This sounds like the in-house equivalent of The Oatmeal's "How a Web Design Goes Straight To Hell" (http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell http://theoatmeal.c

This sounds like the in-house equivalent of The Oatmeal's "How a Web Design Goes Straight To Hell" (http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell). Both stories share a similar problem: a designer (or engineer, it doesn't really matter for this story) is brought in because their expertise is needed. Then, rather than trusting that experience, the thing is micro-managed to the point where it is ridiculous (or, as The Oatmeal says, you are just a cursor in a graphics program, controlled via email). I feel that with design this happens more, because it's more tempting to believe that their own user experience is representative of anything more than themselves (the first thing a proper designer knows NOT to do) and it's easier to get into bike shed discussions (http://bikeshed.com http://bikeshed.com). I'm bookmarking this, because I might need it in the future.