Ask HN: Web design a depreciating asset?

web designer != marketer

Some companies will cash in with great (good is not enough) and distinct design, others will not - they just need a marketer and a $10 bootstrap theme. Some need both.

Everywhere we read comments like: "Ugly converts better". This really means that marketing strategies convert better than good design separately, not necessarily that ugly is better. By the other hand - normally - ugly design decreases your desirability and trustability/credibility. Imagine Stripe launching with the old Paypal design or Apple without their design.

A big (huge) problem for designers is that in all artistic careers the barriers to enter the market are very low. Give a design assignment to a random person. Most people would make it, probably with low quality but the work would be done. This lowers the value of average to good professional designers as their work is not very distinct from the hobbyist work. Only great or "lucky" designers will make a confortable living. By the other side an average technical worker will make a confortable living from it.

Another problem is that artistic work is easy to copy: very soon your great design will not be distinct anymore. Time to start from zero again..

Pursuing an artistic career is great for your soul but terrible for your pockets. Along the line most give up, the "stubborn" survive and only few "hit a lottery ticket" and make a confortable living from it.

Design is crucial but it's not as unique of a specialization as it used to be. I wouldn't see it as depreciating if you're intent on keeping up with new trends and techniques as they become useful or learning in other realms beyond simply design.

The depreciated web designers will ignore this advice.

> More often than not a company will spend $50,000 on a web design and get 0 business results.

In that case, you're spending way too much money on consultants with no track record. You need to do a better job of choosing a team that can get you legitimate results.

IANAL and I am definitely not an accountant, but I do know that if you are asking from a US tax perspective it is possible to amortize the cost of website development over 3-5 years. In fact it is very common.

The problem is that many designers do not understand business, and that many businesspeople do not understand the web.

I dont care for most if todays web designs. I want something thatbworks well and am less concerned with what it looks like.

Ask a web designer how they analyze their own log files. I expect most dont because they dont know what that is.