Where Clutter Comes From

This somewhat amusing, but very enlightening, video illustrates "design by committee," which we talked about in the last post:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=36099539665548298&q=microsoft+ipod

While that post dealt with pitfalls that non-profits face in design and marketing, the problem is far from exclusive to them, as evidenced by the fact the above video was developed at Microsoft.

The video in question is an internally leaked presentation. It is great at dramatizing how design suffers when designers allow themselves to fall prey too closely to the individual whims of too many internal clients.

I've been involved in processes like this, and I have to be honest, I most often blame myself. When I'm reluctant to set expectations or show leadership in recommending the best creative process, I can't really blame clients for responding the open-ended forum for commentary that I have created. My bad.