My good friend Howard has been a carpenter for 35 years and I recently hired him to rebuild our deck. It’s not often that I’m on the receiving end of the creative process, and I’ve learned so much from this experience.
Inspire your client.
For all there is to know about carpentry, I don’t know much. I have ideas about what’s important: “measure twice, cut once” for example. I am familiar with the tools involved: wood, nails, hammers, saws. I’ve even had a little experience myself building a Blue Bird house for my dad last Christmas. But building a deck, even knowing where to start, is beyond me.
When Howard encouraged me to create sketches, I didn’t know enough about decks or carpentry to even know what was possible. I went to Google to search for pictures of decks and I stumbled across an article that said the most beautiful decks are the ones that are an organic extension of a house. For me, that’s when inspiration struck. My house is the treehaus, my deck needs to be the deck of a treehouse.
From a client stand point, I need to provide my clients with information that inspires them. They don’t need to bury themselves in material that explains IA or UX and why it’s important, they need stories of what success is on the web (caveat: for sites like their own)… and when and why websites aren’t successful.
Give your client the freedom to create.
So what does the deck of a treehouse look like? In my mind there are trees, and rope, and ladders and bridges. I started to sketch these things on graph paper and when Howard came to discuss them, I was full of ideas.
Considering a scenario where a client comes to me inspired with their own IA and layouts seems like the recipe for a nightmare project. My first thought is that I’ll have to talk them down off the cliff of ill-informed organization and design. But Howard sat confidently at my kitchen table and listened to all my ideas. He had me explain things that he didn’t understand and he contributed ideas as he thought of them.
As a client, I didn’t expect him to build exactly what I sketched. I wanted him to take my ideas and use his expertise to improve and build upon them.
Escape flatland, somehow.
My favorite thing about the new deck is a 15′ rope suspension bridge that extends from the deck to a fire pit in the woods. The fire pit end of the bridge is secured by two cedar trees that have been cut and concreted into the ground.
Coming home after the first day of construction, those posts were already up because the concrete holding them needed to set before anything else could be done. As a client, seeing the transformation of an inspired idea evolve from sketch to reality (in the form of cedar tree and concrete) was beautifully cathartic and fulfilling.
For my clients, I should aim to give life to the site or application in a way that let’s them experience the maturity of their idea.
Establish trust.
This whole process has been exceptional because I trust Howard to do the job well. I trusted him before he rebuilt my deck because the work I’ve seen of his is remarkable and his company has an excellent reputation. But I trust him even more now because he handled my project with respect and confidence and wisdom.
With my own clients, my reputation and portfolio will precede me, but my composure and attitude during the project will be what follows me. I should make it a priority to instill trust into my clients by listening to their ideas and when appropriate, contributing wisdom in a gentle, but confident way.