Invest in Design or Development?
I was recently in a discussion with someone about how much a PHP/MySQL developer should be paid. Their argument was that it’s harder to create a good web site design (looks-wise) than it is to code in PHP/MySQL. While it does take a lot of talent to make a nice looking web site, it probably takes even more talent to write good code.
A working PHP script can hide bad coding techniques, which may cost you more in the long run. If it does the job who cares right? You will care when you need to scale the site or add new features.
Back to the original question though.. what’s worth more, design or development? You only have to look at the likes of Google, Hotmail, Ebay etc.. They’re not award winning designs by any means, but they’re powered by some very fancy and innovative code. So IMHO, development is worth more than design.