Volume 3, Issue 3 – October 2004
- Yo! Get your web-designers to wake up!
- Quote of the month
- New & noteworthy clients
- Marketing to youth
Yo! Get your web-designers to wake up!
by Jaques Palin / Art Director
With today’s “easy to do website design” programs it seems like a lot of “designers” seem to ignore the number one law of design: understand the medium and its audience. Instead of building websites that work both functionally and visually, they build ones that do not work for the medium. They design sites that would be the design equivalent of a pack mule.
There are no longer any excuses for building sites that are poorly designed. Truly. The web has been around long enough for all designers (and management) to understand how to properly develop a site. Surf the web, check out good sites, and check out online forums and tutorials. One can virtually (excuse the pun), learn all good design principles and skills online. Go to successful sites and check out how they arrange their content and do yours in a similar way.
Here are a few of the most common design mistakes you should watch out for:
Mistake #1: Don’t use those pesky flash intro pages
Now guys, even I am guilty with this one. Can you believe that? When I first figured out how cool Macromedia Flash was, I thought it would be cool to spend hours building animations of falling leaves etc. These intros have no meaning other than annoying the user with long downloads for useless fluff. Even some big brands like Coke, Dove and others have these. Don’t get me wrong: I am not opposed to Flash. It certainly works very well for other specialized functions. It’s just very annoying waiting for an intro before you can get the information you’re after. Instead, consider giving the users the ability to skip, or see the intro when they feel like it.
Mistake #2: Design for speed
With all the research about how people use the web, no one has found that users prefer to use slow-loading sites. Lots of designers fail to understand that they still have to design for 28.8k modem users (modems are still the most prevalent means to connect to the internet). I believe a site’s speed is a direct reflection the company’s ability to service its patrons. Slow website=slow/bad service. There are a vast amount of things a web designer can do to make a site load faster. The number one on my list would be to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS keeps most style information for your site in one or two central files, instead of reloading the same info each time you load a page. Second, it gives the user the ability to see large images only when they want, instead of making them load huge images right from the start. Before you approve a site test it with a modem-connected machine instead of your high-speed connection at work.
Mistake #3: Know your visitors
An unsuspecting user who might want to just get an e-mail address is greeted by an abundance of random info they’re not looking for. That’s wrong. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Just like a well-engineered direct marketing campaign, a website that gets the best response rate is highly targeted to a specific audience. Consider referring other audiences to another site that’s designed with their needs in mind.
After that, don’t blame the designers
Yeah, I know," says the designer himself. But seriously, I’ve been in meetings where the CEO wants the “swoosh” coming in from the left with a bang, and then make it spin. He wants it because it is cool, and because it can be done. Then when the site goes live, he wonders why it doesn’t load fast. Making the case for usability over glitz is hard. It’s not popular. But it is the right thing to do if you’re concerned about response rates and click-throughs, as opposed to visual candy. If more of us would avoid these few mistakes, better websites would prevail.
Quote of the month
“Customers must recognize that you stand for something.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks
New & noteworthy clients
Madison Day Spa
We are excited to be working with Madison Day Spa to develop their advertising, promotional materials, and website for both their Knoxville and Chattanooga locations. Madison is a full service day spa offering a variety of make-up and skin care products.
We also have just finished producing 30 and 60 second spots for Novation Capital's national tv campaign. Novation Capital helps people with structured settlement payments get their cash when they need it.
Marketing to youth
A recent survey shows that, on average, youth marketers feel it is proper to start advertising to children at age seven, which is more than two years before they believe young people are able to view advertising critically (9.1 years of age), or when they think young people are capable of separating fantasy from reality in media and advertising (9.3 years of age).
