Sharing what helped me get many clients for my UX

[Meir]

Hi guys,
As you and everyone pretty much in the forum, I thought at first that design is about the looks

After working with many clients at the beginning, and failing, and trying new things, and finally succeeding in landing clients. I learnt a priceless lesson that I gonna share with you now

See, most of these clients that you are working with,
are in fact not people like us - designers
its not that a designer hires you,
It’s usually Business owners and marketing agency that look for your design.
And the thing is… they dont understand anything about design, they cant see the brilliance of your work and they dont care about the beauty and about your design at all.
All these guys care about conversions, and sales.
The more they believe your design can help them get more sales, the more they will be willing to invest in you, and pay you big amounts.

Once I stopped focusing on the design aspect, and started focusing on my client’s needs and their numbers and their sales, they started taking me seriously and want to work with me.
And how did I do that?
While most designers rush to do the work and design things and prepare portfolios and mockups and all that, I did market research, I have checked top performing websites in the industry of my client. And studied them and then came up with a design idea to my client, and I showed him

So instead of doing what everyone else is doing and going to dribble to see the design there (I know that its attractive and very addictive too I tryna stop doing that too lol) go figure out whats really working, figure out which websites drive the most traffic (if they manage to drive a lot of traffic, probably they optimize every little thing and have the best design) which websites have the most users and visitors and sales if you can check.
After you have this idea go show it to your client, show him that the concept of the cart page for example that you want to design is actually working for a very succesful competitor in his industry, cuz remember these people cant understand design, but they can understand numbers. And the only way they can trust you and work with you is if you show them some numbers.
Hope that helped

[Just-B]

I generally agree with you that most designers are concerned with aesthetics and novel solutions at the expense of solving the more practical aspects of design problems. I’m unsure why, but I think much of it originates from schools that teach design as art and from designers themselves, whose interest in art led them into the field.

I also agree that it’s critically important to listen to clients and engage them in conversations to understand their problems, motivations, and what they’re hoping to achieve. I’ll even go one step further to say that it’s important to get beneath what clients say to determine what they really need.

However, your portrayal of clients as people who make decisions on practical matters, like sales and performance, fails to consider that clients are often irrational. Many times, they’re locked into their own personal aesthetic visions and tastes. Quite often, their stubbornness leaves them closed to new ideas. All too often, they consider themselves to be the brains and designers to be their hands.

Many clients trust their gut instincts more than research and statistics. Given a choice between options, they’ll make the wrong decision for the wrong reasons about half the time. They’ll hesitate, backtrack, change their minds, and, despite solid, reasoned, and well-articulated recommendations from us, they’ll make counterproductive decisions and throw needless obstacles in the path of getting things done.

Not all clients are like this, of course. Through several decades of being in this business, my best guess is that around 80 percent of clients will make at least one illogical decision on every design project — a decision that runs counter to their stated goals.

Once again, I agree that many designers approach their work as art projects. However, that’s a mistake typically made by new and recently graduated designers. Once in the business, it soon becomes apparent that other considerations weigh in on a successful outcome.

Establishing a partnership with clients to understand their problems and goals is important. It’s equally important to remember that one’s partner in that relationship isn’t necessarily a rational actor.