re-design

Re-design. The word can often fill a designer with excitement—or utter fear. Most of the time though, the people pushing for the re-design are full of excitement—unfortunately for them they usually make some wrong decisions along the way. What prompted this comment?

I was sifting around on the web, looking at work of the past that has really inspired us as designers. I came across the wonderful work of group94 and the site they designed for famed artist Annie Lennox. Keep in mind, this site was designed back in 2005. Four years later it still lives on—but unfortunately lives on in an archive section of group94's site. Now I wasn't expecting to still see the original group94 site representing Annie Lennox, but I was defintely expecting something in the same ballpark. Something that properly represented her as an artist. Something relaxing, enjoyable, easy to use. Something that complements her sparse album portrait covers. Something that captures her individuality. To my surprise, this is what I found:

Now I'll be the first to admit that these things happen. Re-designs happen that leave us all scratching our heads. In some cases even forcing us to take a closer look at what exactly our role is as the designers. The original Annie Lennox site was a very thoughtful design, whereas this new one seems like an afterthought. More and more as time goes on, these things are starting to baffle us less and less. The question of why something like this has happened is not even entering our mind. It is becoming clear that in most cases, the wrong people are making the decisions along the way. I don't think it's a case of the right people making bad decisions—it's probably the wrong people being given the power to make these decisions. Any thoughts?

Posted by Jory July 28, 2009 permalink