Would You Rather Be Right or Happy?

A question you should often ask yourself over the course of your life is, believe it or not, entirely relevant to web design, web development, dealing with clients, etc.

Let’s take for example the following situation. The client supplied a photograph for a web design that needs to be enlarged to abnormally large proportions. The upsampled image looks absolutely fuzzy and disastrous. When you approach the client with reasoning and examples of improvements, there is no selling them on a different image or a smaller size.

What do you do?

Well would you rather be right or happy?

If you want to be right, you can be. You’re the one who’s developing the site, and you’re the guy with the Photoshop file. You’re the one who can use plenty of design lingo and overwhelm the client. But what are the repercussions? Every mother loves her baby just like every person loves their idea. Do you want to be the one who rebels against the client who still needs to pay half his invoice? Do you want to rebel against someone who’s word of mouth references can get you new business.

If you want to be happy. That’s easy. In the above situation. Try applying filters or modifying the design in such a way that the blurred image looks intended instead of unprofessional. Do your best with the parameters established by the client to keep them right and happy. You’ll have to settle with just being happy.

Now, I’m a strong believer in being happy. But I also know when I need to stand my ground, not for my own benefit, but for that of the client. If it’s a cause that the client strongly believes in, then I know when I need to take a step back if it means that my reputation, future, paycheque or opportunity within the company will suffer because of it.

Hope that helps.

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