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Two comments on good experience
Mar 30, 2006
A couple of good reminders to share with you today... I only wish they had greater awareness of "good experience" and its role, even greater than design, in business and technology today.
(This - if you'll permit me a side-rant - is precisely why I started the Gel conference - to promote greater awareness of who and what is really driving success today - good experience, and the people who focus on it in their work. if you haven't signed up yet, this is your near-last opportunity for this year: just three days left at regular price: http://gelconference.com/c/gel06.php )
First - writing at Design Observer, Adrian Shaughnessy calls it "odd" that Google "should have a folksy logo that looks more like a school project than the mark of a global corporation."
From Google and the Tyranny of Good Design:
...[T]here's something magnificent about Google's lack of design. There's something defiant, almost obtuse about its reluctance to indulge in the sort of oleaginous branding and design that is now the corporate norm. We've reached a point, in the homogenized West, where good graphic design is everywhere. The battle has been won: every business knows it needs good design - you don't have to tell them anymore. It's enshrined in the business schools, established in the corporate HQs. Even small businesses understand that good design is good for business. It's a universal truth, like "customer service" and "value for money," and all the other boardroom nostrums that drive modern commerce.
But the consequence of all this feel-good business is that design has become, more often than not, a badge of mediocrity.
Very well put. But missing in this piece is what is most important in business these days: creating a good experience. Logo design is really important to graphic designers; what's most important to users is the user experience. So it's no surprise that Google's user experience would be a better predictor of their success than whether the logo was "folksy" or not. Good experience drives business success.
(What comprises good experience? See the three strands of good experience.)
And then a nicely written reminder in The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites, which expresses surprise that some websites perform well despite their lack of beautiful visual design:
The general lesson here is simplicity. A beautiful website may draw a user in initially, but a simple website will keep your users coming back. If one of your users gets lost trying to navigate your website, check out of your web store, or finding simple contact information, then you unnecessarily are increasing the chances that this user will simply leave.
I have to say, though, I'm surprised that anyone in 2006 could still call this a "surprising" truth... :)
