We are aware of the fact that design should captivate interest of the masses in order to deliver message across. Websites should not make crowd think too hard unless intended to. Websites should be accessible for users of all levels and present audience with simple structured navigation and clean legible content that will make comprehension of the topic more effective.
In today’s world websites are required to be more “socially available” and let people share information with a click of a button. With the invention of social networks the universe of web browsing has been changed forever and the way we evaluate and share information has changed since the awe of cool animated sites and intensely styled drop down menus.
Simply being usable is not enough. The information presented for the audience should spark an interest and captivate user’s attention from page to page, from post to post, evoking that “gotta share this” feeling of a reader. It is a good practice to make sites accessible for everyone without coming out too provocative or too timid. No funky gradients or Photoshop effects can enhance the site that lacks social interest. Just like expensive pair of sunglasses won’t alter one’s personality and make person a better human being.
The digital world gets faster and more innovative but majority of designers resist the changes forcing the web to stay more grounded and human-oriented. More and more websites became more conversational forcing readers to exchange comments, share information with friends, actively participate in discussions and re-post, re-twitt, re-direct.
According to Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, young people today write far more than any generation before them. That’s because so much socializing takes place online, and it almost always involves text. Before the Internet came along, most Americans never wrote anything, ever, that wasn’t a school assignment. Unless they got a job that required producing text (like in law, advertising, or media), they’d leave school and virtually never construct a paragraph again.
For the first 5 years of what I’d call the mainstream web (2000-2005), most sites lacked social skills. Plenty tried to be deliberately mysterious, and succeeded at that, even as they failed as websites. The narrative seems to finally be getting better.
I’ve come to think of it this way: when you’re out at a bar with a group of strangers, there will inevitably be one person in the room who tells the best stories. If you’re lucky, the person is also polite, they exhibit good taste and understand the dynamics of a conversation. People are attracted to that person magnetically for the rest of the evening. Our websites should be that person. So let’s go grab a drink and discuss something in a positive and captivating manner.
Posts Tagged ‘web experience’
Let’s get social
We are aware of the fact that design should captivate interest of the masses in order to deliver message across. Websites should not make crowd think too hard unless intended to. Websites should be accessible for users of all levels and present audience with simple structured navigation and clean legible content that will make comprehension of the topic more effective.
In today’s world websites are required to be more “socially available” and let people share information with a click of a button. With the invention of social networks the universe of web browsing has been changed forever and the way we evaluate and share information has changed since the awe of cool animated sites and intensely styled drop down menus.
Simply being usable is not enough. The information presented for the audience should spark an interest and captivate user’s attention from page to page, from post to post, evoking that “gotta share this” feeling of a reader. It is a good practice to make sites accessible for everyone without coming out too provocative or too timid. No funky gradients or Photoshop effects can enhance the site that lacks social interest. Just like expensive pair of sunglasses won’t alter one’s personality and make person a better human being.
The digital world gets faster and more innovative but majority of designers resist the changes forcing the web to stay more grounded and human-oriented. More and more websites became more conversational forcing readers to exchange comments, share information with friends, actively participate in discussions and re-post, re-twitt, re-direct.
According to Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, young people today write far more than any generation before them. That’s because so much socializing takes place online, and it almost always involves text. Before the Internet came along, most Americans never wrote anything, ever, that wasn’t a school assignment. Unless they got a job that required producing text (like in law, advertising, or media), they’d leave school and virtually never construct a paragraph again.
For the first 5 years of what I’d call the mainstream web (2000-2005), most sites lacked social skills. Plenty tried to be deliberately mysterious, and succeeded at that, even as they failed as websites. The narrative seems to finally be getting better.
I’ve come to think of it this way: when you’re out at a bar with a group of strangers, there will inevitably be one person in the room who tells the best stories. If you’re lucky, the person is also polite, they exhibit good taste and understand the dynamics of a conversation. People are attracted to that person magnetically for the rest of the evening. Our websites should be that person. So let’s go grab a drink and discuss something in a positive and captivating manner.