Which is more important: design or functionality?

I was recently asked whether I thought functionality or design was more important by a client.

Both are important. Good design usually (but not always) means good functionality - and good functionality happens by design.

When most people talk about the design, generally they are talking about the way a thing looks. But some things designed can't be seen - and have a tremendous impact on performance. An example of this with websites is the 'back end' things that impact performance like inbound links. What inbound links do is make a given site easier to find - directly for people clicking on the links and indirectly using search engines like Google ranking sites with more inbound links higher than those with less. Of course there are many ways to create inbound links - but generally they aren't considered to be part of design.

(As I write this, I have in progress a quote for a website with only three inbound links - incredibly low no matter how you look at it - so inbound links are on my mind.)

When people talk about functionality they usually refer to the way something works. For a website, this might be how many mouse clicks it takes viewers to get to where they wish to go. Or how fast the site loads. How a site functions is vital and dependent on good design.