Visual Design
While many meals are impressive
to look at, once tasted, they can leave a lot to be desired.
Meals should always look good, but not at the expense
of how they taste and how nutritious they are. It is possible
to have your cake look nice and taste good too, but not unless
you pay attention on all of these ingredients. While a beautifully
decorated website--like wax sashimi--entices people, if your
audience bites into it and is not rewarded with something wonderful,
you cannot blame them for branding you unappetizing.
While too many sites look
marvelous but don't feel marvelous, often just the opposite is
the problem. There are many sites-from respected companies even-who
look so amateurish that you wonder if the CEO's kids did it.
These are often unoriginal and always inappropriate and send
a message that quality is not very important. Nothing need
look trendy, hip, or cutting edge to work, but it shouldn't look
like it was freeze-dried three decades ago and defrosted either.
Hire an experienced professional who is capable or helping you
communicate visually-something few people are ever taught to
do well-and whatever you do don't try to dictate your favorite
color to them!
On the other hand, don't let
them push you around either. If they are taking you out on an
uncomfortable limb and you know it just isn't right for
your company, say so. Many visual designers do not know when
this or that Kai's PowerTool Photoshop filter is appropriate
and when it isn't or when what seems like a good idea just doesn't
work. For an example of the former, witness just about any site
that uses beveled buttons, blurry text, or uses any KPT filter
at all.
At the very least follow
your company's identity standards, use the correct version
of the logo, colors, and typefaces, and involve those in charge
of the "brand." If your company has no identity
standards and you don't know what your brand is, then that says
it all there, now doesn't it? You don't need a binder-thick identity
manual, but even the smallest company should have a few rules
about what is and isn't appropriate for your company's image-if
for nothing else, for some consistency. Consistency may be a
bit boring at times, but it is the stuff great companies are
built on. Imagine McDonald's without the arches or Kodak without
the yellow.
As for a brand, simply
put, the brand is the experience people have when they deal with
your company. It used to be that brands were mostly described
and managed by visuals, in print, on television, on packaging,
etc. But brands have always been about the interaction
a company has with its customers. Think about Nordstrom's. What's
that typeface again? What's their corporate color? When you think
of Nordstrom's, none of that comes to mind. What does is their
incredible standard of service, played out in everything from
the people who greet you when you walk in the door to the catalogs
they send through the mail. Now guess what's going to communicate
and extend their brand more online: faithfully replicating their
logotype and colors or finding ways of creating innovative interactions
that allow their customers to experience their high levels of
service online? Wrong. The correct answer is both, but if you
had to pick one, the later is about 1 billion times more important.
Perhaps that's why Nordstrom's is moving online very slowly.
Perhaps they are waiting until the technology makes it possible
for them to be the Nordstrom's they want to be.
| To summarize: |
- Successful sites have high-quality,
professional visual design.
- Therefore, get a good, trustworthy
graphic designer and listen to them.
- Don't do anything unless it
feels like the "right" thing to do (gee, not bad advice
for life either).
- Be faithful to your corporate
identity (if you have one and if it is good to begin with).
- Pay close attention to your
brand, or begin to create one around experiences and interaction
if you don't yet have one. Also, look for ways to evolve your
brand in this medium.
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Copyright 1994 Nathan
Shedroff
