In this situation, it was not that the changes they wanted weren’t aesthetic enough for my portfolio. It was that they hired me to help them get their retail business going online, and as a successful online retailer since 1998, in my opinion what they wanted was going to work against them.

I think my responsibility was to try to convey that, as gently as possible. I want my clients to be successful.

As I hold their hands, answer their redundant and often elementary ideas, I find that once they trust my judgement, then I can guide them back to a better design or add tools they really need but may not want. The bottom line is that from the outset we have a scope of a job and budget established. In the agreement, I carefully outline that any substantive changes are cause for additional charges because the new work is outside the original job scope.

In most cases, this is a reason why some of my sites get higher and higher costs. Not because of charging high fees, but because of the many changes they expect me to work around.

My perspective in such cases is always “the customer knows best” what he or she wants. My job is to make the web site look like they think it should look. Too many designers design for their portfolio vs what the client wants or needs.

I think my approach is why many of my clients have been with me for 6 – 10 years, with each having gone through a number of site changes and design changes along the way. Each change means money in my bank account.

After this I write up a communication brief to make sure that we’re on the same page. They approve it, then I write up a quote detailing everything we’ve discussed – if they approve that, they sign a contract.

Then I prepare 3-4 layouts based on all of their input. In this case we had another 1.5 hour meeting before I did this to go over likes and dislikes. They sent me links to websites they liked and disliked too and I used all of this information to put together four very different layouts that ‘emulated walking into their brick-and-mortar store’ in one way or another.

I don’t what more I could do to make sure that I understand what a client wants. What they decided to go with was very different than my understanding of what they wanted, and it didn’t meet the criteria they specified all along the way, at least not to my mind.

I can’t share the layout they wanted to use, but frankly, it was not something that I would want potential clients to think that I designed. It was far removed from anything I would conceivably do, and I’d be uncomfortable being tagged as its designer.

It might not be all your idea, but you design it. It may have been made using a format designed by someone else, but you have redesigned, enhanced it, tweeked it, and made your clients happy.

Not everyone will like your designs, and everybody has their opinions. You must adapt to be successful in business.

Yes, I did get paid for the design work. I kind of felt bad about this whole situation – and the client was apologetic when this matter came up, they didn’t plan on it, it just sort of happened. There’s no blame and no troubles with payment, it’s just that I’m a designer and more interested in that part of it than the backend development work on its own.

I have considering amending my contract to include something about that but I’m not sure how to word it yet.

I hope you were paid for the design work you did on the project. Not to mention the non-billables like meetings or research… the things that we usually build into the whole fee.

Have you considered putting a clause in your contract that clearly states the parameters you are willing to work within in regard to using someone elses design? This would state your position on this matter from the beginning so you aren’t wasting time designing for someone who is going to micromanage your project to this level.

You could even state that there will be an extra charge when this type of thing happens to cover those non-billables.