"People are time bound entities transiting from cradle to grave. Any "solved problem" that involves human beings solves a problem whose parameters must change through time." - Bruce Sterline, 2005
The bold emphasis is mine. This quote is from a Luke Wroblewski tweet that resonates strongly with me as a web designer/developer. If the point of design is to solve a problem, it must be accepted that the parameters of that problem must change through time as our environment and people change.
On top of the tweet which mentioned the above quote, Luke Wroblewski has a "Design is never done" series of tweets that further exemplify this idea.
https://twitter.com/lukew/status/871804583588184064?lang=en
https://twitter.com/lukew/status/1024752777350733824
https://twitter.com/lukew/status/792097226654752768?lang=en
https://twitter.com/lukew/status/1018950424542367744
For more examples of the "design is never done" concept, check out this advanced Twitter search.
This concept is an important one to hear, especially within higher education where change is often perceived as scary, unneeded, threatening, and has a number of other negative connotations. There is no "ideal state" that we will reach that will mark a website as "done."
Investing in personnel who can execute ideas and ensure that digital assets can continue to evolve is extremely important in IT, communication, and marketing efforts within higher education.
Without this investment, organizations are reliant on 3rd party vendors, who may do a fantastic job, but it certainly isn't the same as having a team on staff who can respond to the evolving needs of stakeholders and visitors.