Are testimonials a cliché?

Originally Posted by Village Genius Testimonials can speak to how you do business.

this is why you use them. period. clients don't care about design.

they care about as far as "as long as it's not ugly". clients are business people. it's all about costs and ROI. they want stuff that's easy and makes them a profit. as far as design goes as long as it doesn't look fugly or severely dated (meaning they'll have to redo this process next year), you're good enough for them - look at the amount of shitty sites still floating around the web.

only employers (creative directors) will care about the actual design techniques of your portfolio. everyone else wants to hear about how they didn't have to babysit you - or about how you actually care about design and some innovative idea you had they never thought of ended up making them money so it was worth the "risk".