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![660376[1]](https://approval.studio/wp-content/uploads/elementor/thumbs/6603761-qdggwcisb076f7x5giotppxq66kg87ehjuo5mdrd3y.png "660376[1]")
Thank God that’s Friday. It’s been a busy week, and you and your fellow designers finally found time to escape to your favorite bar away from work. Tight deadlines, endless hours in front of the screen, and Friday evenings are gradually receding into the background. You sit down at the table to the sounds of music and quiet conversation and raise a glass, but someone can’t stand it: “You know what annoys me the most? If I get another question about “quick color change”, I’m going to explode!”
Others laugh because each of them has faced something similar. They all experienced the same frustrations at work. And each of them realized firsthand that being a designer is about creating and generating ideas and often explaining why certain decisions make sense. This is the invisible part of the work that designers do every day. One by one, they share questions that make their job a little more complicated. As it turned out, the most challenging part of a designer’s work is not always the creative process but the questions that arise. So, in today’s article, let’s continue to eavesdrop on the conversations of the design company to find out which questions from clients annoy designers the most.
“Can you make it pop?”
Every designer has heard about it. The classic line is usually presented by the client after your first meeting. It is vague, ambiguous, and highly unclear. What does “pop” even mean? Does the customer want brighter colors, bolder fonts, or something else? This question usually requires a guessing game that takes time and creativity. Moreover, the client often does not understand that brighter colors or adding cool special effects will not make the product more attractive. A successful design primarily solves a business problem, not just a pretty picture.
“Can you do it in five minutes?”
This question causes regular irritation. Customers often assume that since the design takes place on a computer and designers are creative geniuses, all changes and ideas come to them quickly, as if with a wave of a magic wand. What they don’t realize, however, is that even the slightest change can upset the balance of the design, requiring additional rounds of refinement and testing. What can you say when you spent two weeks on target audience analysis, interviews, and testing your design solution to receive a similar request in the end. So when a designer is asked to “just move the text a little bit” without realizing that it affects the entire composition of the page, clients often don’t understand that all their requests don’t always turn out to be a five-minute task.
“What are you even doing? You’re just drawing, right?”
Even as I write this, I already have a nervous smile. The common belief that designers simply “make things look pretty” often leads to underestimating the design process. After all, a canonical event is that the client, in addition to the question of whether you are just drawing, may ask, “Why do we need a user survey?”. In fact, designers solve problems by combining psychology, technology, and creativity to create functional, user-friendly designs. Many people must realize that designers often conduct interviews, research user behavior, and test multiple prototypes before finalizing a project. An entire article on our blog is dedicated to who an intelligent designer is and what he does.
“Why did we even make this change?”
It’s crazy when customers forget about the changes they asked for. Are you familiar with the situation where a customer recently asked for a color adjustment, only to ask at the next meeting, “Why does it look different?”. This is not surprising, because when feedback is given verbally, the likelihood that the customer will forget critical details until the next meeting is extremely high. But how to lessen this chance and be in the 10% whose clients remember their own edit requests? Below is the text I’ve overheard at the same bar in the same conversation:
This is where tools like Approval Studio offer detailed reports that log customer requests, eliminating confusion. And thanks to the ability to track and show changes, designers no longer need to re-explain each change, saving time and nerves.
“Can you just copy this other design?”
This question often frustrates designers, especially when clients provide examples of other brands or competitors and ask to do “just like theirs.” It’s demoralizing for clients to think designers are just there to clone logos or web pages. The first thought that comes to mind at such a moment is not to send it all to hell? After all, such requests ignore the uniqueness of the brand’s needs, audience, and goals, which can lead to legal problems related to intellectual property. So always keep in mind that designers are hired to create something that fits the client’s brand, not someone else’s.
“Why can’t you use Comic Sans?”
And finally, the infamous font debate. Comic Sans has long been a thorn in the side of designers. Typography-savvy clients often request fonts that are considered unprofessional or inappropriate for the project. Fonts are essential to visual identity, and the wrong choice can ruin the design. “It’s not just about preferences; fonts convey emotion and tone,” explained one designer. “A client once asked me why I didn’t use Comic Sans for a financial report. It took all my patience not to scream.”
Summary
The designers’ frustrations spill out as the drinks flow and the night continues. From vague feedback to misunderstandings about their roles, it’s clear that much of the work lies in explaining what design entails. But despite the difficulties, designers continue to do what they do best — turn abstract ideas into functional, beautiful solutions. All they ask is a little patience and understanding. And please, for the love of design, try not to ask them to “make it popular.”
