Comments on: The Business of Web Design

By: canvas oil painting

canvas oil painting — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:42:11 +0000

Just recently we’ve posted a project on web design at one site where freenlancers can be found. After a week of receiving both impressive and lousy bids from all, we’ve decided to award the project to a service provider. It was really frustrating because after a few exchange of finished logos and the likes from the service provider we didn’t get what we really wanted. I guess the things you have enumerated here are forgotten by the designers we hired.

By: vacuum cleaners

vacuum cleaners — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:16:37 +0000

Perhaps you’re right, or perhaps wrong. I can’t really decide. It makes sense that you have such a strong personal motivation – something that you enjoy doing – and that this motivation boils over into your business. That’s cool. But, when you place the interests of your clients above yours… well, in one sense, that’s good… in another, that can drain you and therefore drain your creative energy.
I would say that there may be another motive in here that you’re not looking at – social responsibility. Not in the traditional sense, but in a tech sense. Is not your interest in gadgets inspiring you to push the envelope in design for your clients? I’m not sure I see anything specifically wrong with the order you’ve put things, to be honest.

By: David W.

David W. — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 06:22:51 +0000

What I keep telling myself, though, is that I get excited about things because they seem like a good idea. Not just because they’re new — after all, the iSmell and Smell-o-vision didn’t take off, right? They just weren’t good ideas.
Granted, hindsight is 20/20 and maybe there are drawbacks to something that you can’t see yet — this is something where experience will help provide a critical eye. But overall I really do think we’re developing these things for good not evil.
And after all, if they do turn out bad it’ll probably be time to revisit the site again anyway, right?

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 15:12:25 +0000

Prioritising your aims is a bit like the chicken and the egg, where it seems there are lots of overlaps, but if you arent a designer, it is maybe more obvious?
To me as a non designer it is bizarre that it took 13 comments to spell out what should be number one in the list – that a website is designed to be used by people who will contribute to the profit website owners are seeking.
ie users need the website to work, else they won’t go to the site. Those happy customers of website owners make a site a viable proposition for owners, and the happy owners have some means of income for paying designers.

By: David Meriwether

David Meriwether — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 11:50:52 +0000

Order, just to continue the musical chairs:
1. Users
2. Business
3. Personal
Really, taking care of users covers it. The designer can bring all the creativity and techies into use, and filter them for practical design, i.e. user interest and functionality. Design goals are user needs, preferences, and motivations. (A very good argument for eliminating flashing banners and other distractions, but I doubt the user’s preferences make much difference on that one.) Because…
When Business comes before the user in your list, then the user winds up serving the needs, whims, manipulations of business. Hmmm. What happened to “the customer is always right?” It has been surpressed in the rush to the next quarterly earnings report. The user just has to get used to serving the business because there is no place else to go. A website that put users first might just find a niche.

By: Richard Quick

Richard Quick — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 15:42:57 +0000

I think all 3 go hand in hand, after all you’re not going to produce good work if your heart’s not in it.
However, I think Paul’s on the money when he points out that the fundamental reason for doing things should be the business case. You design usable sites BECAUSE it’s good for the business – not the other way around.
I do think far to many web designers design for theor portfolios, not their clients, but even if you’re not one of them it’s important to be aware of the order in which the priorities SHOULD go.

By: Richard Conyard

Richard Conyard — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 15:25:08 +0000

As someone that no longer gets down and dirty each day with the code I generally work with the order inversed, however would say for a sucessful operation points one and two must be to a large degree mutually inclusive to point 3.
At the end of the day it’s point 3 that pays the wages, but unless point 2 is considered ( benefits to users), point 3 (business / bottom line), suffers.
Best practice and accessibility far from being a standpoint of moral high-ground delivers real business benefits; not only for end users, clients, but also design houses. The moans and groans when it comes to maintaining systems that were written with best practice in mind (of course we all make mistakes, which is why I wouldn’t be so arrogant to say written using the best practice), are markedly lower, quicker to implement and produce solid business benefits far quicker. There are stats around to back this up, but I’m afraid I’m just going on day-to-day operations over here where the evangelical line has dropped and it’s now just a part of doing things properly.
Point one and point 3 are somewhat more difficult to rationalise with so much new technology doing the rounds. On this I believe that happy staff are productive staff. Obviously we can’t blue-sky all day long, but without stretching the old grey matter now and again people slow down. There is also incentive (I want to work on this, but I have to get this done before), apart from the fact my motives are so transparent I’d get worried that other members of the team are likely to read this.
We can’t all be Google-esque companies and devote as much time to R&D as they do, but without innovation companies stiffle and business productivity ( point 3 ), drops through the floor.
We work in an industry where our key assets are the people that make up our teams, the work they produce and the reputation of those teams. I expect that outgoings in relation to the team that headscape have assembled are the largest, I know they are over here. Like any other business in the world to maintain a successful business our key assets must be used effectively, treated well and constantly improving. These would put points one and two firmly under the banner of point 3.

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 10:51:29 +0000

Of course the bottom line is that the business succeeds.
There will always be a need for the evangelism of great user experience and design; and this is something that “Web 2.0″ has helped to address. It’s not about reflections or AJAX, it’s about finally focussing on the end-user, and those that do it well, will have put a good foot forward as long as the business proposition is a decent one.
I do not believe that we’re using business objectives as an excuse for self indulgence, in fact it is recognizing that for people to be productive and happy, they must enjoy what they do, instead of banging out bland corporate websites.

By: Paul Boag

Paul Boag — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 09:57:14 +0000

Ask yourself what google’s motivation is for doing that? Ultimately it is because they believe it will benefit their business. I am not saying that personal motivation doesnt matter. I am saying that it only matters in the context of business objectives.
Clients dont pay us for self indulgence. They dont even pay us to create a great user experience. They pay us to produce a profitable website for them that achieves their business aims.
I dont disagree with any of the comments made above. However, you are looking at it the wrong way around. It is almost as if you are using business objectives as an excuse for self indulgence. Sure keeping motivated is important, but ONLY BECAUSE it helps you supply a better service for your clients.

By: Keri

Keri — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 04:28:14 +0000

That's Google's model, using all their power derived from their monstrous monopoly into their employees: devote a day a week to a project of the employee's choosing. From what I hear, that's how Google Maps was born. They can even bring their dogs to work!