In the Signal vs Noise post ‘Designers: Make it Memorable‘ Jamie makes the point that pretty or impressive design alone wont really make an impact unless you have the content to back it up. He uses a rather poor example to illustrate his point though. He says that the Drudge Report site is a great site because it has no-frills and just delivers great content. I would disagree with him though as I was immediately turned off by the fact that the site was really difficult to read. It was an amorphous mess of bad typography with no distinctive elements to guide the eye to the most important content. It is ugly and for me that creates a barrier for connection.
There is no point, in my mind, in taking a site that does one aspect well and trying to use that to lessen the importance of the other aspects. Yes it is true that if you don’t have something to say then people wont connect with you, but if you present it in such a way that they don’t want to engage with you then you have made just as significant an error.
You can’t separate good design, good content and good code into a list of what is important in connecting with your audience because they come together as a complete package… it is like an argument about whether the brain, heart or lungs is the most important… the simple fact is without any one of them your dead.
I know that you might be thinking; there are some poorly designed sites out there that survive because of their good content. Is this really something to aspire to? Or is it a comforting excuse that allows you to feel good about cutting corners. Wouldn’t a well designed and coded version of these sites with great content work even better? Your users want something that will be relevant, engaging and a pleasurable experience. If you want them to listen to you, remember you and tell all their friends about you, then give them the full package – the real deal – the thing the whole thing and nothing but the thing!
Last modified: July 15, 2009
Totally agree with you on this one. The site may have the content but the poor design made me close the page once it had loaded up. Who wants to trawl through lists to find something? Interesting typography, clear ideas and areas that draw your eye make a much more interesting read.