables ( Demo | Download )
Tablify is a cross-browser JQuery plugin built to extremely simplify beautifying of standard HTML tables. Its advanced configuration options allow all the styles to be completely redesigned according to the website look and feel. Comes with 3 default styles, and 5 more styles in supplied extension.

Creating a “Filterable� Portfolio with jQuery ( Demo | Download )
If you have worked in your field for a while, there is a pretty good chance that you have a rather extensive portfolio. To make it a little easier to navigate, you will probably be tempted to break them into different categories. In this tutorial, you can learn how to make “filtering by category� a little more interesting with just a little bit of jQuery.

Table Drag and Drop JQuery plugin ( Demo | Download )
Dragging and dropping rows within a table can’t be handled by general purpose drag and drop utilities for a number of reasons, not least because you need to move the whole row, not just the cell that receives the mouse events. Re-parenting the row also requires specific code. Sadly also, effects like fadeIn and fadeOut don’t work well with table rows on all browsers, so we have to go for simpler effects.

List Reorder ( Demo | Download )
List Reorder is a jQuery plugin that allows you to reorder any simple ordered or unordered list. List Reorder is easy to use and does not require any additional markup. Its look and feel is completely customizable using a set of CSS classes.

ENHANCED TABLE, JQUERY-UI THEME ROLLER READY ( Demo | Download )
Author have written this jquery plug-in to improve basic usability for a common html table element, which can be the foundation for a larger control or functions applied to the table. This includes the ability to navigate through the rows of a the table by using either the mouse or the keyboard and select one or many rows.

DRAGTABLE ( Demo | Download )
Maybe you want to sort the columns ascending/descending by clicking into the table-head. No problem! Use a handle to drag the rows.

Table Pagination ( Demo | Download )
This jQuery plugin is used to create a pagination element under a table element. You can customize your pagination needs through various settings.

ColumnHover ( Demo | Download )
A jQuery-plugin that highlights whole columns in a table when hovering over them. It’s supporting tables with colspans and rowspans, too!

uiTableFilter ( Demo | Download )
jQuery plugin for filtering table rows:

PicNet Table Filter ( Demo | Download )
The PicNet Table Filter is used in production in several PicNet projects so it has been tested production ready. The table filter was born out of our Visual Analytics (Mouse Eye Tracking) project and has received great feedback.

NReco jSquared ( Demo | Download )
This plugin allows you to organize advanced search user interface like in Google Squared.

HeatColor ( Demo | Download )
HeatColor is a plugin that allows you to assign colors to elements, based on a value derived from that element. The derived value is compared to a range of values, either determined automatically or passed in, and the element is assigned a “heat” color based on its derived value’s position within the range.

Expand table rows with jQuery – jExpand plugin ( Demo | Download )
jExpand is ultra lightweight jQuery plugin that will make your tables expandable. Typical for line of business applications, this feature can help you organize tables better. This way, tables can hold more information such as images, lists, diagrams and other elements.

DataTables ( Demo | Download )
DataTables is a plug-in for the jQuery Javascript library. It is a highly flexible tool, based upon the foundations of progressive enhancement, which will add advanced interaction controls to any HTML table.

Scrollable HTML table plugin for jQuery ( Demo | Download )
This JavaScript code can be used to convert tables in ordinary HTML into scrollable ones. No additional coding is necessary.

Flexigrid ( Demo | Download )
Lightweight but rich data grid with resizable columns and a scrolling data to match the headers, plus an ability to connect to an XML based data source using Ajax to load the content.

JQTreeTable ( Demo | Download )
With this plugin you can have a treeview in your table, users still get the plain table even thought they disable Javascript.

Ingridd ( Demo | Download )
Datagrids don’t have to be difficult to use anymore – say Hi to Ingrid! Ingrid is an unobtrusive jQuery component that adds datagrid behaviors (column resizing, paging, sorting, row and column styling, and more) to your tables.

jQuery ColumnManager plugin ( Demo | Download )
A jQuery-plugin that toggles the visibility of table columns as well as supports the tables with colspans and rowspans.

FireScope Grid ( Demo | Download )
FireScope Grid is an open source (GNU Public License, v2) jQuery component that adds datagrid behaviors to your HTML tables, regardless of the server-side technology being used. Included in the plugin is a navigation bar that is automatically appended at the beginning or end of a table that enables users to page through results, filter results by any column or sorted on the fly without need to refresh the entire page.

jqGrid ( Demo | Download )
jqGrid is an Ajax-enabled JavaScript control that provides solutions for representing and manipulating tabular data on the web. Since the grid is a client-side solution loading data dynamically through Ajax callbacks, it can be integrated with any server-side technology, including PHP, ASP, Java Servlets, JSP, ColdFusion, and Perl.

TableFilter ( Demo | Download )

TinySort ( Demo | Download )
TinySort will sort any nodetype by it’s text- or attribute value, or by that of one of its children.

Table Drag and Drop JQuery plugin ( Demo | Download )
This TableDnD plugin allows the user to reorder rows within a table, for example if they represent an ordered list (tasks by priority for example). Individual rows can be marked as non-draggable and/or non-droppable (so other rows can’t be dropped onto them). Rows can have as many cells as necessary and the cells can contain form elements.

Fixed Header Tables ( Demo | Download )
a jQuery plugin by Mark Malek:

KeyTable ( Demo | Download )
KeyTable is a Javascript library which provides keyboard navigation and event binding for any HTML table. With KeyTable Excel style table navigation can be employed to provide features such as editing of a table without requiring a mouse. As a further bonus, KeyTable integrates seamlessly with DataTables.

TableEditor ( Demo | Download )
TableEditor provides flexible in place editing of HTML tables. User defined handler functions can easily be dropped in to, for example, update the data source via an AJAX request.

GraphTable ( Demo | Download )
The graphTable plugin lets you take a simple HTML table and turn the data in it into a graph using jQuery and flot.

jGridEditor ( Demo | Download )
This jQuery plugin allow you to add on-the-flight cell editing functionality in your table You may configure it to perform AJAX queries and returning changed content or error messages.

HTML Table to CSV ( Demo | Download )
This is a small JQuery utility which allows you to export any HTML table as CSV file. It’s a very handy tool to use specially during development of reporting projects. It is also useful when you have some 3rd party JQuery table search plugin attached to your table.

FLOATING HEADER PLUGIN ( Demo | Download )
A jQuery plugin that makes the header of a table floating if the original header isn’t visible due to scrolling. The plugin will automatically choose the thead tag as the header for a table. If thead isn’t found it will search for rows marked with the class ‘floating’. The behavior can be changed by the settings forceClass and markingClass.

kiketable.rowsizable ( Demo | Download )
This plugin, applied to a number of HTML tables, provides the behaviour of resizing their rows by clicking over a handler/ helper.

Animated table sort ( Demo | Download )
This plugin allows you to animatedly sort a table based on a column’s s, or on the content/value of a child/descendant element within those s. The various s fly to their new homes, giving a nice effect. It also supports sorting on REGEXP matches. You can also control whether row relationships are maintained, whether it sorts on ascii or numeric and ascending or descending.

READABLE TABLES ( Demo | Download )
A little plugin to highlight rows and columns on tables making them easier to use if you have large amounts of data… So something small for something large!

pfSelect – click drag select for huge datasets ( Demo | Download )
This lightweight select plugin allows you to select elements easily by click-drag select, shift select or ctrl select within a huge dataset and without any speed decrease. It adds a mouseover event to each specified element (by default elements with class “selectable”) and doesn’t calculate any marquee rectangle as the Jquery UI plugin does. Therefore it has no performance issues with hundreds of elements. Use this plugin if you have tons of elements and you need fluid interactivity.

Sortable Tables ( Demo | Download )
jQuery Accessible RIA, a collection of strictly WAI WCAG 2.0 and WAI ARIA conform web applications based on the popular Java-Script framework jQuery (using the UI Widget Factory).

jQuery Thead – Visible table headers ( Demo | Download )
The jQuery Thead plugin simplifies the navigation in tables that have lots of rows and require scrolling. It enforces the visibility of the table header and ensures that the column names are always accessible for the user.

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by Robert Bowen

Having recently published the Illustrator toolbox, we thought we would continue down the print design path and follow up with our next toolbox in this same arena. Welcome to the Ultimate InDesign Toolbox for all of those designers and graphic artists who use this valuable tool for all of their print media needs. This expansive addition to the Adobe Creative Suite family is often overlooked by many in the community, opting instead to use Illustrator alone in their forays into the print side of the game.

Hopefully, through this arsenal expanding expedition we can not only help those already addicted to this fantastic design tool, but perhaps open the door for some of those who have previously avoided it to give it a shot. Go ahead and start sifting through the various links that we have collected below to see which ones you can use to take your proverbial toolbox to the next level. Start loading up on some effective and essential resources, not to mention learning some new techniques that can increase your skill base!

Websites

As usual, the first stop along the way in this resource compilation are some of the best websites that you can turn to which have dedicated themselves to exploring this design tool. Some you might know, and others you might not, but either way they are a great place to start when you are seeking out InDesign related info and resources.

InDesign Secrets is a wonderful online resource, in and of itself, when it comes to learning the finer points of this dynamic design app. Specializing in all things in InDesign.

The InDesigner is an in-depth and informative blog from InDesign specialist Michael Murphy, that harnesses his expertise to help make this app more approachable.

Tim Cole’s InDesign BackChannel is a site dedicated to InDesign from one of Adobe’s own program specialists. Definitely a great place to turn for more insight into the app.

Instant InDesign is another dedicated site worth stopping by if you are looking to learn more about using InDesign to take on all of your print media needs.

InDesign Talk is a helpful e-mail discussion forum for any and all InDesign users where they can submit to share with and assist one another with this program.

InDesign Central is another site that you might want to have on your go-to list when you are looking for opening up all this design tool has to offer. Plenty of resources to beef up your arsenal.

InDesign User Group is an invaluable site for all of those users who are part of groups dedicated to Adobe’s InDesign that acts as an information hub for their members.

InDesign Magazine is an online based PDF publication that is all about Adobe InDesign. This useful electronic magazine is full of useful scripts, video tutorials, and more.

InDesign Docs is another site straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. From Bob Bringhurst, one of the lead writers for InDesign, comes a blog aimed at helping users get more from this tool.

Seneca Design and Training has a section of their site that is completely fixed and focused on gathering a large collection of some of the best InDesign resources that web has created and delivering them to you.

And we couldn’t leave out of this section without sending you to one last Adobe site, the InDesign Exchange. Another online community for users from the source.

Tutorials

Next up in the toolbox journey are the InDesign tutorials. From across the vast corners of cyberspace the design community has been filling this demand for insightful content that can take the finer points of this design tool and make them make sense in exciting and accessible ways. For a little bit of a skill builder and refresher course in the program, take a gander through the tuts we have gathered:

Layers Magazine InDesign Tutorials is one of the first places that most users turn to when they are looking for learning opportunities, so we thought we would do the same.

InDesign CS5 Video Tutorials is a list of tuts compiled by the Adobe team that break down this design tool for users to help them learn the app inside and out. Most of the tuts are based on earlier CS versions like 3 or 4, but still apply and work with CS5.

TutsBuzz InDesign Tutorials is a fantastic tutorial site with a dedicated ID section that can assist you on your quest to completely master this dynamo of a design tool.

Tutorial Roundup for Getting Started with InDesign is another awesome place to start when you are just getting going using this design application. If you are a beginner or looking for a refresher then head to Blog Spoon Graphics to fix that.

25 Great Adobe InDesign Guides & Tutorials is a wonderful post from The Web Squeeze that can help get you going on the right track for all of your InDesign needs. Definitely worth going through.

Step-by-Step Guide to Designing InDesign Templates from the knowledgable crew over at Peachpit is a fabulous resource for those looking to work on creating templates for your own and others benefit.

InDesign: Benefits of Using Layers is a basic video tutorial from Fast Cash Design that can help you better understand the ‘whys’ of creating your projects in InDesign with layers.

Quick Tip: Using Nested Styles with InDesign is an interesting little tut from the VectorTuts crew that can help you step up the styling of your text in all of your InDesign projects.

Design a Cool Outlaw Flyer with InDesign is another fantastic tutorial that helps take some of the complexity out of this tool and adeptly guides you through putting together a flyer.

Using InDesign to Create a Designer Resume is another awesome tut by the VectorTuts team that will help you install the style and pizazz that your resume may currently be lacking within its borders.

Creating rounded corner boxes easily with InDesign scripts is another useful tutorial for beginners from the dedicated folks over at The Graphic Mac website.

Create a Grid Based Resume/CV Layout in InDesign is another tutorial from over at Blog Spoon Graphics that can help you to create a custom layout that you can fill and use as you like.

Templates

When it comes to help from the online community, templates are a big way that the online masses have worked to make this application that much more approachable. Not to mention the time they can shave off of a project by setting you up with the exact layout that you needed without having to build them yourself from scratch. So scan through them to see if there are any that can fit nicely into your InDesign arsenal.

If you are looking for templates for ID then you should start by going to InDesign Template. This is a new site whose entire mission is one of offering the masses a place to source out time saving templates.

Design Freebies InDesign Templates is a section of this go-to freebie source website that will assist you in filling your arsenal with loads of useful template goodness.

HP Creative Studio InDesign Templates is a collection of useful print design frameworks from the printing specialists at Hewlett Packard. With pages of layouts for you to choose from, expect to be busy for a while.

Presentation Folder Templates is one of the many templates that you might find in the Design Freebies archives, however in case you missed it, we wanted to highlight this addition to their ID layout collection.

Grid System Templates is a section of InDesign frameworks from the The Grid System team that can step your arsenal of templates up a notch for all of your future print design projects.

Stock Layouts InDesign Templates is another site with a section completely dedicated to delivering the design community helpful free templates.

InDesign Templates for Chinese and Japanese Text is an awesome set of useful and uniquely geared templates from the crew at Trans Pacific Digital.

The Papermill Store Brochure Templates is another set of InDesign templates that you might find to be just the missing brochure pieces from your arsenal.

Speaking of brochures, Brochure and Menu Templates are another set that we wanted to highlight from the Design Freebies site archives just in case you overlooked them.

Brand Aid! Branding Templates is a select set of three free templates from the Inkd team that are specifically geared towards setting up your business branding needs from a range of approaches.

Newsprint Templates is the last entry in our template section, and is a unique set that stands apart from most of the others that we have featured here today.

Scripts and Plugins

Speaking of saving time and making the program more accessible, we come to the final section of the toolbox building experience the InDesign scripts and plugins. If you want to get that much more out of your ID experience then just take your time pouring through the handful of resources we have collected for you below and start adding to your arsenal.

Plugins World is an awesome place to turn when you are looking to score a plethora of InDesign plugins to fill your toolbox to the proverbial brim.

InDesign’s Hidden Scripts is a great source for all the scripty goodness that your ID arsenal can hold. Just head over to the C2 crew’s site and dive right in.

InDescripts, or the InDesign Scripting Playground, is a site that is tightly focused on the scripting practices and plugin developments for Adobe InDesign. Definitely a site worth bookmarking.

Speaking of scripty goodness, InDesign Snippets is another must visit site to load up on a number of invaluable ID shortcuts not to mention helpful insights.

InDesign Plugins from the Power Exchange has pages of plugins for you to sort that with dozens of useful additions for print designers working in ID.

Place Auto Synchronizer is a free InDesign plugin from Rorohiko Workflow Resources that will allow you to create a text or image frame that updates automatically.

InDesign CS4: 10 Free Must-Have Plug-ins is a fantastic post from the Lynda team that has collected exactly what the titles implies. Even if there is one on the list that you do not have already, it is worth the time to stop by and grab it.

That’s a Wrap!

That finishes up this edition of the Adobe toolbox building venture. We hope that you have found some useful additions to your InDesign arsenal, not to mention a few tutorials that will help you take on this tool and wield it with more grace and skill. So where do you turn to now when you are looking to get your InDesign resource fix?

Related Posts

• Getting To Grips With InDesign Part 6: Importing Images: this is one part in a series that can prove beneficial for those looking to learn more about ID.
• The Ultimate Round-Up of Print Design Tutorials: is a collection of tutorials that can help take your InDesign projects up a notch.

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by Prakash Ghodke

A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline as well as a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Many photographers use the technique of photographing people, objects or landscape elements against the light, to achieve an image in silhouette. In this post we’ve present some outstanding and high quality silhouette photographs to inspire you. Enjoy!

Silhouette Photography

Happiness

Cowgirl

Children of the Sun

Sweet September Sunset

Hanging

Sunset at Erg Chebbi

Silhoutte at Sea

Bike Silhouette

Dance Silhouette

Silhouette of Love

My Heart Will Go On

Sunset Buck

Sunset Fun

Jumping Silhouette

Sunset Love Silhouette

Luis and the Balloons

Single Exposure

First Row

Anberlin

Sandpiper

Pendiente de Luz

Enjoying the View

The Penultimate Sunset of 2007

Wave Digger

Power Silhouette

Running Silhouette

Silhouetted Sculler

Silhouette at Sunset

Silhouette Duett

Harp Silhouette

Cowboy & his Mount at Sunset

African Street Life

Archipelago

Ant Silhoutte

Hitchcock’s Sunset

Waiting

Fish Me the Sun

Horses on the Beach

Bikers

Taking Pictures at the Beach

Silhouette Seat

Bridge Silhouette

Walking with the Saints

Sunset

Afternoon Wright

The Mist of Time

Sunset Sea

Loch Shiel

Fear in the Tunnels II

Candlelight

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by Shay Howe

It happens. You finish what you believe to be a remarkable design, pack it up, and send it off to the client. You are entirely pleased with the job you have done. The client, however, is not happy. You dread seeing your inbox the next day. The client believes the design is lacking in some areas and could be improved.

You ask yourself “But how?” You’v spent days refining the design, seeking perfection by combing over every inch of it numerous times. To you, the design was flawless and complete. You are furious. How could someone who knows so little about design have the audacity to question you? Immediately, the project moves way down your priority list. Working on it is a drag. The day you complete it, you feel as though a thousand pounds have been lifted off your back. But it’s finally over… or so you believe.

Working with clients does not have to be a continual struggle. Consistently communicating with your clients and educating them throughout the project can make a world of difference. As a designer, there is more to your job than just sitting behind a computer screen and pushing pixels around.

Client Contributions Drive Successful Websites

Never take client contributions for granted. A client who hires you to design and develop their website and doesn’t say a word during the process is one who will let the website fall flat on its face the day you hand it over to them. Likewise, a client who is passionate about their website and continually providing input is one who is sure to take care of the website long after your job is done.

Before starting a project, inspire the client to provide you with as much quality feedback as possible. Getting a new e-mail every 10 minutes is extremely irritating, so before the client goes overboard, instruct them on how to send you feedback. Let the client know that combining all of their comments and concerns into one detailed email is much easier to comprehend than 100 short emails.

Outline the Client’s Participation

Some clients, while providing great feedback, may not know or understand what else is required of them during the project. If you do not provide guidelines or expectations about their involvement, they will assume that you have it all covered. Chances are, if the project is under way for a month and then you spring an assignment on the client, they will get frustrated. The project may have to be put on hold until the client gets around to their task, and as a result the project may not meet its deadline.

Outline for the client is exactly what is required of them during and after the project. Let them know that they need to determine the overall objective of the website and that they are in charge of seeing that this objective is met over the website’s lifespan. If they are providing the content for the website, let them know when the content is needed and that it is their job to keep the content regularly updated. Providing you with feedback is a good start, but the client’s participation does not end there.

Keep the Client Involved

Nothing gets under one’s skin faster than a client constantly asking for progress updates. The fact of the matter is that you are being paid to complete a job, and the client has a right to know how things are coming along, and their responsibility is to ensure that you are doing what you’re being paid to do. Before a client even has a chance to ask, provide them with some answers: create a project schedule that specifically outlines the dates when you expect to complete certain parts of the project. Also include in the schedule the dates when you will need things from the client—copywriting, for example—to avoid any roadblocks.

Do not wait until the specified dates to communicate with the client; keep them involved throughout the whole process. When putting together a layout and design, send an e-mail periodically to let them know how things are going, and attach a progress report as well. Getting all of their input at the beginning (as we mentioned earlier) will save you from headaches later on. The client will be happy to see the project progressing and will not keep bothering you.

Prove to the Client that You Know Your Stuff

When you are being paid to do a job, the client wants to know that they are getting their money’s worth, and they are quick to size you up. The minute they feel they are not getting their money’s worth, they will take matters into their own hands and start bossing you around. It starts with a simple fix here or there, but before long the client is taking over the entire project, leaving you to wonder why you were even hired in the first place.

Prove to the client that you are indeed an expert and know what you are doing. If a client second-guesses one of your decisions, talk it over with them professionally and work out a suitable compromise rather than blindly following their request. As the designer, you need to advocate for the user’s best interest. Do not let a client overrule you on an issue without apparent reason, especially if it could disrupt the user’s experience. Explain to them how and why you have made your decisions. Show them that you are, in fact, a professional and well worth your cost.

Work with the Client, Not Against

Naturally, a client will have questions about their website. When a client asks a question, do your best to thoroughly answer it in terms that they will understand, and support your answers. Do not take on the attitude that the client has asked a ridiculous question, and avoid industry terms that the client might not understand. Remember that no matter how frustrated you are, the client is only trying to help and ultimately just wants the best possible website.

Sometimes, clients just have difficulty comprehending what you are trying to explain. In such a situation, it wouldn’t hurt to provide them with some examples, case studies or performance metrics to support your answer. You could spin your wheels for days trying to explain something verbally to a client when a simple example would have accomplished the same task in minutes.

Build an Open Relationship

A client should never be afraid to approach you, nor should they feel the need to take matters into their own hands. Typically, when they do take over, the project suffers because the client will be making decisions without your involvement. For example, when clients request that additional form fields be added, they usually have an ulterior motive. Do your best to discover this motive and address their true concern, because there may be a better and more logical solution than that.

An open relationship with the client invites them to come to you with any questions or concerns and fosters a working relationship that combines their knowledge with your design and development expertise. Conversations with the client should go both ways and should neither force nor allow them to make an inadequate decision.

Emphasize on the Value of the Website

The client needs to understand that the value of a website is not in flashy design or pretty pictures, but rather in content and substance. As the designer, you may have to lay the website out for the client in as straightforward manner as much as possible. No one visits a website to admire the layout and design. Users visit websites for their content.

Drive this point home with the client. The sooner they understand the value of the content, the sooner they will begin to focus on the message of the website and not shrug it off. It may even be in the client’s best interest to hire a skilled copywriter. After all, they are hiring you to build a professional website, so why fall short with the content?

Explain How to Maintain and Improve the Website

One of the biggest problems with websites is that they are rarely updated after being launched. They can then become outdated quickly and fall short of expectations. Of course, when a website tanks, the client sees this as being your fault and pins the blame on you.

Explain to the client that every website needs regular updating and that these updates need to continue over its lifespan. When these updates become irregular or stop entirely, the website becomes stagnant and its value decreases. Convince the client to take pride in their website by continually updating it, directing traffic towards it, connecting with visitors and generally putting in the effort needed to make it last.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Above all else, you must communicate with the client on a regular basis. Communication is the backbone of every successful client relationship and enables each party to openly express questions, concerns and ideas. Without regular communication, projects are often led astray, deadlines are missed and relationships gradually deteriorate.

Speak to clients and keep them involved. Keep them regularly informed of the project’s progress and of any changes happening. Communicate clearly: explain how and why you made each of your decisions. You could also teach the client how to perform ongoing maintenance once the project is completed. Communication can be difficult, but the time put into it can easily make the difference between a thriving website and a desolate one.

Further articles:

• How To Explain To Clients That They Are Wrong
• How Many Ideas Do You Show Your Clients?
• Is John The Client Dense or Are You Failing Him?
• How To Respond Effectively To Design Criticism

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