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Sanford c01.tex V3 - 08/13/2008 2:49pm Page 9

Chapter 1: Why Design?

While it is important to focus on deliverables, it is also important for managers to understand how good

design reaches clients and to make sure that developers have the resources they need to make the site look

good, function ethically, and provide value. While it is true that some, or maybe even many, developers

don’t want to get involved in design work, it is equally true that many do. By pursuing the discipline of

design, they will become better employees who add tremendous value to the overall business.

Why Should Clients Care?

It is a safe bet to assume that clients have a primary reason to care about the design of their sites: the

user experience. For many sites, this translates into actual dollars. For others, it might mean that they are

getting their message out to the largest audience possible. However they quantify it, they should, and

almost always do, care about the design of their sites. Sure, they care about the nuts and bolts that run

the sites. But you can rest assured that they care about the way they look too.

And clients are getting better at quantifying this experience. Web metrics are becoming increasingly pop-

ular. People can fairly easily tell how many unique visitors access their sites. They can tell if they only go

to the main page and then leave (indicating a bad experience) or if they stay for a while and surf the

content available. If an analysis of the log ﬁles for the site shows that 90 percent of visitors access

the main page for an average of only 2.3 seconds and then leave, something in the design is just not

right. Whether that means that the content is such that nobody knows what the site is for or that the nav-

igation is so confusing and poorly planned that nobody even knows how to get to another page is not as

clear. What is clear, though, is that people found their sites and found them useless. Then they left.

In this example, the site is not performing whatever function it is supposed to (unless it is supposed to

run people off, in which case it is working perfectly). If the client is selling something, potential buy-

ers likely aren’t even seeing what is available for sale, much less buying anything. And if the site is a

public-information Web site preaching the gospel of good Web site design, it means nobody is listening

to the message. This can be frustrating and can affect revenues severely (even public-awareness sites

often sell advertisement space, which is affected by no-stays).

Increasingly more important will be the desire to stay out of court. For example, say the class-action

plaintiffs in an accessibility lawsuit get awarded $10,000,000 (or more). Who has to pay that? The designer

who designed the site? The manager who oversaw the designer’s work? Probably not. After all, any

independent consultant (or ﬁrm) will require the client to sign off before completing the project. So if the

client used an outside ﬁrm to design their site, they likely signed off on its ﬁnal design before releasing it

to the world. And, if the client didn’t even put in any business requirements to handle accessibility (or if

their requirements were vague), they can’t even say that they asked for accessible design but rather that

the designers failed. And if the client used in-house resources to design the site, there really is not any

gray area about who is responsible for the $10,000,000 penalty.

This example might be hypothetical, but it does reﬂect some of the very real concerns developing in the

business world. Either sites will get better about accommodating all users or lawsuits will become more

frequent. And going to court, win or lose, is not cheap. Even if you win the case, you are out the legal

costs. It’s better to worry about paying an extra $5,000 in the design budget than to worry about dealing

with an exponentially more expensive lawsuit down the road.

Plus, clients care about their image. They want their sites to look better than the competition. They want

to send links to their friends and colleagues and say, ‘‘Look at our new site!’’ Clients, maybe more than

any other group, care about design. And, if for no other reason, so should you.