At this stage, the designer usually thinks for the client and tries to solve problems which the existing site fails to address. Usually the client will lament that the previous designer did a half-ass job on his site and how he wish that you will do him the honor of fixing the bad parts of the site. Most of the time, the designer (only the good ones i must add) will fix most of the problems in the first visual mockup. After presenting the kick-ass mockup and inputing his ideas on how the clients can leverage their site with other web services, he will be told by the client that they will discuss his ideas internally and get back to him soon. This is usually the epitome of website design. Everything goes down hill from here.

Why i say down hill is because the designer is intentionally left out of the core discussion on the website design. Which is ironic cos technically he is the most qualified guy (again i must state that the designer in this scenario has years in web experience and usability) to discuss key issues pertaining to a company's online presence. From the minute details such as the size of fonts to major details like implementation of a Flash navigation bar, the designer plays and important role as a specialist in his field of excellence. Clients should acknowledge and listen to his views on these kinda of things.

Unless the designer is an in-house designer, he will sadly be left out from the board meetings and the outcome of the website will be based on the limited web knowledge of the old but powerful fogies in the room.

Which explains the current web predicament from where i come from (Singapore). The website design scene here (the 98% majority at least ) are always 5 years behind time with the world. Why is this so? Well lets just say that in corporate singapore, every level that filters through a visual mockup will have something to add (or subtract) and in the end, the outcome will be a website which satisfy everyone in the organization (for political reasons) and will neglect the most important core group of people, the users.

I will write more about this in my next article.