One thing I’ve experienced as the lead sales person and president here at GTI is the never-ending subjectivity of individual tastes when it comes to designing a website or print collateral.  Several times in our design review process, clients tend to focus on one aspect of a design that they do not like and for no specific empirical reason other than “I really don’t like that.”  At times, they will also focus on something that just looks “cool” to them, but has no true impact on the overall user experience.

I agree that one persons’ specific tastes matter because they are the client, after all.  We always provide the client reasons for why we do what we do, the majority of the time being based on industry best practices.  Even then, at times our consulting advice just does not work and we end up moving forward with what the client wants.  The hardest part is about six months post launch, the client comes back questioning why their website is not performing to their expectation.

This is not always a standard at our company, but at times it does happen.  We always do our best in applying usability best practices, coupled with aesthetically pleasing functionality to combine for a very successful web project.  Our focus is always ensuring that our clients needs are met from a marketing, messaging and branding perspective.

Just remember that sometimes, when a client thinks something looks cool, or they want a design to be very specific, then it’s up to us as the professionals to guide them through the process, explaining the compromises they are making in order to have something that is cool, or they think looks good.  Subjectivity can get in the way of success at the most inopportune moments!