Everyone is an expert, especially when it comes to Web Design

Jason Mauss has blogged about everyone having an opinion on web design. It gave me a chuckle cos it is so true. Got to disagree on one point though. He reckons people don't get so opinionated about interior design, etc. Sorry Jason, in my experience people will have an opinion about anything they are not qualified to discuss :O)

Like anything in life, there are people who are just plain opinionated. There are also people who "don't know much about _ _ _ _ but I know what I like".

Ever redecorated and had friends round or tried to sell a house and listened to what the potential buyers (tyre kickers) say about it? My wife is a qualified interior designer, does not stop people figuring they could do a better interior design job. After all, they have "Home & Leisure" on sattelite! ;O)

When it comes to web design people feel even more comfortable giving their opinions. It seems after people have used the web for about 10 minutes they suddenly think they "get it" and can start spouting about typography, usability, information architecture, online marketing, etc. Even worse if they have used frontpage, dreamweaver or some other noddy "can't do HTML but I can design web sites" do everything for you package.

Programmers are often the worst culprits of this, I know because I do it all the time ;O). A) Because they do know HTML B) Because they confuse writing HTML with design. Despite it being rare to find a programmer with design sensibilities they do exist. Problem is a lot of programmers think they fit into that mold ;O) I feel I am a little more qualified to have an opinion on this stuff but then I would wouldn't I?

Most people you can either politely listen to then ignore or throw your head back and laugh in their face. Clients, unfortunately, you do need to listen to. A talented designer I know has one client who says "Yeah, looks ok. Could have done it myself in Corel Draw though". Very upsetting and not much you can say back.

This problem was addressed by cunning designers in the past by adding stuff to their designs that the knew the client wouldn't like but wouldn't be too offended by. They new the client would have it removed and then would feel had improved the product and had made their contribution without actually ever compromising the designers original idea. Problem was some clients had absolutely no taste whatsoever and the bad elements sometimes ended up in the final design.

When presenting designs to clients we often present both the design and a rationale. When you explain the thinking, and some times the development stages before that brought you to the result, clients often understand better. You still get the odd one who say "I understand what you are saying but I still want a flash intro" but what are you going to do?

Noone has a monopoly on talent or good ideas. Getting Joe Publics opinion, no matter how odd or ignorant, can be very enlightening. Focus groups can often just give red herring results unless managed very well (especially need to quiet the big mouth bully, there is always one, and get peoples defenses down) but it is suprising how valuable focus groups and end user testing can be.

The real point is this though; listen to any and all feedback, everyone can contribute something and some times the best ideas can be sparked by a throwaway comment. Not everyone criticises to be distructive, more often people think they are being genuinely helpful. Some times it is more healthy and productive to send our egos off for a long walk for a while. It's often the best way to produce an excellent result :O)

4 Comments

  • My main issue is the overuse and therefore watered-down meaning of web 'design'. Design was once almost a hallowed term reserved for creatives, whereas it has become owned by anyone with a home PC and basic knowledge of Frontpage and little or no ability in true design disciplines - or genuine interest often. This has devalued the design industry as a whole in recent years - sticking professional tools within reach of your average enthusiast has also added to this, but that's another story.



    It simply means survival of the fittest... those of us with real skills have to ensure we stand out from the masses and raise the bar to capture a higher level of work opportunity.



    Rant over. ;)

  • To Neil - yeah, but most people can generally tell a professionally-designed (or at least designed by someone who knows what they are doing) from a non-designer's site, at least unconciously.



    To Chris, in regards to the post - I think the most important part that everyone who uses a site can tell you is how "easy" or not it is to do what they want to do. If you steer the discussion properly, you can find usability flaws in the pretty design. Of course, this is only for designers that actually want feedback. :)

  • The easiest way to tell a professional design site versus a non-professional site is to simply peek at the HTML code. If there are all kinds of "p" tags with no content. If there are some attributes with quotes and some without, you can tell it was done by a professional. They don't give a darn about what the markup is as long as the page looks great. Their tools like DreamWeaver are the tell tale sign.



    A programmer using notepad on the other hand, will have beautiful html source code but not so beautiful of a view.



    -Dave

  • What upsets me is the idea that clients sometimes have that being a professional web developer is actually a disadvantage when developing good interfaces. :)

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