I wouldn’t say it is a bad thing, or that it is particularly good. It is a matter of sheer coincidence that I have had more experience in interface design, in Web apps or sites that offer more than basic functionality such as hyperlinks and contact forms.

This also implies that there are different types of clients – those that are working on the Web, and those that just need a Web site or an app, or whatever else might be the case.

Clients that are from the industry usually want to be actively engaged in the development process. They also know what they want a little better, quite possibly because they have a better grasp of what is actually possible to do and how much time will it take. They might seem like the “difficult ones” at first but in my opinion you’ll soon realize they are much easier to communicate with because of you share similar experiences.

Then you have clients that simply tell you what they want or need and let you get to work. But be aware, there might be a wolf in sheep’s clothing there though. People tend to have a general idea of what they need, but that idea isn’t verbalized, it’s just in their heads, it doesn’t have a form yet. When working with this type of clients – a part of your job as a service provider is to help the clients realize and understand what it is they actually need. Otherwise you might end up in a situation where you’re presenting your work to the client and realizing that you’ve spent a couple of weeks developing something that doesn’t match what the client’s vision of the final product would be – and that just sucks, you must agree.

Whatever the case might be – insist on documentation and detailed sows to avoid miscommunication, work iteratively and keep turnaround times short. Do you by any chance have any story or experience you’d like to share concerning working for different types of clients? Please feel free to do so in the comments.