I made a lot of progress on the website redesign I’m currently doing. Except for a couple of minor items, I’ll be waiting on my client for items they need to do and any feedback they have. At some point I’ll probably need to gently prod them along.
This project started with some very specific requests regarding and and layout and content. The ideas were good though not all practical for a website. While I don’t consider myself primarily a designer, I recognize that different media have different design languages so to speak. What works in a novel doesn’t necessarily work in a film. What works in a brochure or book doesn’t necessarily work on a web page.
More specifically, it takes some experience to understand what works and doesn’t work on a web page. I was apprehensive at first about this, because some of the specific requests for this site weren’t that well suited to web design. At least on the surface they appeared that way.
A better way to look at specific requests from clients is the intention. Client wants to end up somewhere and here is the best way they can express that. My job is to translate that intention, sometimes somewhat loosely, to the finished result. Sometimes it may require making something that ends up looking wrong to demonstrate the need for a different intent. However, much more often, by interpreting the intention and turning it into something real, the client will see it and say “yes, that is what I meant”.
I see this compared with someone who might try and implement every request of the customer as is. Ultimately this doesn’t result in what the customer really wants. The more I remember all of this, the more fun things become.
I didn’t walk up and down a bunch of stairs today so I feel pretty good.