Drupal Website Process: Design Follows Function

As a former design professional, I've worked on many large projects from the ground (literally) up. The construction process begins with engineering, architecture, space planning, followed by construction and last, interior design.

Web development is odd because most web projects are built backwards: design, then construction and then shoehorning in the engineering at the end of the project. Rion Morgenstern, CIO at SiteLab feels this is a carry-over from the days when building an html page with inline code was one step which may explain the dysfunction in the entire process.

FORM EVER FOLLOWS FUNCTION
Louis Sullivan, pioneer architect of the modern skyscraper, coined the phrase, Form Ever Follows Function, in his 1896 article "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered." His point was that need should dictate the architecting of the solution. Today, working at an enterprise-level web development firm, I find that design unfortunately drives development.

Fairly routinely, we are provided full-blown comps that show how the website should LOOK but they don't show how the website should WORK. The functionality is implied and often unknown. Development is hampered by design and often functionality is forced into stylistic choices. So what is a better solution?

A HOLISTIC APPROACH
Following our architecture theme we can draw these parallels as a process that happens in Phase 1 and Phase 2 stages:

Engineering = Engineering
Architecting = Architecting
Space Planning = Usability
----------------------------
Construction = Development
Interior Design = Web Design

Websites generally have two stakeholders: the internal team and the external user. Let's take a look at the internal team. The internal team is generally a combination of marketing and technology folks charged with producing a high-performing website while improving the bottom line through sales, memberships, or web traffic. While conversion metrics vary from one company to another, the end game is to build a website that can yield the desired outcome (Function).

(to be continued during my next bout of insomina)