The Enemies of Good Design
There's a running joke within the design community that goes something like "the biggest obsticle to good design is the client". While it's meant to be funny, there is an element of truth to this statement, and it's especially true when dealing with design for the web. I can't count the number of times a client/boss/over zelous file clerk, has wanted to make changes to a design that would fundamentally flaw the usability of a site. The quandry here is how to approach this "design" problem, while not making your client feel that there ideas are not valid.

The key here is educate-educate-educate! Most clients, even within the technology industry, do not have a good working knowledge of web design or usibility. In order for you to make a case for good design, you must first make your client understand the fundamental importance of what your doing. Sometimes this doesn't happen until QA, which if you're working in a small company, is an unforntunate reality (providing that you yourself are not the entire QA team, which is the case in many situations). Sometimes it doesn't happen until a site has been launched and end users start e-mail complaints in, which of course, is too late. I have found that the most compelling case for good design are the stats.

I have recently redesigned the SearchKing home page and top-level directory structure. If you compare the old site design to the new site design you can see that there was an entire rethinking in the information architecture, and priority made to certain key features of the site. This not withstanding, what made the case for this design wasn't my ability to make it a coherent site or even making is 100 times easier to navigate. What sold the design was the increase in traffic!

With web design there is a line-of-site logic. If there is more thought put into the design, you will have more success with the end result, whether your goal is to sell widgets or inform end users on a product. As a designer your goal is to show some tangable evidence of the benefit of good design, before going live.