How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell

by Matthew Inman

What happens

Everything is great at the start. The client shows their current site, and designer and client laugh at how bad it is.
The redesign looks good and works well: the high point of the project. Then come a few "minor" changes: make it "pop", make it "edgy".
The changes pile up: Comic Sans, a lens flare, less "liney". Then the client's mother joins in with brighter colours and a kitten, and the client's dog gets its own stream-of-consciousness copy.
The designer becomes a mouse cursor the client operates by email. Footnotes throughout say real clients made these requests.

Why it lands

Written about web design, but it is the story of any project where feedback arrives without criteria and from people outside the decision. The footnotes are what make it land: none of it was invented.