Design is Easy

I've had Peter Merholz's article saved for weeks: Design is Easy; Organizational Politics is Hard. I had intended to apply what he was saying to instructional design and the educational context, but then found that the Experience Designer had already done it better than I would have. He even pulled out the right quote:

"In fact, design practitioners have figured out a lot about what works, and what doesn’t. For those in the design field, design is easy – developing solutions to problems is a pretty straightforward endeavor. The problem isn’t with design or designers – it’s with organizations whose fundamental structures prevent the good ideas from getting out."

I can only imagine that designers and developers in schools and universities must be facing this obstacle on a daily basis, at least judging by the fact that I still have to use WebCT for my online courses. It sucks so exceptionally badly. I see this in my work occasionally -- the best design solution for the user is sometimes not what gets implemented, usually because of organizational inertia and legacy issues.