The importance of having a designer on staff.
A
significant percentage of the clients we’ve worked with in the past 6
years have healthy engineering teams in-house, but they lack a single
designer. Flush with programmers, devoid of designers. That’s not a
healthy ratio.
The interface is the product. It’s the touchpoint
between you and your customers. It’s the translator between two parties
that often speak different languages. If you’re unable to control that
touchpoint to a significant degree on your own then you’re putting your
business in someone else’s hands.
Let me be clear: I’m not
advocating bringing all design in-house. It’s very important to be open
to working with outside firms with loads of experience, fresh eyes, and
a deep understanding of what works on the web, but you really shouldn’t
rely on the outside 100% for something that is so critical to the
inside, to the core of your business. [Signal vs. Noise]