Maybe it’s me being curmudgeonly again, but a classmate got me thinking about today’s Web designers. Many of these tech savvy young brats sport an underlying contempt for their elders who don’t understand the ways of the Internet as well as they do.
Well, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic to start my point. Or maybe I’m just enjoying the unbridled writing freedom that comes from blogging! Probably a little of both. But back to my point. The classmate was sharing her experience working on the redesign of her company’s Web site. She related how the Web design firm they chose was more intent on pushing their own concepts than listening to what her company wanted. She said they promised so much and provided so little, never really responding to the company’s guidance, seemingly interested only in glitzy features that had no place with the target audience.
Talk about not being on the same (Web) page! I responded that my experiences were sadly similar. As I thought about it more, I saw this as a manifestation of what results when a generation grows up with a medium in which the previous generation lacks understanding. I’m convinced that the young Web designers who are “forced” to deal with older coots like me revel, in their own brand of condescending behavior by not even listening to our input and focusing solely on what they want to design. I can hear the derisive “they don’t get it” comment as they meet amongst themselves, knowing so well what is best for our customers! If they listened more to what we know about our target audience, and combined that with their skill with the Web, what a combination that would be. Yet, I still think there is a business version of the generation gap going on that is preventing such collaboration in many cases.
A Business Generation Gap?
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