Building it right: web design Rule 1.1 (overhead from those who actually do it)

Long title I know. Punchy. 

Last night I attended the Conversation Thursday event, this time focusing on User Experience (UX). The speakers (Hammad Khan of Zabisco, Paul Rourke of PRWD and Adam Gutteridge of Elisa-DBI) and the crowd were a super interesting and friendly bunch. The phrase "bat shit insane" (check out the highly successful Lingscars.com and you'll know what we were talking about) was also used, which you have to appreciate in any presentation!

Amongst the aha moments for me (there was a lot given I'm neither from a UX or web analytics background), was one that really resonated. It's simple: 

Get everyone responsible for the delivery of the site involved. In the beginning. 

Sounds obvious. Is obvious. But so rarely done. In marketing, advertising, people are always moaning about what they were handed by the person above them in the chain. The finished artist creating from a concept design, the designer from the art director, the art director from the client handlers and the client handlers from the client. Remember Chinese whispers?

Same thing in web design - the people doing the build handed optimistic briefs by designers and the designer responding to a potentially non-expert brief from the client. In fact, I am sure I have been guilty of writing some of those!

Enough with moaning! There are so many brilliant people who really do 'get it' along the way. But if we don't connect with them, we miss the goodness we pay them for - their skill in their particular area. 


Hence Rule 1.1: Get everyone responsible for the delivery of the site involved. In the beginning. 

What's Building it right: web design Rule 1.0? Get everyone excited by the brilliant thing  the new site we are creating will achieve by making the vision clear, vivid and shared. In the beginning.

You can see @paulrouke's entertaining presentation here.