ixuma

Greetings.

I am working on a 6 yr. government contract at an agency comprised of "knowledge workers" (think library sciences, research, records, etc.). My client is very pleased with my work, and overall, I get along great with my client. However, I am finding that the many layers of design approval at this organization, largely due to internal politics and the fact that this is a fairly uptight govt. agency, are becoming increasingly annoying, and are thwarting good design. I constantly have to save my clients from themselves by convincing them of sound changes to their otherwise poorly thought out design, content and IA ideas. While my client would probably be satisfied with "good enough for government work" web products, the work that I produce is on the level with www.nike.com. My client greatly appreciates my work, but still demands that I chase after every suggestion/expectation/etc. set by anyone in a leadership position at this agency. I often have to revert changes that I have made to improve a design just to meet someone’s expectation that was set in some meeting (e.g. so and so thought that there would be tabs… why is there this other type of navigation instead?!?). I know that I can't develop these web sites in a microcosm, and that my client's approval is very important. But, being that my client is not a usability and design expert, and nor are any of the other people providing input at this agency, I am finding it increasingly frustrating to convince them of why my changes to their ideas are the best way to go, and why their recommended changes to my designs are (often) a step in the wrong direction. I am an hourly contractor and project requirements are floating, so I need to work on various sites until client approval is received (individual projects are not fixed price).
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Can you recommend any articles, books, or other publications that address the nature of the creative web design process, design review process techniques, and the designer/client relationship in detail? I would love to more formally structure my review process (which currently consists of dozens of reviews of IA, sketches, design concepts, etc., and absurd change requests that I expend a great amount of time responding to in email). I am always working to save my good, useable designs from being massacred by too much bad user input (by individuals that think that they know a lot about web design, but actually know very little). I truly do value my client’s input, and I of course rely on their initial direction and provision of site copy. But, my client would like to have my designs reviewed at every possible stage (e.g. daily… evaluating every color, texture, labeling change, etc.). Reviews performed this frequently by people that are not senior designers results in mass confusion over the design vision (imagine having artwork that is 30% complete reviewed by your client), misunderstanding of design goals, and a myriad of requests from multiple directions. When I have attempted to create a formal requirements process before the inception of my design work, I find that the requirements are based on poorly thought-out web design ideas, and poorly written content. I’m not a genius, but I feel as if the people that I’m dealing with each day are always one step behind in terms of their ability to make thoughtful recommendations and develop good requirements that I won’t need to completely overhaul.

I would also appreciate any references on the exact points when any of you have your designs reviewed. I am referring to some type of system, beyond the average milestones (e.g. design concept complete). For example, I would be very interested to learn about a formal system that a design shop might use that bases design reviews on metrics like percent complete, hours expended, etc.

Thanks for reading and for any advice or reading referrals that you can provide!
-Devon