Potential clients have suggested great topics for blog postings this week (see Is it ok to use fictitious information to market Web sites? for the other potential client inspired post).  Yesterday, the potential client was looking for a new designer because her old designer wasn’t listening to her suggestions.

As Web site designers, we hit this sometimes. We have opinions about how to do things, and our clients do too. We think we know the answer because of our experience with Web site design. Our client knows their business very well, and often has input that might conflict with what we think is right. So who wins?

At Curvine, our policy is that when this occurs, we give objective reasons why we think we are right. Objective reasons include  ”the colors the client suggested would be hard for color blind people to see” or “if we made the design larger, some people would have to horizontally scroll to see it.” We present our argument to the client, and let the client make the final decision. That means that we sometimes complete projects with content we disagree with, but we feel like this balances the needs of clients and us.

How do other designers deal with this situation? Do you “fire” clients because their taste is different than yours?