When pretty beats practical
"Wouldn't it be cool if" is the phrase that is usually the precursor to either an amazing idea or a terrible one. I've no idea what the percentages to either is at this point, but I find few exceptions or middle ground in its execution. It's a statement of blind, raw concept, and as such unfounded in its proposal. There's nothing wrong with it per se, not all good concepts have a basis in reality, at least not in its conception. However, "wouldn't it be cool" tends to have a funny way of pushing concepts that should stay concepts, or guiding us in ways that distract from our main goals. I find that when design flys off the rails at an agency, its because of some sort of feature creep or request. I find that often it doesn't come from design, necessarily, though from account managers, marketers, sales, or perhaps spinelessness towards directing a client away from an idea because we can exploit it and make more money that way. I do have to wonder about how practical any of that is. Sure, we appease the client's tastes now, but what happen when the proposed idea no longer is in style, or if leadership changes on the clients end and they decide that they hate the work? What happens when someone higher up on the food chain realizes that the additional services and features we are proposing do not solve the main issues of the client and aren't all that well thought out to begin with? I find that probably the number one snake oil of choice for agency "upsellers" is social media. It taints so many of our projects these days and does nothing practical for us. I'm not arguing that social media marketing isn't important. Far from it, I think that a brand with a large audience should maintain Facebook and Twitter profiles at the least, with larger or more forward looking companies checking out up and come-ers like Vine, which looks ripe for the Old Spices of the world. Placing a facebook or twitter feed in your app, however, doesn't make you social. Placing a social media wall in your lobby or on your sales floor doesn't make you any more social, and doesn't provide you with an real value. Yes it would be cool to see a stream of tweets, but I don't see how a tweet feed in your gallery will help your B2B sell wrenches any better. Worst is when "wouldn't it be cool" features overtake practical additions to a website or service. It would be more practical to spend more resources to make your website mobile capable rather than trying to figure out how your generally content-less site could use parallax scrolling. Yes, while carousels look nice, it isn't wise to bundle three concurrent ones next to one another since they will be awfully distracting, causing your user not to pay attention to any of the content there. "Wouldn't it be cool" needs a filter, or at the very least, the willingness to put the bullshit aside for things that fulfill the needs of the client and the customer. We are designers. Our job isn't simply to make things pretty, but to make things work. The style is the last thing that should be in your mind, it should be the function. Form follows function: remember it, keep in in your hearts, and never reverse the two.