The Golden Third-Party

Why you should outsource your web project

An old joke tells of a Shakespearean actor who regularly appears in small roles. He is cast in Hamlet as Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, a character who appears briefly in the final scene of the play after Hamlet, heir to the Danish throne, has died. At the tavern, the actor’s buddies ask him what the new play is about. "Well," he says, "it’s about this Norwegian prince…"

The design process can be like that: all stakeholders describe the flow of work from their individual perspectives and an implementation that will make their own jobs the easiest.

The key is to come to a place where everyone agrees that "this is how we do things."

Design addresses the heart of a business:

• how people actually do their jobs and get things done (workflow)
• how they interpret imagery (graphic art)

As a result, design can be more emotionally charged than you might expect, depending on how invested stakeholders are in the way things are currently and how strongly they feel about change.

This builds an excellent case for seeking outside assistance for your web project.