The Designers Creed: Done Right? Or Done Right Now?
by Heather ChampI was stunned upon entering the Javits Center in New York last week to see the lavish extravanganza that was now Meckler's seasonal Internet World. I had attended the previous two Internet Worlds, in Boston last fall at the World Trade Center and this past spring in San Jose. Given that Boston's event was a quarter of the size, and none too shabby at that, you can imagine how this exponential growth might give pause.
On top of my hopeless efforts to navigate through the six acres of booths and exhibits, I also participated in a panel "Webmasters Round Table" and lead a hands-on workshop, "Interface Design Paradigms," both of which gave me the chance to meet and talk with my peers. Given that so much of our toil as designers and developers occurs in small, chronically understaffed teams at breakneck speed, it was a rare relief to commiserate with others who work in this industry called new media.
Previous to lunching with a group of friends in San Jose I had thought that the digital fairies had cursed my cradle as the result of some small perceived slight by my parents. Why does my machine crash at the very worst possible moment? Why does the client always decide at the very end that its tag line may be ineffectual? Why do I seem to be living in perpetual beta? How can I design the ultimate whiz-bang site for my client that will fulfill the "I want a cool site," while still being a full meal deal for that one individual out there who persists in surfing via lynx? This lunch proved to me that this was a shared culture, a way of life for my peers in their daily business, developing and designing for the Web and Internet beyond.
Done right or done right now?
Lori Hylan, Design Diary's previous author and now Web Producer at Macromedia, uttered this winning formulation during the Webmasters Round Table. Giggles from the panelists and an appreciative murmur from the audience confirmed that Lori's sentiment in many ways sums up the habitual experience of a Web team, if not on a daily basis, with enough regularity to keep us on our toes.
How many people appreciate how long it takes to build a Web site, let alone respond to some seemingly innocent change request? This is where the beauty of the response "Done right or done right now?" comes into play. We know there is an infinity of steps from taking content/information and evolving it into something that lives and breathes online. But, given the infancy of new media, it's difficult to convey to the uninitiated how complex our jobs actually are.
Be warned, your clients and/or employer may balk at hearing you respond with this mantra. While there are quick fixes to solving some problems, it's important to stress that taking the appropriate amount of time to do something right the first time will ensure a more complete and robust product.
