Elements of Web Design: Message

September 29, 2003 | View Comments (3) | Category: Design

Summary: The importance of delivering your message to your users.

The message. This will always be the most important element of any design that you do. The message that your design gives will resonante through the minds of your users. If your design delivers your intended message then you have succeeded. If you design supercedes your message and hides it, then the design has failed.

There is a reason that people will tell you that content is king. If there is no purpose, no message to the chaos of your site then why should people be there? First find the message that you are trying to send and the design will follow. I will be honest with you and say that I have never created a site that I liked where the design came first then I tried to fit the message in it.

You can see the problem of not delivering the message when companies try to expand to other areas that do not fit their business model or stick with their intended "Mission Statement". The message is your mission statement. It is the path that you wish to travel. Sometimes it is safe to veer off the path, but be careful because if you go too far you and your users may get lost.

When designing any site, from the very beginning to the very end you must keep the message at the surface. Once you lose track of the message that you are trying to deliver you lose track of the design. Sure the design might be nice, but if it is not effective then there is no point. When you add an element to your site like an image or border, question whether it enhances the design and message or does it take away from them. If it takes away or does nothing then why did you put it there? I am not saying that you should question every second that you design because there are times during your design process where you need to let go and just create. Great things can come from that. However, after you let yourself go, look back and see what can be improved. Focus on the message.

Not all sites that have great designs and deliver the right message are successful and all successful sites do not have great designs (Yahoo, Amazon, eBay). On the web there are many factors that can contribute to success, but I am not focusing on that. If your role is to design then do so. That is what this is about.

Example 1: Apple

If you take a look at the Apple site there are some clear messages that can not be missed. One is that Apple's are easy to use. Another is that with an Apple you can expect cleanliness and elegance. Apple is serious about the design of their products as is evident with their new G5's (hmmmmmmm) and the ipods. This commitment to design is reflected greatly on their website. Their website reflects their mentality.

Example 2: Google

Google says we are a search company and we just want you to search.

Example 3: Tiffany's

Just look at the site and see if they deliver their intended message.

Trackback URL: http://9rules.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/13

Comments

quick note... it's tiffany.com, not tiffanys.com. Tiffanys redirects to tiffany and you can't use the back button to get out of it.... And since you're not opening it in a new window... it's hard to get back here. :-)

JC (http://www.thelionsweb.com/weblog)

Haha, know-it-all :) Thanks JC.

Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)

Nah.. just using AOL so my surfing doesn't all show up on my logs, and AOL doesn't have a 'back multiple times' function like sane browsers do.