With my deep passion for the Grateful Dead, you would be excused for getting confused by my title (even if you are listening to the music play ♬). But, in this case, I am thinking of three key critical factors for success in digital design.
Watch your Speed (…driving that train… ♩♬)
Not just because Google likes speed (i.e. the speed at which your site loads is viewed favorably by the Google algorithm), but having a site that loads fast makes sense for the time-strapped invidividual (doesn’t that mean everyone?). Moreover, speed across a mobile platform is going to be a factor as long as 4G or better is not fully generalized.
Trips (what a long strange one… ♫♩♫)
What’s the journey on which you would like to invite your client? Creating a successful virtual journey requires being deeply customer-oriented or empathatic. What sort of trip is it? A nightmare or a e-dream come true? Does it include clarity, logic and an element of [positive] surprise? As web browsing goes increasingly mobile, we need to be adapting the navigation and content to the surfer’s context — i.e where and howthey are most likely consuming.
Whitespace (♫ drumz into space … *#(&$)
The message is in the silence
Feel that white space!We know how well the minimalist design mindset has helped the folks at Cupertino. And the Googlers at Mountain View have their digital design version, where the Google front page is also one of the strongest statements out there in the power of the white space. Marketers and designers alike would do well to heed the need for silence: minding the gaps, providing space to breathe and eliminating the cr*p that fatigues the eye. Moreover, with less information and images, a website load-up time will improve. The key concept here is (a) to make deliberate choices on what not to show and (b) to consider[obsessively] the customer experience. Just as I was writing this post, I noticed in a recent TIME magazine, this DPS ad from Rolex below. Whitespace for the sake of whitespace? Not necssarily better, as they may have avoided the temptation to say too much, but in the process, they asked me to take out my glasses to read the super small print and to turn my head to see what was the name of the watch (Oyster Perpectual “Yacht Master“).
Product-centric only?
Admittedly, in full disclosure, I am not a great fan of the Rolex brand, personally. [Note to editor: don’t try an all white ad in a magazine whose paper is too thin.] This kind of ad speaks to the cult of the product. I am still left pondering what is the benefit for the end customer? I believe that being sparse is fine insofar as the customer experience is heightened.
You don’t need performance-enhancing or mind-altering substances to get better at digital marketing, that is unless you need help to accommodate the customer’s point of view? So, what do you think of Speed, Trips and Whitespace as three keys for better digital marketing?
P.S. In the aftermath of the recent news about the Lance-a-lot-of-doping, I just had to smile about the appropriateness of the name ARM – STRONG, no?