Recently my Internet marketing company was hired to guide in the development of a website for a technology firm in NYC. The firm wanted to insure that best practices were being used and the site was being developed in a search engine friendly manner.

An ad agency was designing the website (uuuughhhhh) and they were suppose to report to my team as to what they were doing so we would evaluate each step, correct and move forward to the next step.
The first communication from this agency went something like this.

Agency:  “okay, sites done and ready for review”.
Us: What do you mean sites done? We needed to review the process step by step.
Agency: It should be fine. What exactly are you reviewing for?
Us: The first thing we do is review the design from a usability perspective.
Agency: What do you mean?
Us: Well, we review the site to make sure it is user friendly, easy to use etc.
Agency: Oh?!?…. No one told us anyone would be looking at the site for usability.
Us: (Stunned Silence)
Agency: Hello?
Us: Stunned Silence)
Agency: Hello, you there?
Us: Sooooo, you developed a site that is unusable?
Agency: What we created uses high level creative design to express the client’s expertise.
Us: Like interruptive dance?

Then is just went south from there. “We didn’t know anyone would look at the site from a usability perspective”. Are you figging kidding me?!?

This thinking is out there people so in the famous words of the late great Michael Conrad’s Hill Street Blues Character Phil Estherhouse “Lets be careful out there”.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 7:54 pm and is filed under UnbeFRIGGINlievable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.