Design is not superfluous to performance, and mere performance will not engender affinity. Few will truly commit to something that satisfies a need merely on perfunctory levels (think Ramen noodles). And chichi will only take an audience so far (think haute cuisine). However a warm soothing glow blooms when required needs have been met with a design that evokes an emotional response via intuitive operation. Now that’s something to experience. Ahhh.
Site design or redesign time provides your organization with a tremendous opportunity. Embrace an affirmation. Suggest a new direction. Deliver increased function, or enhanced operability. Change perceptions, attract new audiences. Should you do this all with flash and flare? Or style and grace? Is there a middle path?
To make a genuine, indelible impression on your audience, its important to consider the value your product/service can bring them, and how that value can affect them in an emotional way. Fully understanding how to “reach” them most effectively, you can then develop a range of tactics to help trigger those hot buttons. The result will be an audience who embraces your product/service on an affinity level where price/cost is of lesser priority.
A corporate site is important, and expected. And yet I believe consumers today yearn for more. More than a scripted Our Philosophy and sanitized News. A special place where like-minded people can go to learn, laugh, share, and swap. Even escape to and explore. A virtual playground may just be their utopia.
