when I first started as a designer, I created designs that gave no consideration for the end user at all. Nor was I familiar with the intended business outcomes. Users? Who’s that? Lets just make this shit as cool as possible. We'll make this 3D cube spin and then explode out. It’ll be great. The companies that were actually thinking about users, were creating horrible looking work and just creating 100 page justification documents. I'm not sure they were really focused on servicing people. There weren't many companies that excelled at thinking holistically at designing for the web. It was an era of marketing sites and doing neat micro sites in flash. How designers and agencies could out do one another by having as much gratuitous animation as possible and try to win awards. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun time and I learned a ton during this period, but over the years my focus has been less and less about that, and more about creating outcomes with good design.