Let’s say that you need a new hot water heater and that you’ve decided on a make and model from a particular manufacturer. Before you sign the purchase order, do you call the manufacturer’s production group and insist on design changes?

You’ve decided to purchase a particular model of a GM pickup truck. What happens if you fax the design group a list of your requirements for your truck?

So, maybe these aren’t the most realistic of scenarios. Instead, suppose we consider this parody of what occurs when a committee becomes a bit too involved in the design process:

What’s the Point?

If you chose your designer well—if you considered the professional qualifications and portfolio of your designer—trust the designer to know his or her craft. Odds are that your designer spends a lot of time keeping up with:

• World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards for hypertext markup language (HTML) and cascading style sheets (CSS)
• User interface design usability
• User experience
• Information design
• Information architecture
• Search engine optimization & marketing best practices
• Web & data accessibility
• Web hosting
• Site & data security

If, for example, you decided to use a content management system, your designer also keeps abreast of:

• CMS updates
• Templates & templating updates
• Third-party component, module, & plug-in updates

Planes of Existence

As with any product there are three dimensions, or planes of existence. These are:

The Concept

Basically, this involves the requirements for the project and include decisions such as whether the type of site, the function of the site, and communication needs. Other major considerations are:

• Audience
• Type of content
• Location (Web host)
• Information for the front page, or “home”
• Web technology

Under the Hood

This is that most dreaded of areas: The Code. Regardless of the system used (static HTML, Content Management), there will be separate pages of code that must work together to present your content to Web visitors. These include:

• Establish the site root folder on the Web host server
• Install & configure the selected Web technology
• Design & implement the underlying database, if required
• Code or modify the HTML, PHP, INI, LANG, & CSS pages
• Install components, modules, & plug-ins
• Configure components, modules, & plug-ins
• Establish & configure all links
• Implement content provided by the site owner consistently with the database, or information, architecture
• Ensure that all content is written well and grammatically correct
• Establish meta data information, such as the site title and keywords
• Establish tags for all content
• Optimize the site content for Web search engines
• Optimize the screen resolution

The Display

Of course, this is how your site looks on the World-Wide Web and involves matters such as:

• Content organization
• Link organization (navigation)
• Template consistency across pages
• Accessibility of information
• Contact information
• Legal information
• Screen resolution

Want to Drive your Designer to Distraction?

First, and most importantly, don’t remember that your designer used the system and the design (or template) you selected. Here are some more suggestions:

Focus Group

A focus group can be very important to a design. However, focus groups are expensive to set up and run using standard marketing practices. One great way to avoid the expense while deriving some benefit is to ask some friends of yours, especially those who don’t know about Web standards or the design decisions you’ve made, to critique the site after your designer deploys it for you.

User Sensitivity

If a site visitor complains of a problem with, for example, navigation, accept the complaint and pass it to your designer. It shouldn’t matter if the item or article sought is highlighted on the front page—the fact that the visitor didn’t see it illustrates a design fault.

Make It Unique & The Same

One of your requirements may have been that your site reflect your company branding. However, when you see another company’s site that impresses you, point that site out to your designer as an example of how you want your site to look and feel. This is particularly impressive if it involves any of the following:

• A major change of template
• Complete reorganization of your content
• Use of a different content management system

Remember:

Trust your designer as you (should) trust your plumber or mechanic.