I’ve just come out of a meeting with the manager of what’s called the ‘Continuous Improvement’ department. They’re in charge of developing the company. They’re also the owners of the company Intranet. Right now, it’s really quite pants, so they’ve got together a group of people (including me) to design and make a new one.
Good in theory, but there’s one major drawback. We’re lumbered with the head of this Continuous Improvement on the project, because it’s ‘hers’. She has no concept of good design. Everythign we have come up with so far is (and I quote) “too Internet-y”. She wants “fun” and “exciting”. She does not seem to care about file size, navigation problems, coding issues… She will not listen to those who actually know what they’re talking about.
Consequently, we have ended up with the most God-awful site design I have ever had the misfortune to be associated with. And we can’t have a go at her because she’s sleeping with the CEO of the company and has a horrendous amount of power.
Write a letter Kit, to her, and cc’d to anyone else important stating the potential problems with the current work up and whatever solutions you can find to the problems, even if it means a complete contradiction to her wishes.
Save the letter.
Sit back and wait.
*Originally posted by Kitiara *
**Right, I’m going to have a whinge now.
I’ve just come out of a meeting with the manager of what’s called the ‘Continuous Improvement’ department. They’re in charge of developing the company. They’re also the owners of the company Intranet… **
could i have a look at the site! curious :elderly:
Alright, I’m attaching a gif of the latest design. Feel free to throw stones. Suffice it to say that I hate it. Really, really <i>hate</i> it. It’s easily the worst site I’ve ever designed. But the woman loves it!
This is what she asked for, so this is what she’s going to get. It could be worse I guess. Originally she wanted one of those hideous swirly type backgrounds behind all of this. That’s one thing I managed to talk her out of.
It’s like banging your head against a wall. We’ve tried explaining to her the difficulties in coding lots of swirls and swooshes, the problems the old machines will have in running anything too complicated, the fact that the design is essentially naff… But she’s made her mind up.
If it’s the strapline that’s different then that’s the idea. It’s part of their marketing thing… Otherwise I dunno. Probably because I stare at that website page too much that I don’t notice stuff any more.
But you see what I mean about this. Vile, isn’t it?
Andy - this isn’t a change to www.churchill.com - that’s staying the same! This is for the company Intranet. All the user manuals and info. That kind of thing.
*Originally posted by Kitiara *
**Andy - this isn’t a change to www.churchill.com - that’s staying the same! This is for the company Intranet. All the user manuals and info. That kind of thing. **
ahh ok, so why dont you jus give her some better alternatives!
We did. We made some really cool and funky ones, but she said they were all “too Internet-y”. Well duhh…
First of all she said she wanted a bbc.co.uk style page, looking like a portal. So we did something along those lines, and she said it was OK. A day or so later and she’s back having changed her mind. It’s not exciting enough, she wants something more colourful and fun, ie: tacky. She wants Churchill dogs on there, despite the design brief saying not to put them on and steer away from branding.
There’s millions of pages and content on this site, but she’s so design driven. It’s going to be impossible to group everything under her four headings of Me, You, We and Us. How are people supposed to know where to look?
I need to go and get some chocolate or something. I’m falling asleep at my desk and I daren’t go near that monstrosity again for fear of lunch regurgitation…
I would feel sorry for you if I have not gone blind by YOU!!!
Ps: I have to ask to a friend of mine to write this for me, and the medical bills I´m sending to you. Hope you have “earned” a LOT of money to do that.
