How To Give Honest Feedback Without Frustrating Your Web Designer

Winston Churchill once said that “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”. Therefore, it is possible that in the process of working with your Jacksonville web designer, you’ll find some things they do unsatisfactory or completely tangential to what you have in mind. When that happens, what do you do? Tear them a fresh one, eviscerate them and their practice or simply give them some honest feedback about the quality of their work? The smart thing to do would obviously be the latter.

Yes, it’s true that many web designers don’t welcome criticisms –by the way, who does?- but it is your money and you deserve the best results. The good thing is when the feedback is done right, you’ll be able to work together to achieve and even surpass your desired web design goals. So, how do you offer concrete feedback?

Professionalism Matters

The first thing you need to realize, as a client, is that you need to be professional. This typically means you need to be restrained, calm and controlled. Sure, you hired the web designer to design your new website or overhaul. But that doesn’t mean they will get it right the first time. The truth is as with all things creative, you may need to try out different options to get the best results. So, shouting and screaming over the phone won’t do you both any good. After all you had your reasons for hiring the designer. Instead, if you’re not satisfied, tell them and let them know why; which leads us to the next tip.

Be Specific

For a web designer, there is nothing more frustrating than when the client says things like “I don’t like it”, “it’s all wrong”, “I can’t accept this”, “you need to do everything all over again” or “I’m not impressed”. Statements like that aren’t helpful at all. Here’s what you should do instead: tell them the things you liked about the design. Most clients often have no idea why they don’t like a design. So, pointing out what you liked automatically shows the designer the things you don’t because you’ll probably leave those out.

Ask What Can be Done to Fix the Problem

Your web designer is no genie. However, he/she is probably very good at designing websites. So, once you’ve had your say, find out what you can do to get the problem fixed. Most times, your web designer will probably absolve you of any responsibilities and tell you that they’ll go over it again and fix the parts that you don’t like. And if you have a personal distaste for anything on the website, tell the web designer and ask why he/she included it. For instance, web designers with copywriting experience may italicize the titles or choose a certain color for the background as against others. So, ask them why and hear them out. If an element you personally dislike helps improve your conversion rate by 10%, you may want to forgo the personal taste for better results.