I talk a lot about design - web design, product design. You can have the best message. You can have the best product. You can have the best service. And it could all fall apart with your website design.

If you look at the history of communication tools, culture and the physics of how we consume media are critical. We are coming out of the "Newspaper Age". For the past century, our main way of communication was dictated by the newspaper. Design and marketing, in many respects, revolved around that vehicle. You'll hear people talk about things like "above the fold". That is where the most important information and the pricys ads are. Consuming newspapers has indoctrinated our culture with other design elements like the notion that a serifed font (Times New Roman) is much more "official" and "Important" looking than a san serifed font.

Some of this has carried over into the digital world. You'll still hear designers talk about "above the scroll" or having your most important information on that first central box of screen before you have to scroll down. But because websites are much more flexible and involve color, you can do so much more. And that's where a lot of people get into trouble.

If you are a for profit, not for profit or just a simple fun goofy website, you want your visitors to DO something when they get to your page. You want them to purchase something. You want them to learn something. To accomplish this, you need to guide your visitor to what you want them to see. This is how pop-up madness first began. People figured that if you threw open a new window, that didn't go away until you made it, you'd grab attention and get people to do what you wanted them to. This of course back fired and resulted in pop-up blocker software. Using smart design and a good grasp of color theory, you can guide your visitors to do what you want them to do without pop up or dancing bears or other nonsense.

US Fund for UNICEF

The US UNICEF site is hands down the one of the best designed websites. You open up the page and you are greeted by a vibrant and BRIEF slideshow of pictures that pertain to compelling content on their site. The blue and white color theme is inviting and calming and inline with their branding practices.


And boom, right off center, there are three orange boxes.

Go back to kindergarten and you'll remember that orange and blue are opposites on the color wheel and provide high contrast. The dead center of any visual work can act like a dead zone. Your eyes expect something to be in the dead center. Just like with the "above the fold notion", our eyes go for the bulls eye and looks the important stuff. You're eyes also expect symmetry. When you can disrupt the normal pattern your eyes want to go you, you attract attention to the disruption. A good designer can do that with out you ever realizing there's a disruption. So you have these off center high-contrast orange boxes just screaming for your attention. UNICEF wants you to come to their site and learn about Dafur and discover their programs, read their blog, but what they really want you to do is to DONATE, SHOP and VOLUNTEER. The reason d'etre of this entire website is to get you to click those three buttons. As a marketer, that is your singular goal - to get people to click those buttons.

So if its time to redesign your website, think about what it is that you want visitors to ultimately do. If you want people to purchase or contact, utilize smart design to make it easy for them to accomplish your goal.