Client expectations: Too much or acceptable?

[takmais]

So this is a question that i've had to deal with for years.. no doubt anybody in the web design biz has too. But this one in particular is kinda tough and i thought i'd see the advice of you guys. So im a designer for company X. We are working with a client that sells reading and learning material for children. we've built an app that runs int he browser that allows users to select reading material based on various criteria. its a very simple layout consisting mainly of styled tabular date, text, radio buttons and form fields etc.. We've designed the site to appear visually just as the client has specified. however, they later sent revisions to us with "callouts" showing EXACT pixel dimensions on spacing, font height, radio button size, form field size etc. Pretty much every object on screen has a dimension on it showing to the pixel, where it should be on the screen. I was in charge of marking up all of the pages and i pretty much ignored all of the dimensioning and instead just layed out all of the elements in such a way that they appear as close to the mockup as possible.. my take on this is that no viewer is ever going to be able to tell the difference, it is unrealisitc to expect such precision from a dynamic medium such as the web (this is NOT a print piece) and finaly, every browser is going to render size and space slightly differently.. if i resize my text in the browser, all of the spacing will be thrown off anyway. So it looks like the client is going to be giving us some problems on this issue.. i dont think i will personally get in trouble for this but my boss had a meeting with all fo the employees today asking our opinions. i said pretty much what i've said here. most of the employees agreed. i'm just wondering what you all think is reasonable for a client to demand. thanks alot
j

[Waylander]

Yeah I would be inclined to agree to a point.

I mean fair enough if they feel the need to have you move stuff around but down to the pixel is probably a bit too much for me. If it is -that- important to them you could always spend the time on it and charge them accordingly.

Usually when clients become "unrealistic" about the web, its often good to quantify what they are talking about with related costs and/or time so they can get a feel for whats involved in what it is they are asking you to do.

Waylandzor.

[Reli4nt]

Wow I think you screwed up royally.

Yes, the request was unreasonable and virtually impossible but you were wrong in dismissing them. If a client requests the impossible you need to tell them it is and not ignore them. Nothing would raise the ire of a client more, and justifiably so. If a client requests the impractical then you need to tell them suchand explain to them the additional costs involved.

It is that simple really.

[Stephen Philbin]

Sounds to me like the client hasn't got a clue about even the basics of websites and is asking something that simply can not be done.

I can not see in any way how you could be at fault if they did not specify in the initial consultation that they wanted their visual guide to be adhered to by the pixel.

[elaurvick]

I really, really hope your company has a contract that charges for client revisions. If your work meets the original design specifications, and they ask for ANY changes, they should pay for it. That said, yes, they are being unreasonable with this request. That's why an estimate of how much money this revision will cost them might take care of the problem. If not, Reli4nt is right . . . you have to respond to their request and explain the difficulties it will cause . . . in detailed technical terminology. If you can get their eyes to glaze over (not hard to do to clients who don't understand programming), they may even decide to drop the request.

[felgall]

Simplest solution is to show them the same web page in three different browsers preferably opened to different sizes and demonstrate to them that web pages do not work that way. Showing them will be more effective than telling them.

[KDLA]

You might ask WHY they want it "to the pixel" -- could be that there's a history there of screw-ups they're trying to prevent by over-compensating on the "control" factor.

Many times, a client's demands aren't an attempt to dominate the designer; instead, they're a reactions to a previous experience that they're trying to prevent from happening again.

KDLA

[takmais]

Thank you guys. I agree with every point that everybody made.. Even Reli4nt who said i screwd up royally :) part of the reason i'm so concerned is because i see now that i may have screwed up (no matter how ridiculous our clients demands are). thanks