These days, it takes a lot more that merely posting a bunch of code up to a page to make a really decent impression. There is a lot of planning, strategy and going into the design with some sort of goal in mind. Avoid this and not understand the goal, you will likely be doomed to fail.
Recently, while I was explaining the goal of every design project I take on, the group of people around me began relating many horror stories about Web sites and software, complaining about the difficulty of most of the experiences they have every single day with so-called “productivity tools” and Web-based interactions and sites. With each complaint, the voices grew louder. They began speaking over each other, cutting each other off at every opportunity with a new anecdote about how it takes seventeen clicks to get to the report they print on a daily basis, how the process starts over anytime a mistake is made, and how vital information is so hidden that they waste valuable time hunting-and-pecking for it every day.
Conversation turned into frustration. Friendly words turned into spiteful messages of overwhelming disdain. Feathers were ruffled. Source: InformIT
[tags]web design,software design,productivity tools[/tags]