The Autocracy of Web Design

As I mentioned previously, I attended a seminar on web User eXperience on Wednesday at Intergen.

The topic was “The 6 immutable principles of User Experience” and I found it to be a worthwhile event, although perhaps a little too much to pack into one hour. I took away a number of things from the seminar, but I especially liked the last point, which was “Design is not a democracy!”. Essentially, the point there is:

Design development cannot be a democratic process. While everyone’s voice should be heard during the discovery and testing process, subsequent actual design decisions and processes should not involve representatives from all parts of the portal team.

This is particularly relevant to me in my work since I am directly or indirectly dealing with a large number of stakeholders within the business. Satisfying every interested party is difficult at best; usually impossible. Everyone has their own unique views on look / feel, functionality, technology, content and reach. The answer is to let everyone express those views in a requirements gathering meeting (or two), but then leave the eventual decision process to two people: the design specialist (web designer / usability expert) and the project owner (who might be from any background: marketing, IT, management or whatever).

I like this idea in principle, but feel that in many cases it requires such a cultural paradigm shift that actually achieving this decision-process nirvana can be as hard to attain as buddhist enlightenment. We’ll see how we go. Anyone got any experiences or views they can share on this topic?