“When it comes to your company web site, design doesn’t matter.”

I went to an SEO / Social Media conference last week. There were a lot of smart people there – a lot of people who are commanding a larger and larger percentage of marketing budgets of Fortune 500 company budgets.

The final part of the conference was a “hot seat” panel discussion. Five company web sites were “put on the hot seat” and were dissected by a panel of SEO and social media experts with one lone design director voice. Most of the talk was centered on highly technical ways to bump up your SEO.

The design director would pipe in occasionally with a sentence or two about the importance of crafting a brand voice and design to lay the groundwork for a meaningful relationship with site visitors and potential customers.

The design director had to leave early to catch a flight. And so that left just the SEO and social media experts for the Q & A. I asked the question “How do we balance the need for well-designed web sites with the technical elements that need to be in place?”

Their answer? “When it comes to your company web site, design doesn’t matter.”

Minus the design director, the panel experts shared story after story of how good design had only hampered the sales process and customer relationship. They all unanimously agreed that design should not be taken into consideration and that technological elements should be the sole king and queen of the day.

Hum.

I disagree. And I imagine most folks from the advertising and design professions would disagree. But that still leaves the unanswered question: why is this attitude still so prevalent in the Internet industry? Why are the technical kids still not able to play with the design kids in the marketing sandbox?

I think it’s the phase we’re in. We’re still in the very early stages of web communication. Just like when computers first came out, the only thing that mattered was – does this thing work? All of the engineering focused on speed, accuracy, and data storage.

And then there was Apple Computers. All of sudden things like fonts, packaging, and brand voice really really mattered. And now the Dells and the Microsofts of the world are scrambling to catch up.

So, what’s the Aesop Fable moral here? I think we’ll see the same thing happen in the world of web communication. In fact, it’s already happening. But all of us will have to grow up a little bit. The design kids will need to recognize that web design is a different beast altogether. They’ll need to forget everything they know about print design and look at web design through an entirely different lens. Similarly, the technical kids will need to get in touch with their softer side and finally give emotion its rightful due.

And that’s when we’ll start to see some really cutting edge, emotionally riveting web sites. I look forward to it.