September 4th 2008
I came upon this in my archives yesterday. It typifies the actions of both public and private concerns:
In the beginning was the plan
And then came the assumptions
And the assumptions were without form
And the plan was completely without substance
And darkness was upon the faces of the workers
And they spake amongst themselves saying
“It is a crock of shit and it stinketh”
And the workers went to the planners and sayeth
“It is a pile of dung and none may abide the odour thereof”
And the supervisors went to the managersand sayeth unto them
“It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide its strength”
And the managers went to the directors and sayeth
“It contains that which aids growth and is very strong”
And the directors went to the vice president and sayeth
“It promoteth growth and it is very powerful”
And the Vice President went to the President and sayeth unto him
“This powerful new plan will actively promote
the growth and efficiency of the department”
And the President looked upon the plan and saw that it was good
And the Plan became policy.
Some websites are not too much different.
In big corporations, a number of areas will have their finger in the website design pie.
There will be sales, marketing, design, customer service, IT all having their six pennorth. Let’s not forget the MD who, not to be eclipsed, has his own - mistaken - views on things. The end result is a mishmash of marketing hype and redundant content that lost its focus months before. Finally, the poor sod who’s the website designer has to cobble this clown’s trousers into a website.
Yes, there are plenty of small operations with dreadful websites but that is for a different reason. Usually they don’t appreciate the advantages of their website and they get bamboozled by smooth talking webbies promising them tsunamis of traffic if they would only get out of the Stone Age.
Big corporations make mistakes not because of lack of talent, knowledge or funds but in a similar way to small business, they do not appreciate what makes a successful website.
Moral? Focus on your visitor.