This past week I had a chance to speak at the Front-End Design Conference down in steamy St. Petersburg Florida. I had a great weekend that included meeting tons of awesome people, lots of tasty drinks, salsa dancing and plenty of air-conditioning.

My talk was titled “Design is in the Details” and it went pretty well even though I was nervous. I made sure to include lots of good design guidelines in my talk as well as jokes and lots of plaid references. You can take a look at my slides below. Not sure if anyone got a video or audio recording of the talk.

Also just wanted to say a quick thanks to everyone that helped put the conference together, the speakers and all the attendees! You guys are AWESOME!

I’m sure we have all had experiences with P.I.T.A. clients before. These types of clients require lots of meetings, phone calls, emails, special attention and hand holding. If you aren’t prepared for the time commitment, these clients can blow through the alloted hours in a design budget faster than I can down a Red Bull. I’ve had some interesting experiences with these types of clients and have some tips and suggestions that will make the client designer relationship much smoother.

1. Explain your work process

Often times P.I.T.A. clients have never worked with designers. They are likely to be unfamiliar with the typical design workflow. Take the time to write out your work process and explain what happens when, so nothing comes out of the blue. This also helps preempt the millions of questions that are surely going to be flung at you at some point.

2. Set and Assign Project Milestones

Along with explaining your work process – its good to have project ‘milestones’. This way the client has some expectation of what will happen when, and who is responsible for it. These dates do not have to be set in stone. Having a plan for when things are going to happen is a good idea and reassures the client. Also assign responsibility for milestones so it is clear who is responsible for what.

Side-note: I use Basecamp for project management and setting project milestones are a great way to represent these deadlines visually.

Added bonus: Basecamp emails the person responsible for said milestones 48 hours before they are due. Just a handy little tool to nudge your client into getting that elusive web copy finished!

Common milestones (and responsibility) for my web design projects are:

• Client survey – client
• Initial call – designer
• Site-mapping & wireframing – designer
• Content creation – client/copywriter
• First Round Design – designer
• Initial Design Feedback – client
• Endless Rounds of Revisions – designer
• Coding – designer
• Testing – designer
• Soft Launch – designer
• Post Launch bug reporting/fixing – client & designer

3. Add Additional Hours to Your Budget

Time spent in meetings, talking on the phone and writing emails is time working on a project and should be billed for accordingly. I usually budget a certain amount of hours in a project to account for this. However, P.I.T.A. clients require more personal attention, more explanation and face to face meeting time.

Include these hours in your initial project estimate and be honest about what they are for. Explain to the client that these hours will only be billed for if the time is used. This lets the client know that your time is important and they are less likely to take advantage of it knowing that they are paying for it. Now this isn’t to say that you need to bill for every second talking to the client – I usually let small things slide, but I try to bill for planned meetings, conference calls etc.

4. Explain Technical Details in Writing

Often times clients are much less technical than designers and developers and thus have a hard time understanding the jargon we throw around. Its always a good idea to explain any technical details in writing. This can be an excellent reference for the client after your initial discussion. This should also prevent having to explain things over and over again because you can simply reference your written documentation.

5. Remember to Breathe

Dealing with P.I.T.A. clients can be REALLY frustrating at times. Its always good to step back from time to time and take a deep breath and take a break from the project. The same goes for the client. Sometimes postponing things for a day or two can help you perspective and clarity on a project.

6. Last Resort: Fire The Client

If things get REALLY bad there’s always the option of ending the project early and severing the client/designer business relationship.

This comes at a price. The client will probably want a part or all of their deposit back (depending on how much of the work has been done). It’s always good to be honest with clients when doing this. Let them know this isn’t working out, the project is requiring more hours than you have available or budgeted for, or the business relationship isn’t working. Nothing personal – wish them the best and recommend them to another designer or developer. Try to end things on a good note and avoid burning bridges.

*P.I.T.A. stands for pain in the ass. Don’t get me wrong – designers need clients and clients need designers. I respect all my clients, but sometimes you just have to have a funny term for annoying clients

How do you deal with P.I.T.A. clients?

Share your tips, suggestions, and/or horror stories in the comments or follow me on twitter and discuss!

I recently participated in Meredith Marsh’s Business card exchange and received a CRAPTON (yes thats a scientific value) of cards. I’ve picked out the cards that caught my attention and talk about the design traits that make them stand out from the crowd.

How Does Your Business Card Measure Up?

What did you do to make your business card stand out and have some impact? Post a link to your design and let me know what you did and why you did it.

Design from different perspectives is a series of short video interviews detailing the different kinds of jobs and environments that are available to designers and the pros and cons of each situation. In this video I chat with interview Chad Engle about his experiences working as a designer at an advertising agency. Stay tuned and grab the RSS feed for more interviews with other freelancers, creative directors, in house designers & more!

More About Chad

Twitter: Chadengle
Website: thechadengle.com

I am a designer & creative consultant. I work on projects large and small. I am also the editor for Fuel Your Creativity.

I created a little thing called Design Community Twitter Hours which, would not be possible without several people. I spend most of my time designing and creating. I try to find interesting and creative things on the web as well as apps that are well designed and fun to use.

What do YOU think?

Do you work at an advertising agency? Wish you could? Want to be interviewed? Feel free to chime! I’d love to hear your take on some of the same questions I asked Chad!

Check out the other videos in this series

Design From Different Perspectives Part 1: Kevin M. Scarbrough – Freelance Designer

Design From Different Perspectives Part 2 – Stephen Olmstead – In House Designer

Design from different perspectives is a series of short video interviews detailing the different kinds of jobs and environments that are available to designers and the pros and cons of each situation. In this video interview Kevin from Robot Monster Ghost shares his experiences on the the good, the bad an the ugly of freelancing and running a small studio. Stay tuned and grab the RSS feed for more interviews with other freelancers, creative directors, in house designers & more!

A bit more about Kevin…

Twitter: @RMGco
Website:RobotMonsterGhost.com

Kevin’s Scarbrough in 2 paragraphs or less:

I’ve designed for a steady diet of unusual clients (a fashion designer in Italy, a Bolivian wine bar, a New Zealand boat manufacturer, a Russian hosting company, etc.). I’ve learned project management the hard/best way.

I’ve hiked to the bottom of the grand canyon, I briefly owned a snarky t-shirt company based on mad science, I helped set up a rave to raise money for Unicef, as a kid I used to try to improve ads on the radio and TV, and on vacation I make up wild stories about who I am.

What do YOU think?

Do you freelance full time or run a small design studio? Wish you could? Want to be interviewed? Feel free to chime! I’d love to hear your take on some of the same questions I asked Kevin!

Check out the other videos in this series

Design From Different Perspectives Part 1: Kevin M. Scarbrough – Freelance Designer

Design From Different Perspectives Part 2 – Stephen Olmstead – In House Designer

Design From Different Perspectives Part 3 – Chad Engle – Agency Designer

Nick Snyder recently sent me an email with a question he’s been dealing with at his full time job. “Is it ok to show and code unused designs in your portfolio” I thought answering the question here in order to shed some light on this frustrating topic and hopefully help others out as well.

Niki,

Thanks for your time and keep up the sweet tweets
—Nick Snyder

Hey Nick –

Thanks for emailing me and asking. I’ve definitely been in your situation before and understand the frustration of dealing with designs that veer away from your original intended design (thats a huge topic to address in itself!). The first thing I would do is ask your employer about showing work in your portfolio. You have every right to show the work you’ve done, but its always nice to give them a heads up and credit where the work was created. I would even bring up showing the first round designs. If they are ok with it you are in the clear and everyone is happy. If they aren’t ok with it you could just show them during an in person interview – or on a special portfolio page that isnt public.

I would also say that showing the first design and then showing the coded result isnt a bad thing. I’ve seen situations where a designer shows their intended design but then notes that the live site has been altered by the client or they host their coded version of the site. Again I would ask/inform your employer of what you want to do just to be in the clear. Most design agencies or even those that work with designers understand that things change and clients don’t always give the best design direction.

I hope that answered your question Nick – thanks again for asking!

Do you show unused designs in your portfolio?

What would you do in Nicks situation? Have you been in this situation yourself? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Also – if you have a design question you want answered feel free to shoot me an email and ask away!

Photo Credit Pak Gwei

Just a quick question and challenge for you guys – Are you pushing yourself to learn? I have felt kinda blah these last few month in terms of my motivation and creativity as a designer and developer. I think this was because I wasn’t pushing myself to learn new things. So I just recently decided to learn how to build sites in ExpresisonEngine and give myself a geek-ee challenge. It’s been frustrating and fun at the same time but I can say for the first time in a while I’m actually EXCITED about learning something and im actually doing something! (instead of putting things off).

So I’d like to challenge you guys to push yourself and learn new things! Leave a comment and let me know what you are challenging yourself with!

The design community is a two headed beast. You have the online design world that is filled with lots of prolific designers, writers, and twitterers. On the other side you have the offline design world filled with lots of events, meetups, conferences and tweetups.  As a web designer who primarily works online I find it extremely easy to exist solely in the online design community and neglect the offline community. This can lead to burnout when work and play, as well as socializing take place online. I’ve found that often times the solution to this burnout is human contact. (remember humans… those people behind the twitter names and avatars?)

But I’m Shy!!!

I moved to Boston just about two years ago. After a few weeks of job searching I was hired at a small design firm and ramped up my freelancing career. This life situation wasn’t exactly conducive to making friends or living a balanced life… I knew I needed to get out of my comfort zone and go out and meet people.

I’ll admit that I’m not the most social person in the world, or even the most outgoing for that matter. In fact I’m really geeky (well what web designer isn’t…) and kind of shy at times. I’m slowly realizing that no matter how great the online design community is – it’s no substitute for face to face contact with REAL HUMAN beings…

Taking Action!

I’ been attempting to attend more local events and meet more people – even if I’m terrified to do so.  Ive recently been attending some local design and development meetups. So far I’ve managed to make it out to a few AIGA Boston events, Refresh Boston, Build Guild Salem as well as BostonEErs. I just want to encourage everyone who reads this to get out and get involved in your local design community – you never know who you will meet and how you can learn from them! I’ve meet some incredibly cool people at these events including @unruthless, @mkivikoski,  @jasonrobb,  @inkpixelspaper as well as others.

I’m looking forward to attending more web/design events and meet ups and continue to make new friends. If you are in the Boston/new england area and we haven’t met in real life connect with me on twitter @nikibrown or shoot me an email hi at nikibrown dot com and say Hi – I’m game for making new friends and more nerdy webby learning!

Resources In Your Area

AIGA http://aiga.org/

American Institute of Graphic Artists – AIGA has lots of local chapters around the country and most likely in your neck of the woods. This group focuses mostly on graphic designers and is (at least in my experience) heavy on print designers.

MeetUp.com http://www.meetup.com/

Meetup.com is a site that lets individuals organize and host group activities – this isnt focused solely on design, but everything from knitting to cooking to web design! Do a quick search for design or development in your town and get involved!

Build Guild http://buildguild.org

Not sure how many build guilds exist outside of the Salem, MA area – but if you are around the New england/north shore area you should check this event out. Its held at a bar in Salem and filled with lots of good geek talk and beer!

Refresh (insert your city name here)

http://refreshingcities.org/
Refresh is a community of designers and developers working to refresh the creative, technical, & professional culture of New Media endeavors in the Boston area while promoting design, technology, usability, and standards.

Also consider starting an event in your area if there aren’t any!

Your Thoughts

Leave a comment and let me know what offline design events you attend or recommend others check out! Huzzah!

So I contradicted myself… I said I wasnt going to do it but i did. I promptly went out to the Apple store (just down the street from where I work) and bought an iPad. It was an impulse buy. I had been working on a website about an iPad app all week and i just wanted one. Its shiny, pretty and everyone wants one. I thought i would bask in its newness for a bit and then pass it on to my mom – afterall I’m a power user and this thing isnt that powerful… right?

All Play And NO Work!

Well turns out I was wrong. I make the internets all day. I sit in front of a iMac or a Macbook Pro and type away like a good little code monkey. I check twitter and I read blogs posts from time to time – but sitting at a desk and staring at a screen gets old. Sometimes when I get home from work I want to relax and read blogs, but its just not comfortable to sit at a desk and read. I’m also the wierdo that hates using my laptop anywhere but at my desk.

This is where the iPad comes in. Its relaxing to sit there on the couch and surf. Ive noticed in the past week that I actually started reading blogs again (sorry internets for ignoring you for a while) I had been so busy that I stop using the internet for leisure time, for fun. Everything was work work work and the iPad magically changed all that… ok so maybe it isnt magic – but its pretty freaking awesome. The iPad has literaly made the internet fun for me. My RSS feeds arent overwhelming because im not sitting at my desk – Im on my couch with a beer surfing! (the digital version of Homer Simpson).

The Internets…In My Hands!!!

Another interesting tidbit is that when surfing on the iPad for any extended period of time – I stop noticing that I’m actually holding it. I also noticed this while getting really into a few games. Its like the device disappears and i just have the internet in my hands – I know that sounds strange. But I believe that good design – I mean REALLY good design goes unnoticed (well except by the geeky designers out there). Things just work.

So call me a waffler, Apple fanboy, or anything else – but I have to say that I love the iPad and i’m looking forward to all the crazy and amazing things the app developers come out with.

But I probably won’t get one just yet… But I AM extremely excited about what this means for the magazine and publishing industry. There’s so much potential with this device to extend and transform the way we consume media. I’m not even sure we know how people will be using the iPad in 6 months time from now. It’s all up to the app developers!

I almost feel like I’ve has first hand access to what this will look like all week…sorta.  I’ve been working on an iPad app site for Men’s Health  Magazine for the past few days at Brunello, Photoshoping screenshots into iPad photos, sprinkling jQuery here and there and getting the site ready for todays launch. So go check it out while you are at it: http://menshealth.com/ipad.

Now I’m curious what you think of the iPad - regardless of if you will buy it or not. What impact do you think it will have on the publishing industry? On computers in general? On your media consuming habbits (if you are buying one). Leave a comment and let me know what you think.