Fighting the Machine
Web design is a constant war, with many battles being fought across many fronts during the course of even the seemingly most simple of projects.
Perhaps thinking of everything in terms of being a battle is not a particularly healthy mindset to adopt when embarking upon a project. Unfortunately I have been stung once too often and while I always hope the next project will be the perfect project, my rose-tinted glasses have become dulled enough for me not to cling on to unrealistic hopes.
Round 1...
And so on to the conflict; battles with clients, project stakeholders and suppliers. Internal battles with colleagues, account managers, scheduling and deadlines - not to mention internal battles within oneself. One or all of these are almost inevitable to happen at some point during the course of a project, and I have learned to take this as is it comes, learn from it and move onwards and upwards.
The only battle I have been unable to fully reconcile is the age old titanic struggle of time versus money. How do you win a job at a rate that won't put you out of business, whilst commanding enough time to produce something special?
Caring about your work, it would seem in this industry, is destined to punish all but the lucky few.
The Dirty Dozen
I have found, as I'm sure many of you have, that there are far too many indifferent designers in this world who are content to churn out any old rubbish for a quick buck. They're in it for the money and to hell with the quality of what they actually produce. That leaves those of us who do care in a difficult position.
I know from experience that it is easier to produce something a bit more special when working in a freelance capacity. You alone are in charge of securing the appropriate fee and managing your own time on the project. It is easier to spend that extra hour getting something perfect since it is your own time you are on - you are able to rationalise the extra effort in terms of the obvious benefits to your portfolio and the general the warm feeling of pride you get in your belly when you know you've done a good job.
Working on a project within an agency environment, on the other hand, is a little different...
The Corporate Machine
The budget is agreed by others. Unless you're lucky enough to work at an agency run by fellow web professionals, this means bean-counters who rarely have any grasp of the actual level of work involved in the project they have been heavily discounting in order to ensure their 10% commission.
Time is scheduled by project managers who are bound by their own weekly targets and care little for what is ultimately produced, other than that it is produced and approved by the client.
These places are tantamount to sweat-shops. Mass-production lines that spew out website, after website, after website.
And what of the web designer caught in the middle of this? You can fight the battle and argue your corner. Insist that quality work begets quality clients - organisations that are willing to pay more because they will get more. Spending more time and care on a job results in ammunition for the sales team. Work that will sell itself.
Unfortunately you are likely to be fobbed off with the time equals money mantra. Individuals like this are unable to see beyond the end of next week. So short-sighted are they, you are doomed to repeat this endless cycle each and every project.
Executive Decision
So what can be done to fight the machine?
If you have any suggestions then please do share. I'll start with the obvious - bail out.
Comments are closed for this journal entry.
Kitsimons...
...is the online home of Simon Kitson, a web designer with a healthy enthusiasm for standards-compliant, accessible design and a penchant for blogging about nothing in particular.
Notes
For those of us who have sent drunken late-night emails only to regret it come the cold light of day, the new Mail Goggles feature in Gmail is likely to save much embarrassment.
Novel use of You Tube for promoting the launch of Wario Land: Shake It! on the Wii. Very nicely done.
Super sexy Pantone Mugs. Available from Supernice (and other retailers). Sweet.- Nice Nike Football ad from Madonna's better half.
- Top marks for the realigned BBC News website, bringing it more in line with the lovely new, jQuery driven, BBC homepage.
Beautiful full-screen image browsing served up by the snazzy PicLens plug-in. Impressive, though practicality is debatable.- Yahoo shifts to search the
semantic web
. Potentially huge, and very welcome news for usstandards nuts
. 
The Coke Zero Game. Latest masterpiece from the infuriatingly talented North Kingdom.
It's sites like the Red Bull Flight Lab that remind you what Flash is for. Brilliant application and an awful lot of fun.- Rejoice! The new Indiana Jones trailer has finally made an appearance. Can't wait.
Simon
2 November, 2006
>So what can be done to fight the machine? If you have any suggestions then please do share. I’ll start with the obvious – bail out.<
I think you’ve asked a question but also answered it – bail out of it!
I personally feel that you can’t change a large organisation from the inside, it’s sad but I think you have to remove yourself from it for them to realise the problem. A bit miserable, I know, but I think that’s the only solution. To be honest, I think you’re only going to get a certain type of client if you run a ‘sweat-shop’ production line. I’m sure many companies with low aspirations are happy with working things in this way – It annoys me when they call themselves ‘design’ companies though – there’s no actual design there, just formulaic styling. If you remove yourself from the situation, you can join (or form your own!) company and work with different, design-led principles.
I think it’s all about educating the client that the cheapest design does not necessarily equal the best design. I’m sure in many cases, this way of thinking actually costs the client more in the long term!
Nice one for bringing this discussion up – it’s an important issue for a web designer – or, any designer, come to that.
Kitsimons
5 November, 2006
Spot on Simon – changing a large organisation is an almost impossible task, unless you’re at or near the top. Which is a shame really, as it’s the “soldiers” on the ground who are usually best placed to identify where and how improvements can be made.
It’s the smaller design agencies that worry me though. More often than not, these companies employ less than 20 people. Here, the lowliest intern can rub shoulders with the Managing Director.
And in my experience, these kinds of companies are just as resistant to change as larger organisations – if not more so. This is especially true in the case of family run businesses…
Rik Lomas
5 November, 2006
Kit, I’d have to disagree with you about smaller companies. Although, it can be impossible to change small companies, but I find that your opinion can matter so much more. With interns rubbing shoulders with MDs, there’s more chance to talk to people higher up the scale and directly influence them. Whether they’ll listen is a completely different matter…
Steve Tucker
5 November, 2006
Good post and good topic. There is no fighting the machine – most people only care about web design as a form of revenue rather than expression, and anything that gets in the way, including quality, is a no-go.
I work for myself and therefore I thankfully dont have to answer to a timekeeping boss. However that doesnt solve the time vs money problem. My solution was to spend some initial time writing a high-quality foundation on which to build the majority of my future websites. As much of the hard, repetitive work is already done all is left to do is custom stuff, like dropping in of content and graphic design. This does though have its downfalls – oftem my commercial websites follow a similar pattern, particularly on a structural level, and these could begin to look mass-produced sooner or later. Still, thats much better than the alternative – bankrupcy or a shite quality portfolio.
Kitsimons
5 November, 2006
That’s exactly it Rik – whether they listen. Maybe I’ve just drawn the short straw each time, as in spite of being able to talk directly with the MDs, I’ve never had any luck in influencing any of them.
Furthermore, in my experience these individuals are a lot more precious about “their company” and as such care little to implement any meaningful changes, unless it was their idea.
But I’m probably generalising too much. I’m a little bitter given my own experiences.
Steve – I think your approach is spot on. Most agencies will have some sort of custom-built library that is used over and over in order to save time. Thankfully users only really notice the visual appearance of a site (unless something doesn’t work) meaning you can give the illusion of websites being different, even if they are almost identical “under the hood”.
It’s a great foundation to have in place each time you embark upon a job. Unfortunately I’ve experienced people unwilling to put the time in to get that foundation in place (the short-sighted management I mentioned).
Steve Tucker
6 November, 2006
@Kit – People who cant even spare the time to set solid foundations for their work are fools. They may be in business now, but not for long when judged by the the quality of their work. They shouldnt be in this industry – they should get a job as a parking inspector, or a lawyer instead ;)