"But the weirdest stuff is in section 12.1 on “Design”. The “design” of the website seems to have been viewed as something separate from its platform and functionality. Having “upgraded” the backend, people are surprised that the front end has stayed essentially similar. The report recommends hiring a designer to improve the front-end templates. Such an anti-holistic approach cannot fail but to produce poor results. It’s like saying you’re going to design the shell of a car separate from its engineering, performance, cost and most importantly, customer expectations and requirements."

Weird, but entirely typical of websites that are procured via IT requirements documents. You wouldn’t believe how common this misconception is amongst people who procure websites and content management systems. From a comment on The report on birmingham.gov.uk is published | Podnosh