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From conception to consumption, every product and service will go through a number of steps of production. First comes the idea, then (hopefully) the research, design, planning, execution and delivery.
Whether you are producing websites, brochures, training programs, tennis shoes or hamburgers, no product would ever be released without each vital stage.
So which of these is most important? If you talk to anyone involved in design, they will tell you that people shop with their eyes and the design is crucial. A marketer will tell you that if nobody hears of the product, why bother producing it? The construction team will tell you that if the product is not built correctly, it would be worthless, no matter how well it is designed or marketed. I even heard from one marketing ‘specialist’ that ‘designers are people who win awards for companies that go out of business’, citing as his proof one company that had spent a lot of money on an award-winning ad campaign and still filed for bankruptcy. To him, it was the designer’s fault.
As a designer and developer I can tell you that no website would ever do its job without the connectivity between an attractive and usable design and the functionality of the backend. Ugly websites that work and beautiful websites that don’t work are both just as useless!
It seems apparent that whoever you talk to, their industry is the most important. And why shouldn’t it be? I would much rather work with a programming guru who believes with all their heart that their job is the fulcrum of the universe, than one who merely hoped that their efforts might sell, as long as it was designed or marketed properly.
No matter which stage of development you are involved in, you have to believe (even with slightly blinkered vision) that what you do is absolutely crucial. If you didn’t, why would anyone do business with you?
By the way, in case you were wondering about the answer to the implied question here, design is the most important part of the process. Those other guys got it all wrong.
