The other day I posted The Oatmeal’s cartoon “How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell.”
In my post I described the cartoon as truthful, hilarious, and depressing. It turns out a lot of people agreed.
While only one comment was left, I received more messages on the cartoon than any post I have ever created (and the damn cartoon wasn’t even my idea).
Everyone said the same thing:
That cartoon is dead-on accurate.
People who work in design, development, site management, content creation, content strategy, and even people who work on the client side thought that the cartoon was profound, funny, and an accurate description of reality.
The people who contacted me about this live in places like New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, California, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom.
The events described in this cartoon are a universal experience in web design.
I thought it was funny until I contemplated the implications.
Website quality is suffering from inexperienced decision makers.
Organizational politics, personal preferences, and out-dated models of work are the factors that take precedence when many websites are created, and they make for a poor, if not useless user experience.
Audience, usefulness, and efficiency should be the primary drivers, but they clearly aren’t… If they were, the cartoon wouldn’t be poignant or funny.
The lesson?
Input regarding the technical parts of your trade, and how you want to present your business is great.
However, when you are working with competent web designers, let them do their job. If you know think you how to design a website, don’t hire a web designer.
The Geek Whisperer 