I noticed an article on Signal vs. Noise this morning entitled, The top 5 red flags of software development. Though the article is geared toward software development, I feel that these things can apply to other web development projects, in fact I’d venture that almost any design or development studio has heard these comments in one form or another and cringed.

This lead me to another article discussing Getting Real with development. Its easy to program the process, skin the programming and fail to meet customer expectations by forgetting that potential customers aren’t as computer savvy as the designers and developers. Designing the interface first, back-end second can help ensure that your customers or client’s customers are in the picture at all times. Consider their needs, how they will react to the design and how they will navigate through your process. I like their points about keeping things limited to a one page story about what the application should do, if its too long, it could be too complex, if its less than a page, maybe your goals aren’t clear enough.

Remember, they are the ones using the application or service, they are the ones the project was created for, they are the ones that will support your venture, they can make or break your business model. If they are so important, why do you want to leave them out of the equation?