Do You Want Consumers Participating in Design Work?

(I love that car, almost as much as I love Jeeps)

*ahem* That car design is what happens then a random (INCREDIBLY random) end user has Final Say on the design. The method that works is to have the end users submit ideas, which are then evaluated by more experienced designers to filter the good ideas from the not-so-good, and to divide the categories into 'this could work as is,' 'this could work with some adjustments,' 'this won't work, but it might spark an idea that will work later,' and 'Ha ha! here's one for the Caption This forum at CR4.'

We have something like this even in my family. My mother is a literal fount of ideas, some good, most bad. But the good ideas are really good, and the bad ideas may give someone else, someone with more knowledge of carpentry, plumbing, or electric wiring, a POV that will let them come up with a good idea they might not have conceived before. The problem is when she acts on her own ideas without consulting others. I mention a French Drain as a way to deal with the basement water issues, then later have a professional waterproofer come in and fix the leaks, which included 'gluing' a polyetheline sheet to the side of the foundation with tar below grade level. Everything's fine, then I find her digging a French Drain along the foundation, which may have pulled the top of the waterproof sheet away from the foundation. (I can't dig down far enough through the gravel filling the French Drain to check.) Also, the French Drain does not go to a dry well or wetland basin, it just stops where the foundation ends. So now we have a French Drain that collects rainwater from the side breezeway and holds it up against the foundation since there's nowhere for it to drain to, and our formerly no-longer-leaking basement has new leaks.

(Self-marking as OT for the rant at the end.)