The non visual client

[AndyG]

Happy 4th gang. With all its’ faults, this is still the only place I want to live and raise my children.

I want to run something by you and get your opinion-

the solution I’m looking for is not about the money so much as how to read this type client and help them.


We are doing a kitchen remodel me and the customer wants a walk-in pantry and they used some blue tape to map out the footprint- I could immediately tell that it was going to be way too shallow to step into and utilize- you would basically just reach in- That told me they didn’t realize what was about to happen and had no vision of framed space. That is ok. I knew what to do.

So I took the initiative, and at my expense I built a full scale mock up of the pantry- and with their agreement enlarged to some -

Then I sent them an email and gave them the dimensions and told then to look this over and make sure this is what I wanted and then we would proceed to build it permanently-


They said yes, we did and then I got this text-

“Uh, this is just too small”

I was in unbelief. How on earth could you look at a full scale mock up and not grasp what you want.

So we are going to change it, and get paid - But how in the world could this have failed to work?

I think we’ve all had times in our past when we didn’t really get our message across- And that is a personal goal of mine to do that without being annoyingly emphatic.

I would love to hear from you guys have any similar experiences and any creative ideas that I could approach this differently.

Have a safe fourth and enjoy your families. Honestly I hope you are put in a TJ and don’t see this til later on.



Andy

 

[OldBuzzard]

I feel your pain.

Our kitchen/dining remodel went something like that. A certain female who shall remain unnamed (so I can still have hot meals) designed the new layout. The crew came in and built it. The kitchen is fine, but the dining room is 3 feet too narrow. The designer insists that she had laid out a wider dining room, with the kitchen at its full width too. She thinks the construction crew really messed up. No amount of explaining that you can't put a 10 foot kitchen and a 10 foot dining area into 16 feet will convince her that the design was a little off.

Some people's minds just do NOT work that way. And after 3 decades with this "designer" I still haven't figured out how to help her picture this kind of thing until she actually lives in it for a few days.

Good luck. With some people, you'll need a lot of it. Here, have a few of these:

 

[AndyG]

I feel your pain.

Our kitchen/dining remodel went something like that. A certain female who shall remain unnamed (so I can still have hot meals) designed the new layout. The crew came in and built it. The kitchen is fine, but the dining room is 3 feet too narrow. The designer insists that she had laid out a wider dining room, with the kitchen at its full width too. She thinks the construction crew really messed up. No amount of explaining that you can't put a 10 foot kitchen and a 10 foot dining area into 16 feet will convince her that the design was a little off.

Some people's minds just do NOT work that way. And after 3 decades with this "designer" I still haven't figured out how to help her picture this kind of thing until she actually lives in it for a few days.

Good luck. With some people, you'll need a lot of it. Here, have a few of these:

Thanks! Sorta

 

[sab]

They likely were too embarrassed to say anything while you were building the full scale model, and when they finally were faced with approving the estimate, they finally spoke up. People are so thin-skinned these days…

 

[AndyG]

They likely were too embarrassed to say anything while you were building the full scale model, and when they finally were faced with approving the estimate, they finally spoke up. People are so thin-skinned these days…

Pretty odd deal- the job price included the pantry - I just only wanted to build it once- but I think you have a great point- they were too embarrassed to admit their concept was so far off….now that they see the reality of the design I think they are doubting their own concept.

Thanks- you have opened my eyes some.

 

[freedom_in_4low]

I feel your pain.

Our kitchen/dining remodel went something like that. A certain female who shall remain unnamed (so I can still have hot meals) designed the new layout. The crew came in and built it. The kitchen is fine, but the dining room is 3 feet too narrow. The designer insists that she had laid out a wider dining room, with the kitchen at its full width too. She thinks the construction crew really messed up. No amount of explaining that you can't put a 10 foot kitchen and a 10 foot dining area into 16 feet will convince her that the design was a little off.

Some people's minds just do NOT work that way. And after 3 decades with this "designer" I still haven't figured out how to help her picture this kind of thing until she actually lives in it for a few days.

Good luck. With some people, you'll need a lot of it. Here, have a few of these:

When we designed our house my wife wanted a roomy shower because we'd had several places with master showers that were about 3x3. Her issue was the opposite. She got her way, and now we have a shower that even she admits is much bigger than it needed to be. Better than the opposite I suppose, but it's a big shower floor to clean and takes a long time for the steam to warm up the air.

 

[Zorba]

I don't know about women in general, but my wife has significant problems visualizing things - the good news is that she knows it, the bad news is it sometimes takes quite a bit of time to convince her of "whatever". But I'd think a full sized mock-up would work for anybody...

 

[Danarch]

I think it is just the nature of the business. Not sure I’ve said anything on the forum yet, but I’ve been in the architecture field for 30 plus years, the last 17 as an architect. There are always those times someone just does not grasp it until it is built. We had a baptismal in a church, we told the church it was too low, drew sections, elevations, interior elevations etc. they insisted it is what they wanted. Guess what happened after the first baptismal? We received a call, the baptismal is too low, no one can see it. Current times offer us a lot of tools to communicate design, intent and what it will look like so things are better. But there are those times people simply do not grasp or fail to want to really understand and have a preconceived idea they already know what it will be. It is hard sometimes to change one’s perspective of what they think they “know”. At times I think we all fall victim.