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You may be surprised, but I never ask design-related questions in design project discovery meetings. Some might wonder at this, as it may seem counterintuitive. The reason I don?t ask design questions of the client is the same reason an architect doesn?t ask the client what PSI the building’s load-bearing foundational structures will need to endure.

It is my experience that when designing their websites, most clients want the design to associate their organization with some measure of gravity. They want to look important and powerful. Often they want the website to communicate that they’re energetic and that there is a lot going on with their organization or company.

Few things are as compelling or as fruitful as a rivalry. Any landscape, no matter how vibrant or contentious, is merely tepid without the conspicuous presence of two, and only two, powerful and clearly defined antagonists.

Sure, there’s something to be said for sticking to your guns. But when every US department store website looks like it was designed by the same person on the same day, and left that way year after year, something is dreadfully wrong.