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The Business of Web Design

Published on: October 6, 2006 by Paul Boag

I have been thinking a lot about our motivation as web designers (as you do!) and am becoming increasingly concerned that in many cases our motivation in projects is entirely wrong.

I say “our motivation as web designers” but what I really mean is “my motivation”. I guess I have been doing some soul searching and have not been entirely happy with what I have found. However, I suspect that if you look honestly at yourself then you will find that, if you are a web designer, you suffer from a similar problem.

We are primarily driven by personal motivations and the desire to “play” with new technologies. The business drivers for implementing a new technique come at the bottom of our list and are really only a useful way of justifying what it is that we want to do anyway.

Personal motivation

So what am I talking about? Well, the web is a really exciting place at the moment. There is so much innovation and so many new technologies and techniques emerging. From tagging to AJAX, we are surrounding by cool things we are just itching to try out. We are constantly looking for opportunities to experiment with this stuff and that is no bad thing because it is by experimenting that we learn. If you are anything like me you are a diehard geek and love playing with new technologies and ways of doing things. That is what gets you up in the morning.

Benefiting our users

Of course, our desire to use all these techniques and technologies isn’t entirely selfish. Another motivation for us is the desire to benefit our end users. After all we are “user centric designers” right? Technologies like AJAX create a more pleasant user experience and the “trendy” web 2.0 design style, makes a site easier to navigate and read. The fact that we will look good to our peers and more attractive to prospective clients by using these approaches is a secondary consideration… isn’t it?

Business benefits

There is an added bonus to all these innovations too. In many cases they will benefit the clients business. Benefits such as reduced maintenance costs, increased customer satisfaction, fast development… the list could go on. All of these arguments are incredibly useful when trying to convince a client that they need to let you implement the latest “good practice”.

The underlying problem

So what is my problem? It is not that I have an issue with the three motivating factors outlined above. What I am uncomfortable with is the order. If we are completely honest with ourselves, in many cases the order is the same as that outlined above:

Personal motivation
Benefits to users
Business benefits

I would argue that the list should actually be completely inverted. I believe that business benefits and objectives should be our primary concern even above the benefits to users. At the end of the day a website has to meet client objectives. Of course, in the majority of cases these objectives are best met by providing a good user experience, but our motivation should primarily be driven by business demands and not user needs. As for personal motivation, well that should come last of all.

There are too many implementations of AJAX which exist only for personal gratification rather than business need. The same applies for design, standards, accessibility and indeed any other “best practice” you care to mention.

Please don’t misinterpret me. I am not saying any of these things are wrong. They can all be hugely beneficial to most businesses. What I am saying is that each of us as designers or developers has to take a long hard look at why we are recommending various approaches to clients and ensure that our motivation is primarily business focused.

As web designers, many of us somehow perceive ourselves above such torrid pursuits as business objectives. There is a definite climate of moral superiority at the moment as we focus on accessibility and best practice. Although it is good that web design is moving away from the early days when we were the web equivalent of time share salesmen, we need to be careful that our new found enthusiasm for best practice doesn’t divorce us from the realities of business online.

Comments

Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email

Post by Paul Lacey on October 6, 2006 12:45 PM

So true... Javascript libraries, AJAX, it could get like Flash Intro's all over again - but a least a bit more useful!
Post by Gary Hides on October 6, 2006 2:12 PM

I see what you're saying. But, quite often I find that it's the business owners who are often the most guilty when it comes to wanting pointless additions to their web sites. Mainly Flash based ones!

And I agree; it's our job to come up with business focussed web solutions for our clients. Not just fancy web gadgets just for the sake of it.

Although some of those gadgets/gizmos are sooooo cool. Also, as a web designer, if you have added something fancy to one client's site, it's much easier to sell to others.
Post by Kelvin on October 6, 2006 3:06 PM

Paul,

I believe that you those 3 motivating factors in the correct order to begin with.

Designers et al. like to play with new technologies because it increases their motivation. This is a good thing as individuals need personal motivation to be able to perform their daily tasks effectively. (It's what OTs do.)

But I have faith that the reason designers like to play with the new toys, is to further enhance the user experience! This is what drives up personal motivation; trying something else out and saying "Yeah, that's cool!".

And if the users are happy, and the business proposition is a valid one, then the business objective should be satisfied.
Post by Bob on October 6, 2006 3:34 PM

Maybe true but is it a bad thing?
If you are focused of the business side and what is effective then you simply will get bord and lose interest.

If you are no longer excited / passionate about what you do then you will do it badly.

Of course, if you are only doing stuff because it's cool then you will probably, eventually run out of business.

Balance then I guess is the answer. Maybe time needs to be built in for "personal projects" where designers / techies get to play and experiment.
Post by Ludwig on October 7, 2006 12:09 AM

The order seems to be correct for me.

As designers we need to keep ourselves happy to keep our motivation up so that we will still do quality work, staff motivation has a huge influence in the Economies of Scale of a business and an increase of EoS will lead to a great ROI as costs of production has decreased. You must remember that as a designer that is part of Headscape you should be mainly concerned with the success of your own business. Sure you should care about your client's business but the only reason you are doing thisn is to make money.
The users need to be liking your site and it should work for them otherwise they will leave soon and not come back. This can't be good for the business because without users they won't be having any potential customers and therefore no-one to sell goods to.
Finally we come to the Business benefits (two of which are above.) Let's recap why, if you are a happy designer you are a good designer which will mean you create quality goods (websites.) These quality websites will be consumed by happy consumers (who won'tleave the site due to it's great quality) and will therefore purchase the business' goods.

It makes sense to me, no?
Post by Brion on October 7, 2006 12:31 AM

I would have to agree with Kelvin. Creating a more positive user experience is a good thing. I guess for me it is a matter of defining what is "cool". I think anything that enhances the user experience and helps users achieve their goals is 'cool'.

When we as designers/developers see something that is 'cool' it is (for me anyway) usually because I feel it is something that can help solve problems or enhance the user experience.

I think that the bottom line is making choices that are appropriate. I think a perfect example is the new Yahoo! Mail beta. Very appropriate use of AJAX.

But your point is definitely a valid one. I do believe that there are a lot of inappropriate decisions made by both clients and designers/developers, but I think that many times those decisions and choices stem from us having had a positive experience with the technology or solution that we are recommending.
Post by Richard Quick on October 7, 2006 4:28 AM

You see, my prorities have always been in that "reverse" order.

I design for my clients, not my portfolio - and it bugs the hell out of me when people do the opposite.

However, I think you could argue that while designing for your clients is in their short-term interests, over the medium term web design is advanced by people who AREN'T designing for their clients.

For example, Web Standards were never created because they were in any individual clients' short term best interest.

However, in the medium term we have all benefitted from them.
Post by Keri on October 7, 2006 4:28 AM

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!
Post by Paul Boag on October 7, 2006 9:57 AM

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.
Post by Kelvin on October 7, 2006 10:51 AM

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.
Post by Richard Conyard on October 8, 2006 3:25 PM

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.
Post by Richard Quick on October 8, 2006 3:42 PM

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.
Post by David Meriwether on October 9, 2006 11:50 AM

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.
Post by Andy on October 14, 2006 3:12 PM

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.
Post by David W. on October 18, 2006 6:22 AM

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?
Post by vacuum cleaners on December 27, 2007 11:16 AM

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.
Post by canvas oil painting on March 14, 2008 12:42 PM

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.

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