DrieStone Design

The Portfolio of Jonathan Sweet

Advertising Agencies vs. Web Designers

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Advertising agencies, PR firms and graphic artists are talented people with creative ideas. They are knowledgeable in their field, and produce quality work, however they are not web designers*.

Why is it a poor design?

These agencies design web sites like they design printed ads, as if it is a printed on a physical piece of paper. Web sites are a different medium, and there are certain design rules that should be followed. Most agencies are using the wrong set of rules to design their web sites.

The problem

The core of the issue is the reinforcement of bad habits. They think they know how to design a web site, because they’ve done it (they think successfully) a dozen times before. The typical top-down flow doesn’t allow for these bad habits to change. At the bottom of the work flow is the web designer that is saddled with a poor layout that must be implemented as outlined (because it’s been approved by the client).

The lose-lose situation

Because the web developer is usually forced to “make it work”, the agencies aren’t required to make changes (or learn what is the “right way”). A poorly designed format can force a developer to spend much more time trying to meet the expectations of the client and the agency.

Beyond that the final design will be weaker because the DNA was transplanted from a brochure or a newspaper ad. Vital concepts like usability and accessibility are ignored.

How it should work

Building a web site should be a collaborative effort, not a top-down hierarchy. If working with an agency is required, the agency should be responsible for the overall branding, but the web designer should be responsible for the specifics.

The Top Five Design Faux Pas

  1. Locked to paper: A web page’s size is dynamic, the author doesn’t know if the end-user has a small or a large monitor. Most agencies don’t consider this and create situations where either the content is too small, or too large for a user’s monitor.
  2. Content in a box: Similar to the issues with the locked to paper issues, agencies occasionally create a box to put content inside of. This area is constrained both horizontally and vertically. This doesn’t take into account non-default text sizes, or other content issues that won’t fit within the pre-defined “box”.
  3. Breaking the basics: Web users have certain expectations of web pages. Breaking these expectations creates unneeded confusion for the end-user. This includes things like: removing any differentiation between hyperlinks and normal text.
  4. Form instead of Function: On many occasions I have seen the agency choose to ignore the functionality and usability of the site because it doesn’t fit within their artistic vision.
  5. Complex over Simple: Agencies can think up creative ways to reinvent the wheel that eat up (sometimes) precious development hours unnecessarily. I’ve been requested many times to build a custom scrollbar.

The web designer needs to be part of the creative process from the project kick-off, so that any issues or pitfalls that occur in the process can be solved before the client approves the format design. The greater input the web designer has in the development of the format, the easier it will be to develop the rest of the site (and the better the site will be).

Disclaimer

I know that there are advertising agencies and graphic artists that do understand how to design for the web (properly). It is too bad that those agencies are the exception and not the rule.

* In this case, I am defining the web designer as someone with the ability to create a look for a web site and turn that into valid HTML/XHTML code.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 29th, 2006 at 7:59 pm and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.