[Sigia-l] site redesign sales proposals

[Ziya Oz]

Dimitri Lundquist:

> When creating redesign proposals for potential clients, do you find it more
> effective to include an initial analysis of current problem areas on the
> site with screenshots and commentary, or simply an explanation of the
> methodology that you plan to employ when redesigning the site?

Not too long after 9/11, architects everywhere were invited to submit
proposals to redesign the World Trade Center site.

One of them, Frank Gehry, arguably the greatest living American architect
(I'm not a fan), refused to enter the competition:

"I was invited to be on one of the teams, but I found it demeaning that the
agency paid only $40,000 for all that work. I can understand why the kids
did it, but why would people my age do it?" said Gehry. "When you're only
paid $40,000, you're treated as if that is your worth."

This remains a controversial position, especially given all the patriotic
fervor at the time. The irony is that in the end, you really do get what you
pay for, as none of the original entries is the current plan.

Spec work is a very touchy subject. The latest public eruption was over
Bruce Nussbaum's spec work solicitation for BusinessWeek' INside Innovation
magazine:

<http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2006/06/than
k_you_micha.html>

Michael Bierut's response and the long thread of comments:

<http://www.designobserver.com/archives/014697.html#76>

I had this to say in that thread:
----------------
> Bruce: "value is not created by rules or prohibitions but by what one brings
> to the game."

That shows a bit of business naiveté: in the real world there are all kinds
of "rules or prohibitions" such as those against price discrimination,
collusion, predatory pricing, dumping, etc. There are many good historical
reasons why these rules have been created to level the playing field for
all. Countries that allow child or prison labor, for example, could bring
much better "value" to the pricing game, but in our society we don't condone
that.

Since this issue revolves around corporate appreciation of design and
innovation, it's also important to realize that if design is to be
considered a fundamental value creator, then it will be appreciated in
proportion to its perceived value by business owners and managers.

When accountants, consultants, lawyers, etc., charge hundreds of dollars per
hour, those who get paid nothing (designers) are not going to be taken
seriously as fundamental decision makers by those long trained to measure
value by money.

That is, designers will be relegated to being implementors as opposed to
being the very originators of direction and strategy. In the long run, we
value less those things we get for free.
---------------

Personally, I never work on spec. Andrew's suggestion (scoping study) is by
far the best solution, and not only because that's what I've been doing for
about two decades. :-)

--
Ziya

"Every problem comes from a solution."