“Our new and improved 16 blade razor doubles as a steak knife!”
The concept of “new and improved” is one we’re all familiar with. Whether we’re reading a magazine or watching TV, advertisers are always out to increase the perceived value of their products and services.
In the business of web development, it’s no different. We’re always working towards redesigning, reengineering, recreating, redeploying. There’s a constant demand to make things new. To make things better.
“Give us a fresh look and feel.”
“It’s just time for a change…”
In my experience, there’s too much emphasis on the “new” rather than “improved”. I believe the reason for this comes back to process. We want the finished product and we want it fast.
There’s an old joke that consultants repeat about the boss who tells his programmers at the start of a project, “You guys start coding, I’ll find out what the client needs.”
If you don’t know how to run a project or manage a relationship, this isn’t far from the truth.