If you plan it, it will flow (whisper it with me)
As a creative person there and many ways to skin the layout cat. Once the designers have played with infinite kerning and pallete choices and rollover states, then It goes into the hands of the programmer who has a completely different set of options and variations how to basically do similar things. But the variations that exist, everything from proprietary JavaScript tools to homemade solutions will affect the user experience.
So the big question is who drives the experience? Designers ultimately care more about the visual integrity of a site while the developers get that warm fuzzy feeling around “does it work”. We care about each others stake in the project but are we engaging each other enough?
If I was to present multiple options to my development team and then have them take those and show me several ways to make it happen ( both with lists of pro’s and con’s that involve everything from usability to ease of updates) would the end result be a project with zero compromise as it is being worked on (which is the current bain of my existence at the moment)
This is how the next project is going to flow. I need to understand if the levels of initial engagement are in place, can you build a site that does not require compromise three weeks into development and can the client get exactly what they signed off on.
We learned a lot with this project. We really can do anything, it’s just learning to effectively communicate exactly what that ‘anything’ is.
Secondly, there are only 10 web-safe fonts. I can’t wait for CSS3 to be widely supported (See: Internet Explorer support), that will be a major paradigm shift for the designer/developer relationship.
The answer to your big question is “the clients drive the design”. But what does the trick for all is engagement at the opening ceremony as much as the participation in the closing ceremony.
Most of the development time loss is in learning and relearning things that somebody else has answers to.
If everybody is represented at all stages including analysis, the means to the end and the end results will be very pleasing.