Adding Flair to a Boring Page
An interesting discussion has been kicked off by Kim over at Cre8asiteforums.com – what types of website should be emotionally engaging, which should be minimalist, clean, “professional”? And what is meant by “professional style” in web design? A site for Children will look very different from one for stock brokers, but both will surely be “professional”.
Personally I prefer clean, minimalist sites. I think that the web template should be just like a frame to hold navigation, advertising (annoying at times but essential) and little else. The flair and passion should be in each article. Using images and other media within articles is the simplest way to add passion to a website, without changing the entire theme. This of course allows for a website to be have both serious and more playful sections without risk of upsetting and readers.
Grumpus makes a very good point for the web designer that works alone:
Playful and amusing are one way to go. Appealing to my sense of logic is engaging as well – which your articles do, in spades. For every right brained user you turn off by being “boring” you have a left brain user who you have turned on by getting to the point and laying it down on the table for them.
This is why I’ve always found the “one (wo)man show” that a lot of us here on the Internet run to be quite challenging. I have a way of presenting things – I want you to not only know why I am doing it or thinking it, but I want you to also understand WHY I am doing it. To me, I feel like I can’t ask you to assess my recommendations on a consulting job unless you can understand the reason I’m suggesting it. Half of my clients really appreciate that approach. Half of them tell me they’d wish I would just shut the hell up and tell them what to do.
Even though I’ve gotten better over the years at being able to read my clients and know which ones want me to shut up and do and which ones want me to give them what they are paying me for, it’s still hard for me to do that “shut up and do” thing. I can “act” like that’s how I do things and make the person happy, but inside I want to slap them in the head and say, “Are you really going to do that based upon one person who you have never met telling you that’s what you should do? That’s my first recommendation for you… stop listening to people without knowing at least a little bit about where they are coming from! Someone is really going to take advantage of you one day!”
Web design studios, businesses with several employees each skilled in different areas, do have it much easier. Most will employ a qualified designer, a technician, marketer, copywriter and of course the most valuable salesman. Sole traders have to do all this on their own. Usually an individual web designer will focus on their strengths and sell this to clients. This is what I do. I build fast, reliable website that can easily be updated, tweaked and modified. Minimalist but with room for growth and flair.
The biggest selling point of a minimalist, “professional” site is that it is less likely to go out of fashion. A site built today could well still be online in 10 years or more, and if it supports a company well they may see no reason to change. So long as the content management system can be kept secure then the site can out last many small time web designers. This has to be a key selling feature for any small to medium enterprise that wants a new website, and does not want to risk having to make large annual investments to update it as tastes and trends change.
