This weekend I drove out to the country to visit the parents for a much needed change of scenery. On the drive here I started thinking about rock bands and the role each individual musician brings to the creative process when writing a particular song. I had a chance to be a part of that sort of collaboration a few years back while playing bass in a local band. The enjoyment of being creative and seeing your results pay off while sharing the satisfaction with your band mates is something I miss.

I make websites. I make them with virtually no other professional creative input. Since I design in the browser, I sometimes have my clients play with unfinished designs to get a perspective that could help me make key design decisions. We web designers work in an interactive medium. No matter how hard someone tries, a photoshop document isn’t going to respond to a click or hover. Having this kind of interaction with my clients scratches my collaborative itch. It works well for me but my clients tend to be individuals, small 1 to 6 man companies or non-profits. I don’t have enough experience with larger companies to know if it would work, but for now it seems to be effective. This is something Andy Clarke has been talking about lately and is how I’ve worked since I started freelancing.

I’d like to know if this is how other freelancers work. How does the client react to this process? Is the client confused when interacting with a live, unfinished website? What sort of reaction do clients have about virtually no static design visuals prior to launch?

Posted on Aug 09, 2009 & filed under design, web

Tags: browsers, collaboration, creativity, rock bands, web design