I posted earlier this week about our cabin vacation to Gatlinburg, TN and the lessons of how your brand and the customer experience is one in the same. A comment left on that entry was an example of the very concept I was trying to convey.

After reading about our horrible experience, my sister, Bethany, commented with links to a fantastic cabin her and her husband had rented:

Sorry you place wasn’t all you hoped for Next time, try Mountain Laurel Chalets. http://www.mtnlaurelchalets.com/chalet_index.html
We have used them more than once and have never been less than pleased. Here is the cabin we stayed at last Christmas.
http://secure.instantsoftwareonline.com/StayUSA/Property.aspx?coid=0210&propid=SCHONBLICK

Bethany

She had a great experience and it turned her into an evangelist. This is what every company should strive for - having the customer evangelize on your behalf. This penetrates through the influence layer since the marketing is coming from someone within their circle of influence, not outside it. Thanks for making my point, Bethany.

“The problem with communication… is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” -George Bernard Shaw

Communication is essentially what Anthology does. Sure, at the surface, we create some really nice designs and we develop functional websites - but websites function as communicative devices - and as I explored in The Anatomy of Great Design Part 01, great design starts with effective communication. So, the goal at the core of all of this is to communicate to your audience.

As simple as this concept may seem, it is overlooked far too often.

Let’s take websites for example. As companies explore building a website, the natural tendency is to make an attempt to impress potential customers. Too many times, the requests are filled with desires to hijack the user experience (not intentionally), create menus that move and sparkle, and bring attention to non-important items. These requests have the same goal as an executive that purchases a flashy sports car just to “show off” when meeting clients. At the end of the day, the car may be impressive, but whether the job is done effectively is what ultimately matters to the client.

When this tendency to impress is extended into web development, it cripples the ability to communicate effectively. Flashy design, gimmicky features, and unnecessary copy cloud the ultimate goals of the site. And, unfortunately, too many times, the web developer has to lay down and submit to the clients requests - and when that happens, the job is not being completed with excellence.

The problem is that when the site is finished and everyone has gone home, the company may be thrilled with the impressive new website, but if it does not communicate effectively and meet the needs of the users, it is ultimately a failure - it is the illusion that communication has been accomplished.

The next time you are building a new site for your company, keep these things in mind:

1. Deny The Desire To Impress - Users will only be impressed the first time they visit your site. After that, the only thing that keeps them coming back is functionality and ease of use. If you can say “that is coooooool,” it probably is doing more harm than good.

2. Develop A Site For Your Client, Not Yourself - Keep the user in mind when determining how you site will look and how it will function. The site may be about you, but it is more about your user.

3. Determine The Key Goals - And do not add anything to the site that does not directly or indirectly encourage the success of these goals. Stay focused.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to be heard in the comments section. And as always, remember to subscribe to the RSS for future posts on design, web development, and online marketing.

The next installment of The New Mediology has been pushed to the podcast. In this episode, Bill Seaver and I discuss advertising using banner ads:

• When are they appropriate to use, if ever?
• How do users feel about banner ads?
• What is the return on investment?
• And what are the best practices when you are required to advertise via banner ads.

Check out this episode at The New Mediology website, or to get this and all future episode goodness, subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

So, now that I have started a blog (for real this time, I promise), why is it worth it? Why should I blog?

My reasons come down to these three things:

1. Content Is a Promotion Strategy

Time to promote - There is no denying that in this new blog/podcast/online video age, content can serve as promotion for just about anything - and for much less than one would spend on newspaper ads, billboards, chess tournament sponsorships, etc. There is absolutely no reason for a company to not be constantly producing content, even if it is micro-content such as tweets.

2. I Need to Give Back

Time to get all sentimental - I would honestly not be where I am today if it were not for the tools, articles, tutorials, etc. that I have found on the internet (thank you, Google). And frankly, until now, I have pretty much been a take-take-take type of information consumer. It is time for me to start producing content for other people that are just as curious as I have been and are looking for new information, interesting approaches to problems, and the like.

3. Blogging Pushes Me Further

Time to be effective - In order to blog effectively, I will need to research. I will need to keep up with what is going on in new media and the internet world. Blogging about these topics will more-or-less force me to become an expert in these topics and to stay relevant. But, don’t get me wrong - you do not need to do these things in order to start a blog - I just feel that I need to stay on top of these things in order to blog effectively.

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