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Top 5 annoying Buzzwords Clients Give You When Designing Their New Website

Clients are wonderful. Speaking to a self-employed client is even better. The reason I love speaking to small businesses & self employed clients is because they are so passionate about their company. They want their company to be perceived by potential customers as being the most honest and trustworthy company out there. The best of the best!. However, these types of clients have a downside. They are so passionate about their new website that they fire off buzzwords that they simply have no understanding as to how hard it is going to achieve that look for their brand/company. Confused? So am I most of the time.

Let’s take a made up client called Bob’s Electrical Engineers. His core business is small electrical installations and repairs. He has a client list of around 200 customers and those customers range from residential customers to small businesses with a maximum of 5-10 employees. The aim of his new website is to attract new business and broaden his customer reach. He’s thinking about expanding the business and he thinks a new website will help him immensely. He has no budget for marketing and can only spend about £700 on a new website. That’s all fair-game in my opinion, it’s what I help do in my current role of a Website Designer day in and day out. After finding all this out it’s now my turn to ask him the dreaded question: What do you want your new website to look like?

Remember, Bob’s Electrical Engineers isn’t really in a glamorous industry. You think small time electrical company and you think boiler suit covered in dirt, carrying a toolbox and ready to rip you off! This is where the mentality of a designer kicks in and you have to make it look good. However, this is also around the same time where I start tearing my hair out. The client opens his mouth and buzzwords fly out left right and centre. You ask them to elaborate on them and in most instances they really can’t explain what they mean by them.

These buzzwords have become so much of a parody of themselves that I have decided to list my top 5 all time favourites, despite me saying that these types of lists annoy me. (Cue the Bullseye music….)

Iiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnn:

1. Fresh

This one annoys me so much! My interpretation is that they want a design that hasn’t really been seen before and is at the cutting edge. How you can achieve this for a small business working with homeowners I have no idea. What they normally mean is they want it to be clean and simple.

2. Funky

Nearly every client hit’s me with this one. I honestly have no idea what they mean by it. Do they want it to be a bit different; do they want their site to appeal to “the kids”? God knows! If you were dealing with a sport manufacturer or a skate board company or a game development company then you could perhaps make their website a bit funky. However Bob’s Electrical Engineers just isn’t that!

3. Sexy

One word that I normally don’t associate with a client’s brand most of the time is sexy. If you think electrical repairs, you most certainly don’t think sexy! Look around the room you are in now and look at the electrical items around you, perhaps a desk fan or a radio. Does it look sexy to you?

What do they expect a designer to do? Go out and take a photo of a wall socket or a light switch and have sexy lingerie hanging from it or a semi naked women (or man) draped across the bonnet of their van? Apart from making their company image appear to be a sleazy/sexist one, or god forbid a sexual innuendo, then I have no idea myself.

4. Professional

I love this one. I really do. Do they honestly think a designer would give them a design that makes them look like a bunch of clown’s who couldn’t breathe in and out without hurting themselves? Of course it’s going to look professional.

5. Modern

This one always has me in raptures. In Bob’s Electrical Engineers case, it’s a small business that is repairing electrical equipment and most often than not has a logo that is in a serif font (normally Times New Roman) and won’t/can’t pay for a re-branding. Most typographers and print designers will tell you out right that serif font’s portray an older image; something classical or cultural. Modern is something that these types of fonts don’t portray.

This is where a designer has to come good and make that work to the best of their abilities.

Having worked in this industry for over 6 years you get used to these kinds of situations. Normally you hit the nail on the head no problem. There are occasions where you draw so much of a blank you miss the mark as well. This is where you need to work with your client and work in the same direction with them, and guide them in the direction you want them to go in; the direction of a professional, honest company that they simply want to portray. Ignore the buzzwords cause they normally don’t mean anything, and most the time the client can’t even tell you what they mean by them!