Design by committee in Higher Ed can work, provided everyone knows their role on that committee. Two scenarios lifted from the real world.

I am lucky to work at a large College in a Big 10 school. Within the College, we are fortunate enough to have a centralized IT group. Everyone knows their role in the bigger picture of the mission of the College. When design decisions are being made I know that our Multimedia section knows what is best visually, and that my job is to evaluate how well that vision will mesh with usability, standards, and SEO. Egos, while still a factor, are much less of an issue due to this strict linearization of roles and responsibilities in the design process. Visual creativity is not sacrificed nor is technical creativity – indeed quite the opposite as we are able to feed off each others ideas and take different approaches than we would have if left on our own. This illustrates Meranda’s committee of “qualified professionals” theory.

A counter-point was recently adopted by another College at our University. When my peer announced that their Marketing Department had decided upon design by committee – a commitee that was not only going to consist of the IT and Marketing groups but also of faculty and staff. Now it should be said that this is an IT-oriented College, so the faculty as a whole is more web design savy than say Liberal Arts. There were no clear roles and responsibilities laid out for the individual committee members. Knowledgeable committee members is a mixed blessing, they understand the web but they also each bring their own agendas and ideology to the table and without a clear understanding of what each member is supposed to bring to that table the project flounders. It has been close to a year and NO progress has been made. This illustrates the “web design by committee is bad” theory.

I will go on to say that I personally am in agreement to the blanket statement that design by committee is bad when you apply it to the visual design aspect. One man’s Van Gosh is another’s refrigerator art. To attempt the visual/graphical design within a committee will totally squash creativity and leave you with a bland final product.

Thoughts?

It think the emphasis needs to be made on the blanket statement, and you did that much better than I. Each situation is different; however after working with the committee I can’t imagine taking on such a project in a University setting alone again. But the distinction is that I worked with “qualified professionals.” It isn’t a group of dreamers; it’s a group of developers that know the latest technologies, design principles, trends and outcomes. If you can create this committee you will be in a better place.