Andrew Maben wrote:
On Aug 14, 2007, at 6:14 PM, Philip Kiff wrote:
...you are not approaching the client-designer relationship in a way
that means "the customer is always right". You are rather approaching it
from a perspective that the customer does not know what is right...
The client is hiring you, presumably, because you provide expertise she
does not possess. Obviously there is no call for being confrontational,
but if the client is proposing design directions that are in fact
contrary to her own best interests, aren't we ethically obliged to point
this out and provide alternatives? No matter what the business of the
site's owner may be, if the site is not accessible to, and usable by its
*target audience* then the site will fail. And guess who's going to be
blamed for that failure...
This is quite true however is not common practice.
One of the problems many websites face is where they are positioned in an
organisation.
If it is the communication/publicity department, they probably see it as a
campaign and possibly even the latest iteration/campaign.
If it is the IT department they see it as an ongoing maintenance and support
night mare - quickly becoming another legacy system.
The reality is that websites provide a new way of business that impact on
everyone from the telephone call centre staff (they will get more complicated
calls) - information will be sought from the website.
Ofcourse, everyone also has a view of what is good and bad graphic design. It is
probably not worth fighting over the look which should be consistant with their
printed style.
Making the system usable is much more difficult - but you do need to identify
objectives and performance indicators.
see
<http://www.ramin.com.au/marg/performanceindicatorsforwebsites.html>
Marghanita
--
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: 0414 869202
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