Design Decay
May 30, 2006 \ 2 CommentsNormally when you develop a product or work on a project, adding resources and effort makes your product or project better. Most companies will, at some point, reinvest their profits to enhance the functionality and design of their products. More time, minds, and hands on something usually makes it better.
Unfortunately in the world of graphic design, the opposite seems to be the rule. Now if you seek the help of other designers, your website or printed work will usually get better. Lots of design eyes on a single design can bring out the best (or sometimes it severely delays production because opinions clash). But when you're creating something for a client who doesn't have a design eye, their collaboration, addition of resources, and feedback usually result in degradation of the design.
For example, I recently finished a corporate intranet site for American Express. I'm gradually handing the site back over to the Communications Manager as she feels more and more comfortable making updates. She's somewhat Dreamweaver savvy, and she recognizes when she doesn't use the StyleSheet and deviates from the design theme. But for all the other collaborators, I had to pop their portion of the website into its own window. I couldn't bear to see them slaughter the template and add their Word-generated design to the site.
So what do we do about it? How do we gently tell the people paying us to work for them to put their crayons away and let us control the design? How do we convince the CEO that a hopping pink frog in the form of an animated GIF on the home page will lower the value of their brand? This is, by far, the most difficult and frustrating part of the design/development process.
More people need to admit their aesthetic ineptness, put down the control stick, and let the designer design. I'll start us all off:
I am not the greatest [insert professional title here] in the world. I need improvement. I will trust superior [insert professional title here] to guide me in the ways of truth, light, and improvement.
I feel better already.
Tags: decay, design, graphic design
Good points. I think it's really a danger zone when trying to get non-design people, in general, to understand and work well with design. Recently I've come across a similar situation, with mixed success. I'll share what I feel has worked well:
- Explain the reasoning in a new design - if the new design is to give somewhat of a make-over to an old look and feel, and to improve the image of a certain company/department, then stress the importance of the new image
- Talk about acceptable and unacceptable - I think it's important to tie this to the new look/feel talk, otherwise, people may get offended. "With the old look, we could do ____, but in the new look, we're really trying to avoid _____ or make sure that we ______ since it gives a look that is ______ and not _____." A nice part of this option is that you don't have to name names with previous design flaws, but you can still point out that they were truly horrible.
- Give new/replacement ideas - providing a good list for the new design, and the possibilities of what it can do tend to really make it easy for some people to swap. Granted, some people might still want "Something that really stands out" incorporated somehow into the design, and that still can happen, within reason. Maybe create specific, style-consistent, classes/styles for the person to use on special occasions.
- Some people never get it - Hopping pink frogs will always make the cut in some people's minds. I think if a good talking-to doesn't fix it, and they don't appeal to reason... resort to the last option (not a suckers choice) - violence.
Sounds good to me!Good comment. If I were as cool as everyone else on the web, I'd give you a free iPod Shuffle.