Every heard the old saying, “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover?”  It’s a lie.   Yes, the content, the stories or facts you may find inside may be a gold mine of knowledge and fun but if people are not drawn to it in the first place I at least have to judge the thinking behind a poorly designed cover.  A “poor” design doesn’t have to be simple or plain either. The first thing people think of when they hear the old saying is something plain and ugly but a needlessly flashy or inappropriate cover or design can turn people away as well.

You often hear people complain about how complicated computers are but around your house I bet you have other things that are equally difficult.  I’m almost ashamed to admit it but I seem to have more difficulty interacting with my “all-in-one” remote control or microwave oven when it comes to more than the most simple tasks.  No I take it back, it’s not my fault. The people who design such devices never seem to consider how people will actually use them or rather “interact” with them on a daily basis.   It can be fun for the geeks to take pride in the fact they know their way around a device or user interface but why make the majority of your customers frustrated?  I admit I take great pride in the fact I can do what I consider easy tasks in Photoshop. I often forget how long it took me to get a grasp on such “simple” concepts as layers and masks.  As much as I love the program it could be made easier. In fact Adobe does make a program called, Photoshop Elements which is for the general consumer as opposed to the power user.

One of the biggest complaints I often have and have heard other people is, “I can’t find the link.”  on a web site.  Why is this? Often things can be buried amongst a bunch surround material or design elements that distract instead of attract. Sometimes something needs to stand out but instead it’s in a sea of things that are the same.

Remember, services or products will sell easier if they are pleasure to use or understand.

One of the most popular electronic devices of all time, the iPod became a best seller because of it’s uncluttered user interface and contextual menu system.

Automobiles with automatic transmissions have sold better to a mass population (In the United States at least) because they are easier to drive than what is considered the more efficient manual transmission.

The Nintendo Company staged a great comeback in the gaming console industry by creating a system called the Wii that was both fun and easy to use without having to bother with cumbersome controllers.

Tivo is a great example of responding the the crazy choices we face with the glut of Cable or Satellite TV menus and on top of that the Tivo web site is an example of right way to use flash in the mist of so many web sites that are flashy for the sake of being, well… flashy.

If you are interested in reading more on this topic I’d like to point you to a book called, Designing Interactions. Which can be bought via Amazon.com .  It covers more than web and multimedia.

Does your web site and print material for your business engage potential customers? Are your products more complicated that they should be? Does it attract them to go to where you want them to go or take some kind of action.  Is your media a pleasurable experience or a puzzle?

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 11:03 am and is filed under Compelling Content, Innovation, Organization, Portable Media, Tips, branding, graphic design, web design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.