Good design will always be important October 20, 2008
Posted by srdill in Business, Observations.Tags: Insanely Great, SRD InterActive, Web design
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A recent discussion with a friend over the perceived value of elegant design, using Apple and OXO products as examples, reminded me of an article I wrote years ago on this topic. I took a minute to go back and examine it on my company website and found it worthwhile repeating:
What Are the Benefits of Good Design on the Web?
Let’s examine how important Web Design is to the success of any Web-based marketing campaign. In a September 2003 report from Forrester Research titled “The Best and Worst of Site Design, 2003″ the authors stated, “Most of the problems we found were self-inflicted wounds resulting from site managers who naively allow designers to: hide value, turn interfaces into dexterity tests, favor “white space” over information, and leave users hanging.” The traps are subtle, but good design is a triumph over more than the pitfalls. Good design is the result of a process of deep thought. And therein lies the biggest benefit of good design: visitors to the site who are thinkers know that the designer is a thinker. They know that the designer was not acting out of ego, but of thinking of the needs of others.
Sites that exhibit good design — those that anticipate the needs of their visitors, prospects and patrons — are directly rewarded with ROI: return on investment. Using scenarios and personas to truly step inside the visitor’s likely situation(s) give designers clear priorities in the numerous decisions around navigation, use of imagery, arrangement of content, linkages within the site, and required functionality. Without clear objectives and a firm grasp of the audience, misuse of the opportunity to communicate value to each and every visitor is the likely outcome. Using technology to dazzle does little to convey meaning, much less compel thinking customers to stay. For those who use the Web as art, technology prowess is fine. For those who are intent on conducting commerce and generating qualified leads, the name of the game is conscientious, concise, controlled experience of the features and benefits of the products or services the site owner offers.
There is more to achieving a site’s objectives than good design, and we will in future issues address some of them, but at the first view of a Web site is the visitor’s impression of the whole site formed. If it’s not positive, the rest of the site and its intent is fighting an uphill battle. Thinking becomes the most important step in any site design. Who are the visitors? What are they looking for? What is their situation, are they rushed? Are they knowledgeable? Are they looking for opinions or facts? Are they the kind of prospect the site owner is looking for? Knowing the answers to those and more questions will better inform a designer than any images, cool Flash techniques, or PHP application.
At first I wrestled with context. Are all websites expected to be well designed (as herein defined)? Or is there a delineation among the simple marketing, the complex e-commerce site, the social media, the game and the many other flavors and roles websites play? Should the variables of time, budget and available resources dictate whether the beauty of a site is more than skin deep?
Once my role as strategist becomes that of general contractor and project manager I am often struck by the drop in understanding of “insanely great” web design that is directly commensurate with the drop in the price. This is a much deeper discussion, but suffice to say that you get what you pay for, and in-depth thinking in order to design on the order of Apple Computer is not something done overnight.
The flaw of “common knowledge” exposed by data September 4, 2008
Posted by srdill in Observations.Tags: Bittman, car seats, Dubner, Levitt, new public education, TED Talks
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It took me 3 years to realize the value of Freakonomics, the book published in 2005 by the economist Steven Levitt and journalist/author Stephen Dubner. But fortunately I noticed it on the Books on CD shelf at the Sharon Public Library and I took it out. The affect of listening to this book is similar to what “Slap On The Side of the Head” by Roger von Oech did for me the first time I read it. You begin to question what we all too often take for “common sense.” Perhaps we were too quick in accepting the opinions of the majority - who have not thought about the issue?
Take for instance, car seats. HUGE improvement to auto safety for children, right? Levitt looked at data from 45,000 auto accidents involving a death and realized there was proof within those data that car seats were not adding appreciably to the safety of children strapped within them. Check out his presentation on TED Talks, either on the TED website or on iTunes, it will make you wonder.
While you are there (either at the site or on iTunes), check out the presentation by Mark Bittman entitled “What’s Wrong With What We Eat?
Enjoy! Life is for learning - constantly.
Looking for a cause to support? July 24, 2008
Posted by srdill in Observations.Tags: Bright Happy Power, cancer, Children's Hospital Boston, Jimmy Fund, Joslin, leukemia
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I was blessed to get to know Jessie Doktor, a young casualty of childhood leukemia, before her diagnosis and throughout her 6-year battle with the disease. I followed her through the eyes of her parents via their blog at dok.com on a daily basis. Just before she succumbed, she inspired her mother with a phrase that Jessie thought was appropriate for her attitude to the challenge she faced: “Bright Happy Power” (usually said with an exclamation mark at the end). In honor of Jessie’s memory, and in response to the ongoing needs that Gail Doktor knew firsthand from all those years of camping out at Children’s Hospital in Boston, a non-profit called Bright Happy Power was incorporated to “place hope, happiness and empowerment into the hands of and lives of children facing life-threatening and catastrophic challenge”.
Bright Happy Power (BHP) is actively identifying other programs around the world that are addressing the needs of children with cancer. Through the network of people who maintained a constant awareness of Jessie while she was alive (over 187,000 visitors to the blog as of last week), and the–unfortunately–ever increasing list of people new to the cancer challenge coming into Children’s and the Joslin Center in Boston, BHP is directing funds and materials to those programs. If you have an interest in learning what you can do for children and their parents who are focused on this daily battle, click here and make a few additions to your next trip to the grocery store, Walmart or Target.
Please pass this on, you have people in your address book who are looking for a way to help others. No, I haven’t been looking at your address book, it’s human nature to do good for others. Thanks for anything and everything you do to support Bright Happy Power.
Stephen
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“There are two primary choices in life:
to accept conditions as they exist, or
accept the responsibility for changing them.”
– Dr. Denis Waitley
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What “Awash” Feels Like July 1, 2008
Posted by srdill in Observations.Tags: blessing, bonding, child rearing, memory, recall
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I recently watched a father walking alongside his child who was barely taller than the father’s thigh. They were walking away from me, and I couldn’t hear them, but the child looking up and the father looking down periodically with mouths moving told me they were engaged in earnest discussion as they walked along. The rush back in memory to the feelings I felt 12 and 15 years ago when I was in the same scenario was immediate and visceral. I was experiencing near-total recall of how I relished the art of conversation with a child who relied on me and loved me.
Now that my children are 18 and 21, those conversations are commonplace and at the level of maturity I began desiring more and more once I realized that 5, 7 and 9 year olds could not sustain conversations long if they were of a theoretical nature or otherwise outside their interests (”Too many words” my wife would say as she shook her head.)
But for that moment, I knew what it felt like to be awash in an emotion, to be immersed in a memory that commandeered my senses.
Then the light turned green and I drove away, but not before looking one last time to silently thank the father and child for unwittingly playing a part in exercising my memory and reminding me of how my own two children have blessed me.
Reminders of why I live where I do, still. May 20, 2008
Posted by srdill in Observations.Tags: community, politics, Sharon MA
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Went to the polls this morning to vote on local roles to be filled (selectman, planning board, etc.) and to approve a charter commission and the first 9 commissioners. One stretch of sidewalk outside the high school, at the edge of the legal standoff from the doors to the gym where the polling takes place, is lined with the candidates and their supporters holding signs, shaking hands and handing out leaflets.
For some a gauntlet they dread enough to not vote at all, for my wife and I it is a welcome reminder of the fabric we have created here in Sharon, MA. We stop at almost every sign, suporter and candidate, to hug, catch up on life, share stories, reconnect and generally bask in the glow of active community building. It’s such a unique and satisfying experience, I almost wish there were more elections per year for such interaction. And we will be back tonight just before the polls close to hear the Town Clerk read the results, celebrate the victories, and console and encourage those less successful.
Amazing to me how many live in this town, and thousands like it across America, who have never experienced such community, much less understood or appreciated its value. They pay for it in so many ways. And don’t get me started on why small Italian hill towns are more stable and healthy than many American towns because they come together in the square routinely to keep in touch.
