Ever feel like your clients are speaking a language from a different planet? If you’ve been in the design industry for even a few days, you’ve likely witnessed this amazing phenomenon.

At first it can be pretty amusing to hear what clients want in their own words. Simple fading transitions between photos have been described to me as everything from “slideshows” to “movies” or  “zooming pictures”. An interior designer once requested that his logo be made a “high-gloss white”, and another client said that she needed a web page to be “floaty”. Yep. Floaty. I’m adding that one to my personal dictionary.

Unfortunately I’ve seen too many designers get frustrated with trying to decipher some of the requests that get thrown their way. And while we artsy types aren’t always well known for being the best communicators, I do believe there are a few simple things you can do to get to the bottom of the mystery without losing your sanity:

1) Put yourself in your clients shoes. What do they do for a living? Keep in mind that we all use the lingo that is familiar to us. My interior designer requested a “high gloss” logo, and naturally he deals in paint finishes on a regular basis. This translation was pretty simple – a nice embossed logo was just what he was looking for.

2) If you think you have an idea of what the client wants, send an example or ask for one. Most clients request features they’ve seen somewhere else. That floaty website turned out to simply be a web page that had no distinct border. Floaty! Duh.

3) If a request doesn’t make sense to you, by all means, ask questions. There is nothing worse than completing a design only to find out that you misinterpreted the directions and have to start back at square one. This can be devastating not only to a project, but also to a client relationship.

So just remember, we may all speak a different language, but in the end we all want the same thing – appealing, usable, creative design.

Do you have a favorite request that was lost in translation? I’d love to hear about it!