Jakob Neilsen was in San Francisco operating his Usability Week Summit. He evidently stirred up some graphic artist when he showed that brand value isn't built through exposure, but through online experience.
Someone was trying to show that there was a contradiction between the need for building a brand and usability for the site visitor. It was at this time that Jakob said that online, brand value is built through experience, not exposure. I couldn't agree with him more.
At The Alpha Marketer we always talk about this being the reality, yet some quarters still try to undermine the concept. For example, when I was surfing the web recently, I found another graphic artist ranting about all the jerks out there saying design (exposure) was being bashed and misrepresented. What is happening is that high-priced designers are being asked to make lower priced sites. There is nothing else to it. People are beginning to understand , after years, that pages that load slow and sites that aren't clear in what the visitor is expected to do, underperform tremendously.
Commenting on the situation, Gord Hotchkiss says:
"A successful user experience builds brand equity in a way that hammering visitors over the head with Flash or streaming video never could. Every single thing on a Web site should have one purpose, to make that user experience more successful. If it's there solely for the gratification of the designer, or the CEO, or the CMO, it's there for the wrong reason. And before you dismiss this thought, saying it doesn't apply to you, take a look at your home page and ask yourself, why are the elements that are on the page actually there? Think through the decision process that placed each element on the page. How present were users in the process? Who was asking them for their opinion?"
The bottom line in design and usability is that you can't allow anything whatsoever to come between the visitor and the completion of their task. Don't let anybody talk you into something different from this. Your online success depends upon it. Many of the huge corporations still haven't found this out yet.
While I appreciate the position that you and Gord take on this subject, I certainly don't agree with it. It doesn't take into account what visual branding is, what it accomplishes and what it represents for the business and the consumer.
http://spectorbrain.com/2006/07/14/there-is-a-lot-more-to-branding-than-just-usability/
Also, let's show a little respect for fellow professionals out there. I don't claim to know the intricacies of your profession, so please don't pretend to know mine.
Posted by: Spectorbrain | July 17, 2006 2:03 PM | Permalink to Comment