Great Custom Homes For Sale
We web designers/developers like to use analogies for our work. We also tend to choose whichever analogy serves us at any given moment.
One of the most common analogies I hear is a comparison between designing websites and building custom homes. Both involve architecture. Both rely on best practices to end up with a good product. And both cost a lot more than buying a pre-fab version.
But I don't hear many web designers bringing up the custom home analogy when clients start asking for changes to the look and feel of the designs presented to them. Instead, the analogy changes to something like, "When a mechanic tells you that you need a new engine gasket, do you tell him to change your tires instead? When your doctor tells you you need penicillin to cure your condition, do you instead demand a Ritalin prescription?"
Why do they switch analogies? Because we all know the answer to, "Would you tell your home architect that you want the kitchen design to be bigger? Would you ask her to move the laundry room to the second floor? Would you ask him to change the way the entrance flows?" Of course they would - it happens every day and for good reason!
This analogy-swap sounds like a self-serving tactic, but what these designers should really do is stick to their guns. The custom home analogy is good because it works consistently. But, there is a fundamental difference between a custom home and a custom website: the audience. Dictating the design of a home in which you (and only you "the family") must live is perfectly reasonable. Dictating the design/functionality/architecture of a website that is built to serve thousands of people not including yourself, however, goes against the policy of user-centricity.
If you're in the business of deploying websites that make your clients successful, defend yourself and your designs (better yet, back up your theories through some real-world A/B testing). If your clients can't get past their own personal desires, terminate the project and sell them Photoshop training instead.
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