There’s probably no consensus on what the top 10 video games ever released are but most of us have an inkling based on review sites and word-of-mouth. As for my own yardstick of exceptionally good games, they must either have hugely impacted the development of subsequent titles or that they must have gone beyond the standards of gaming at the point of their release.

Even then, such lists are still vulnerable to individual’s perceptions and subjectivity. To start off this discussion, and at the risk of disagreement, I’m showing you my personal Top 10 List of Greatest Video Games Ever (not by order of ranking).

Recommended Reading: 10 Upcoming Technology That May Change The World

1) Tetris (1984)

There’s a reason why Tetris appears in so many Top 10 lists of greatest video games despite its clearly simple gameplay – it is the most addictive and influential puzzle game of all time! We are all familiar with this building-block puzzle game because we have all played it at some point of our life, just as it is for chess, rock/paper/scissors and solitaire.

(Image Source: Wikipedia)

The beauty lies in its simplicity; anyone can pick up the game within minutes. Nothing can be as intuitive as fitting in seven geometrically-shaped blocks (Tetriminos) as they come scrolling down the screen. Hours of gameplay with the catchy classic Russian folk tune (“Korobeiniki”) playing in the background will have you seeing things around you in Tetris pieces.

Its Legacy

The game has sold millions of copies along with countless clones and variants incorporating new rules and block pieces. The true impact of Tetris, however, is not just the sales per se; it’s the number of subgenre puzzle games that has sprung up adopting similar tile-matching and/or falling blocks concepts.

We all remember classic hits like Puzzle Bobble (1994) and Puzzle Fighter (1996). Not to forget also the recently popular Candy Crush Saga for smartphones and Facebook, which can be said to have evolved from Tetris’ gameplay.

2) Super Mario Bros (1985)

While not the first game to come of the platform gaming genre, the game is widely considered to have revolutionized game design through its pioneering concepts of power-ups, continuous scrolling screen, alternate secret paths and the varying environmental physics which have all been employed in subsequent platform games.

(Image Source: Digital Spy)

Other than its superior graphics and sound at that time, Super Mario Bros’ controls had also been praised for its responsiveness and precision, easily allowing players to control how fast Mario run and how far or high he can jump. All these amazing features made the game intensely captivating, consequently bringing in an abundance of players to the world of video games and even inspired some of them to become game developers.

Its Legacy

As the game that popularized and defined side-scrolling platforming genres, it came as no surprise that Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros was the best-selling video game of all time (40.23 million copies sold worldwide). The record was subsequently broken by Wii Sports in 2009, 24 years later.

Mario, the character is in itself one of the most recognizable faces across the globe and has remained as a childhood symbol for those of us who had played it as kids in the 80s. Super Mario Bros has even been credited as the game that revived the gaming industry from its crash in 1983, riding alongside with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

3) Doom (1993)

Wolfenstein 3D may have been coined the “grandfather of 3D shooter” for setting the first-person shooter genre proper, but Doom was the one that popularized it. Apart from its better level design that allowed players to differentiate one room from another and the enhanced lighting effects and textures, Doom’s engine even enabled players to customize levels and modify parts of the games, in a process we all know as “modding”.

(Image Source: ModDB)

Unbeknownst to many of us, the idea of multiplayer “deathmatch” also originated from Doom. Its four-player, LAN-only multiplayer is pretty much primitive by today’s standard, but it opened up an entirely new form of social gaming back in those days.

Its legacy

Leveraging on its popularity, Doom established one of the first large mod-making community by allowing the creation of WADs (Where is All the Data). Today, modding has become prevalent in gaming communities, especially so for first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy.

The newly introduced multiplayer mode where each of the four players concurrently pits against each other was so addictive that some players even resorted to playing it at work, resulting in a significant workplace issue of reduced productivity and slowed computer networks! Clearly, the successful implementation of deathmatch mode in Doom has left behind a crucial legacy on multiplayer in gaming not only for first-person shooters but also for all other genres as well. 

4) Final Fantasy VII (1997)

As one of the defining game titles for the original Playstation, Square’s role-playing game Final Fantasy VII is renowned for its expansive universe and immersive story. The plot was made fabulous with the protagonist, Cloud‘s interactions with various characters of the game, facilitating players with a gradual and satisfying identification with Cloud and his crew.

(Image Source: Final Fantasy Wikia)

If you ever played Final Fantasy VII before, you could probably feel the sense of attachment many players have had with the characters and the storyline, which is notably evident when they grieved over the death of Cloud’s love interest, Aerith who was killed by the hands of the antagonist, Sephiroth. 

That scene has been recognized as one of the most tear-inducing moments of all video games. This has earned Sephiroth the notorious reputation of being one of the most famous villians in the video game industry.

Its Legacy

Apart from the awesome narratives, there’re numerous praises on its presentation as well. Firstly, it broke away from the 2D computer graphics in the previous Final Fantasy series to 3D polygonal graphics with fully rendered characters against gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds. The soundtrack composed by the acclaimed video game composer, Nobou Uematsu also played well with the ever-changing ambience of the game as the player navigates across landscapes.

The battle (Limit breaks) and skill (Materia) systems, along with numerous minigames (e.g. chocobo racing) infused in the game have also been considered as spectacular by players. All in all, Final Fantasy VII has been said to have brought the role-playing game genre beyond the Japanese market and popularized it.

5) Metal Gear Solid (1998)

Just when gamers thought that the most legitimate way to go through any game is to blast their way through and kill as many of their enemies as possible, the Metal Gear franchise disregarded that notion and invented the idea of ‘stealth’ with Metal Gear (1987) and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990).

(Image Source: Janne Markkula)

Along came Metal Gear Solid, the third game in the series which has been widely regarded as the game that shot 3D stealth action genre to fame. Despite making the leap from 2D to 3D, the gameplay remains similar to its prequel where the protagonist, Solid Snake uses stealth to progress through the stages and avoid detection.

As one of the first few 3D stealth games to be made, Metal Gear Solid’s approach of avoidance rather confrontation with enemies had since been adopted in numerous hit video games, including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series.

Its Legacy

The excellent in-depth storyline about nuclear warfare and genome soldiers, as well as the game’s lengthy cut scenes and high-quality voice acting had also for the first time blurred the line between film and video game. In other words, it was a game that almost felt like a movie with its captivating primary plot, twists and subplots to unveil the intricate intentions and personalities of each of the many characters in the story.

The result was that players had an easy and fun time identifying with the characters and end up feeling intrigued and perhaps a little overwhelmed with the storyline. Never before was there ever such a game that put so much emphasis on its plot and indeed, there are few or even none that ever did throughout the history of video games.

6) Deus Ex (2000)

Deus Ex is one of the few games I still play on-and-off even though it was first released slightly more than a decade ago. The greatest pleasure of playing Deus Ex is the uncovering of global conspiracy as you progresses through the game. Starting off as a rookie but formidable cop, you combat terrorists on the street just like any first-person shooter, accomplish missions as directed by your boss and gain skill points for upgrades.

(Image Source: Well-Rendered)

The unique thing about it is that there are multiple ways you can approach your enemies depending on how you could think out-of-the-box. This freedom of choice even extends to your interactions with non-playable characters where you choose how to advance the conversations from a list of dialogue options or even choose to kill or let them live. At a time when gameplay is pretty much linear, Deus Ex certainly path the way for recent action-role playing games like Mass Effect (2007) and Fallout 3 (2008).

Its Legacy

The graphics and gameplay are certainly incomparable to today’s first-person shooters like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or Battlefield 3, but there remains an unexplainable attraction to its deep plot and gameplay interactivity.

The result is an intense character identification with the protagonist, JC Denton in a world filled with conspiracy. Combining elements of role-playing, first-person shooting and adventure, you are often made to choose between going rogue and sticking to your side as a nanotech-augmented operative of the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO).

7) Grand Theft Auto III (2001)

You may not remember it now but slightly more than a decade ago, GTA III was a cultural phenomenon. This was in part due to the controversy it generated when the game was first released with its senseless violence and sexual content where players could easily carjack, kill innocent by-passers and pick up hookers on the street.

(Image Source: Decades in a Digital World)

The game’s popularity did not however simply came about from such notoriety; it was very much the universal acclaim it received from gamers everywhere. For one, it was the first time a video game allowed players to explore an entire city in detail without having to follow a linear path of gameplay.

Its Legacy

As a sequel to GTA and GTA2 where these games were played from a top-down perspective, GTA III took a leap into the 3D sandbox world of Liberty City. The dynamics of the world has been designed to make players feel like they’re in the real-world with pedestrians and vehicles filling the streets and day and night cycling across time (speeded-up).

Even unique radio stations have been created for players to tune to whenever they are in a vehicle. Such is the expansiveness and diverseness of the game’s universe, which was unheard of in video games. The lack of structure was GTA III’s greatest strength; the resultant flexibility in gameplay had created a never-before gaming experience for players and laid a firm foundation for all sandbox games that follow.

8) Shadow of Colossus (2005)

This PlayStation 2 game title may be relatively unheard of as compared to the rest on the list, but Shadow of Colossus deserves a rightful place as one of the best games ever made. The game’s art direction was fabulous, as visible when you ride alone across the vast and desolate landscapes and ancient ruins on horseback and battle voluminous giants made of rocks.

(Image Source: Garapata)

You could sense how small you are as compared to these titans or ‘colossi’ the moment you see one of them from afar, seemingly moving in slow-motion due to their heavy masses. That sense of scale can also be felt as the camera angles span perfectly while you leap onto and run up the arm of the giant or as you cling to its fur and climb up the back of the beast.

It was easy to comprehend the gameplay right from the start, where there was this innovative navigation system of raising your sword against the sun to see where the reflected light points to in order to find the next colossus. As you ride towards it and close in on one, you’ll need to strategize how you could climb on top of it and stab its vital point(s) with your sword.

Its legacy

To date, few games have ever created what Shadow of Colossus did. The aesthetic landscape and the ‘dwarfing’ sensation both played a huge part in setting the astonishing ambience and creating that immersive experience, but the game was only made complete with the simple and intuitive gameplay.

Accompanied with superb graphics and soundtrack, Shadow of Colossus was an artwork, a masterpiece among all video games.

9) Mass Effect Trilogy (2007 – 2012)

The first Mass Effect, or arguably all of the titles in the series, have been well-received by gamers. The franchise brought out the best of RPG and action video game genre, merging them together to give rise to a new age of interactive storytelling and decision-making with action-packed combat.

This is a grand science-fiction story where you could make big and small decisions and face the consequence of your actions. The choices you make on the first Mass Effect affect the story of Mass Effect 2 and consequently, Mass Effect 3. Never before was there a video game where how the story unfolds and the fates of characters are so much contingent on what you did on the previous and current games. The interactivity on a video game’s storyline is indeed unprecedented and revolutionary.

(Image Source: Just Push Start)

Its Legacy

The other admirable thing about Mass Effect series is its immensive universe where there’re no short of interesting characters you can interact with, be it aliens or humans. Coupled with the excellent job done on its voice acting (some from veteran actors Martin Sheen, Carrie Ann-Moss, Seth Green and several others), playing the game feels like watching a first-rate sci-fi movie.

It’s also easy for the players to get emotionally attached to the main characters in the story, especially when so much has been invested in the conversational interactions in the game. The RPG elements and the combat system are awesome too, but the greatest gift by the Mass Effect trilogy is the amount of power you have over how the game is to be panned out, leaving you so much more connected and involved with the storyline than you ever had with any game.

10) BioShock (2007)

While the strength of Mass Effect trilogy lies with the interactivity with the storyline, BioShock‘s asset lies with how it tells the story to its players. Your options are also not limited when it comes to combat with the enemies and the gradual upgrading concept of Plasmids (special powers) and Tonics (skills) are apparent and satisfying to the player.

Each weapon and special power has its strengths and uses when environmental contexts are taken into consideration. For instance, the special ability of electric shocks and fireballs don’t necessary have to be used against a target directly, the game’s physics engine allows them to be applied on water and oil respectively to shock or burn enemies by proximity.

(Image Source: TeamXbox)

Moreover, invention stations known as “U-invents” allow you to create your own ammos, weapons and other items from spare parts in your surroundings.

Its Legacy

It’s a tale of utopia-turn-dystopia that would have you make difficult moral decisions of sparing or killing characters. This is even enhanced with the unique artistic atmosphere and architecture “utopia” of the 50′s era (the underwater city, Rapture), often evoking in you a range of emotions from panic, anger, sadness to despair.

It doesn’t seem to believe in cut-scenes, perhaps for fear that they would disrupt the flow of the game or the immersion process. Instead, you are in control of your character throughout the entire game, unfolding the story by your own through the details available from conversations with others, audio tapes, posters, sculptures, flyers, and even songs. All in all, it’s about survival, and you’ll have tons of fun over it in BioShock.

Wrap Up

What are the top video games in your personal list? Share them with us in the comments below, or you can check out other posts we have on video games:

• Evolution Of Home Video Game Consoles: 1967 – 2011
• Evolution Of Video Games User Interface (UI)
• 10 Futures Of Mankind As Depicted In Video Games
• Future Of Gaming: 5 Exciting Emerging Trends

Related posts:

1. 10 (More) Retro Video Games You Can Play On iPhone
2. Evolution of Video Games User Interface (UI)
3. 20 Retro Video Games You Can Play on iPhone
4. 10 Futures of Mankind As Depicted in Video Games

The release of Windows 8 was met with mixed reception; while some liked the new interface, there were others who just preferred its predecessor. Microsoft subsequently released Windows 8.1, which features several improvements, some of which were covered in a post we published recently. And to help you get even more out of this latest offering by Microsoft, we’ve got for you today 5 simple hacks you can do to make Windows 8.1 faster.

These hacks or tweaks will enable you to do things like increasing the speed of certain menus popping up, getting near-instant taskbar icon previews, and switching active windows with your mouse cursor. All in all, your Windows 8.1 experience would definitely be smoother. Most of these hacks require the use of Regedit, but fret not, the steps are all very easy to understand. Just note that all Regedit hacks require you to log out before taking effect.

Recommended Reading: Enable Slide To Shutdown UI For Windows 8.1 [Quicktip]

1. Increase Aero Peek Speed

Aero Peek is a useful feature that lets you see through all your open windows to your desktop as long as your cursor is hovered over the bottom right corner of your screen. By default, there will be a slight delay of about half a second before the desktop is shown. This tweak will remove that delay to instantly show the desktop when your cursor is there.

1. Go to the Start menu and type in regedit to search for it, then run it.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer and click on Advanced.
3. On the right panel, right-click and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime.
4. Right-click the newly created registry and select Modify. Choose Decimal and enter a Value Data of 1, which means Aero Peek will activate in 1 millisecond.

2. Increase Taskbar Preview Speed

When you hover your cursor over a taskbar icon, a preview will be shown, thereby enabling you to choose the correct window to navigate to. We’re now going to tweak it so that the preview will come up faster, eliminating the default 1-second delay.

1. Run Regedit.exe and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel and click on Mouse.
2. On the right panel, look for MouseHoverTime and right-click to Modify it.
3. Select Decimal and enter a Value Data of 1, which means when you hover your cursor over a taskbar icon, it’ll take just 1 millisecond for it to show the preview.

3. Increase Context Menu Speed

By default, the context menu will expand when your cursor hovers over it, after a short delay. Applying this tweak will enable Windows to show an expandable context menu faster or almost instantly whenever your cursor hovers over it.

1. Run Regedit.exe and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel and click on Desktop.
2. On the right panel, look for MenuShowDelay and right-click to Modify it.
3. Select Decimal and enter a Value Data of 1, which means when your cursor hovers over an expandable context menu, it’ll take 1 millisecond for it expand.

4. Switch Active Windows With Mouse Cursor

In the Ease of Access Center, there’s a feature that allows you to activate a window by hovering over it with the cursor. This allows users to view all their open windows swiftly without the need for clicking the mouse. This feature is especially handy for trackpad users as they won’t have to tap on their trackpad to activate a window in the background. A simple Regedit hack can also increase or shorten the delay when activating windows. To do this,

1. Run Regedit.exe and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel and click on Desktop.
2. On the right panel, right-click on ActiveWndTrkTimeout and select Modify.
3. Select Decimal and change the Value Data to something you’re comfortable with. The number you enter is calculated in milliseconds.

5. Disable Time-Wasting Animations

Both Windows 8 and 8.1 come with many animations that make transitions and everything else look beautiful. However, these animations not only eat into your computer’s performance, but also take extra milliseconds to complete. Here’s how to disable them completely.

1. Open up File Explorer and right-click anywhere in the window and select Properties.
2. On the left panel, click on Advanced system setting and under the Performance subtitle, click on Settings.
3. You’ll then see the Performance Options with all the animations you can disable. For the best performance, uncheck all of them.

Your system will look less posh, but it’ll surely work lightning fast.

Freelance writing is a profession that can be as harsh and unforgiving as it is alluring. Even the title, freelance writing, is deceiving. It sounds like a carefree form of creative expression. If there is one thing that almost every new freelance writer learns rather quickly… it is that freelance writing is anything but carefree. In fact, it is not all that creative.

There are three truths that the freelance writer comes face to face with shortly after taking on too many responsibilities from which he or she can back down, and still sleep at night.

1. Freelance writing is anything but romantic.
2. No one is impressed with the title for more than a minute or two.
3. A writer will not be getting rich from their freelancing endeavors.

Recommended Reading: The State Of Freelance Writing & Why It’ll Be Dead Within 1 Year

1. Freelance Is Not Creative

At first, freelance writing sounds easy to the new writer who has never actually worked as a writer and whose only claim to the title of writer is that they, well, write. They believe it to be akin to creative writing.

In comparison; however, freelance writing and creative writing have very little in common. The creative writer may sit at a computer for hours or even days at a time and never fact check a single piece of information. The freelance writer spends more time verifying the veracity of what they write than they do in actual writing.

Read Also: Popular (But Bad) Freelancing Advice You Should Ignore

Checking and Rechecking Facts

Nearly every word that falls from the freelance writer’s mind must be fact checked and every bit of information has to be 100% correct, lest the writer be taken for a fool. There are sources to check and then list within the body of the writing.

Before the freelancer can list the sources from which they obtain their information, they must check the source to make sure it is correct and then they must check that source as well. This is why many writers quote the same sources of information often – once they find one that they know they can trust.

2. Freelancers Must Know Style

The creative writer has the freedom of creative license. They can choose a style, mix styles, or change styles midstream whereas the freelance writer has to find his or her voice and then stick with it. Until they do, they are confined to the style dictated to them by the content about which they write.

The freelancer has to know AP, Chicago, APA, and other styles at least well enough to duplicate them legibly in an article, press release, or post.

Read Also: 3 Skills You Need To Succeed In Freelance Writing

3. Freelancers Must Know All

Many new freelancers believe they will choose a type of writing, such as content writer, content marketing, or just write eBooks. If it were that easy, brother, I would not be writing this post. As a freelance content writer working online, you will learn real fast that the only way you will make any money is to learn to do it all.

If you cannot write articles, posts, eBooks, ecommerce content, SEO and/or CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) press releases, copy, and creative writing, you may as well learn to hang drywall because you will not be in high demand as a writer.

Read Also: Useful Tips And Guidelines To Freelance Writing

The Post Panda Freelancer

The freelance writer that cannot turn in a search engine optimized article or blog is a freelance writer that will spend a lot of time looking for work. In today’s post-Panda online atmosphere, the content writer has to know and understand the concepts of SEO and sometimes, CRO and must be able to apply them on demand.

4. Fear The Insane Client

Every assignment and client that you work for will be different. Most of the time, the clients are reasonable enough people; however, there are clients that believe in their hearts that they know everything there is to know about freelance writing. These clients will drive a writer insane with rewrite requests and requests that are absolutely impossible.

The first time you have a client ask for one original article of 300 words based on two sets of keyword phrases and 30 spins of the same article, you will understand what is meant by an outrageous request.

Read Also: 11 Signs Of Problematic Clients You’ll Meet In Freelancing

The Clock is Ticking

These clients will give you twenty of these with a 24-hour deadline not caring that one set will take six hours to complete. Other clients will run the freelance writer ragged with work and then assign an impossible task simply to avoid firing the writer.

In the hopes of making you quit on your own volition, they ask for work within an appointed deadline that could not be reached by a team of writers and then claim breach of contract to avoid paying for it even though you turn in three quarters of the content asked for.

Read Also: How To Better Handle Writing Deadlines

5. Fear The Dry Spells

There are occasions of non-stop work where the freelance writer will have clients crawling out of the woodwork. Then the writer will suddenly experience a two or three week period of time where no clients can be found. The smart freelancer will save for these occasions of no work.

The worst however, are the clients that disappear the day before payday taking your work and your pay with them. While this does not happen often, it does happen.

Read Also: 8 Contract Clauses You Should Never Freelance Without

6. Fear The Editor from Hell

Finally, the freelance writer that is new to the game is sure to come across clients who have their own editors. If you cannot take constructive criticism or follow rewrite instructions without complaining, then you should not enter the freelance writing arena. To be fair, most editors know their stuff and will actually make you look far better than you actually are.

There are those, however, that have no clue of what a good article or blog post looks like. They make outrageous demands or make changes to your submissions before they post them that can make you look foolish if you allow them to do so.

Warning: one word from the editor and the client will drop you like a hot rock regardless of whether you are right or wrong so tread lightly around crazy editors. Be grateful when you get good ones.

You Have Been Warned

The world of freelance writing may look and even sound like a peach of a job. You may hear some liars tell you that they make money hands over fists and always enjoy the craft. There are even entire freelance hiring blogs and websites that are dedicated to luring you in to join their ranks as a "professional freelance writer."

Writer, beware because there is no such thing as an easy freelance writing career. It can be as hard and as cruel as any other profession and very often… more so.

Read Also: 9 Things You Should Know About Freelancing Full-Time

If you love to write and still feel that you can fare well as a freelance writer, more power to you. You have, at the very least, been warned of what to expect. There are times when it can be very rewarding. If you are extremely lucky, you may have more of those times than the others. I certainly would not count on luck. Tread lightly and watch your assignment boards closely and you may just make it in freelance writing.

If you’re a freelance designer, you’re bound to run into the dreaded “designer client” at least once in your career. You know the kind – the person who always has an opinion (or 50) about how you should be doing your job.

Clients love to shove their noses into the design process regardless of whether they ought to or not. Why do they do this? And are they right to do so? Today, we’re going to dissect this prickly phenomenon, and what designers can do about it.

Recommended Reading: Freelancers, Here’s How To Work Better With Your Clients

Shut Up And Let Me Work

The only permanent solution to this issue is making your clients understand (politely) why their meddling is a bad idea. Yes, yes, the customer is always right and all that. But does it really matter if clients understand what’s going on in that designer brain of yours?

After all, most people who outsource a service (say, back-end programming) don’t expect to “get” what’s going on – that’s why they outsourced it! But for some reason, design is always the exception. Why? Well, because…

Design Is Cool

I’ve written in the past about how a majority of people want to think of themselves as creative, especially in today’s design-filled world of advertising and flashy websites and media. Creativity is sexy, and the popularity of sleek, minimal styles leads many people to mistakenly believe that simple design is easy to do.

These clients aren’t usually "trying" to disrupt your workflow. It’s just that they genuinely don’t understand the effort that goes into the “magic” they see when you unveil the finished product. You may think it’s exasperating to have to break down just how much work you’re doing so that your client will get it, but remember that people don’t value what they don’t understand. And in freelancing terms, value can have a very real impact on how much you get paid.

Read Also: Freelancers: What Do Clients Actually Care About?

Confusion Leads To Skepticism

Clients often get confused about a designer’s intentions, especially when he or she is speaking above their head in coded “designer speak”. It’s important to avoid jargon as much as possible when speaking with a client.

Use clear, simple language to give clients a general overview of what’s involved, how much effort is required, and how much of your time is being sacrificed for the project. Don’t complain, of course, but remember: no one knows how valuable you are until you tell them.

Read Also: How Bad Chemistry With Clients Can Break Your Career

Don’t Over-Explain

You don’t want to get yourself in the situation where a client knows too much about how you work. I’m sure you can figure out why: the client can take your detailed process breakdown, give it to a design student or a relative they think can do a better job for cheaper, and tell you to hit the road.

If this has never happened to you, count yourself lucky. If your clients require a tutorial for every little thing you do, this is a serious red flag. After all, they hired a designer, not a teacher. If they’re that curious about design, there are blogs for that (like this one) which you can point them to if necessary.

Read Also: Freelancers: Learning When To Say No To Clients

Don’t Think Of It As A Hassle

The natural response of most designers, when confronted with a curious (okay, nosy) client, is to grind their teeth in frustration. After all, these clients wouldn’t give their gardener or repairperson this much grief, would they? Of course they wouldn’t. It can take away a designer’s enthusiasm when they have to defend what they do to someone who thinks their job is insignificant.

The next time this happens to you (and believe me, it will), instead of getting angry, try to think of it as an opportunity to open up the complex world of design to someone on the outside looking in. Take on the role of “industry evangelist” and incorporate client education into your workflow.

Once your client sees the light, in a kind and non-condescending way, they’ll have far more respect for what you do, and anyone they refer you to will be easier to work with because of it.

Conclusion

No one likes annoying, designer-wannabe clients. But no client likes mysterious, know-it-all, grouchy designers. The freelancing process is a give and take, and the more clients out there who really “get” what design is all about, even if they don’t know the proprietary details of how you work, the better it will be for all designers out there.