Thoughts on Clout

I’ve recently started reading a new book called Clout by Colleen Jones. The books primary focus is to educate website managers on how to make a website more attractive and appealing. It gives practical techniques on how to get someone to not just visit your website once, but how to get them back again and again. My first impression upon picking up this book is that it would tell me the dos and don’ts of design work when it comes to websites. I was rather shocked to find out that design was actually one of the lesser things Colleen thought was important. She says that “Good graphic design gives people a fantastic first impression so they don’t leave you’re website right away. It also helps your style. Those benefits are valuable, but don’t sustain results for the long term…If people can’t interact well with your website you have a major problem.” I think this idea is something I have always sub-consciously known, but Jones insights on it really helped bring the thought to surface.
I know that I am personally a very visually oriented person. I am a strong believer in pictures speaking a thousand words, and videos speaking even more. I love the way things look and that is usually how I judge if something is done well or not. Hearing the idea that visuals aren’t everything changed my perspective on how I see websites. I started going through websites I frequently visit on a day to day basis and I realized that most of them typically aren’t that polished in terms of their graphic design, but the one thing they do really well is making their website easy to navigate. This made me realize that this is probably one of the reasons I return to those websites consistently.
I’m not trying to say is that visuals or functionality is more important than the other. What I believe is that they play a roll hand in hand. If a website has really sleek design, but it’s impossible to navigate it may be considered to be just a “good” website. If the website has a terrible design, but is really easy to navigate it may once again be considered to be just “good.” However having a website that obtains both strong visuals and easy navigation can make a “good” website into a “great” website. It is like a car. If you have a car that looks nice but has bad mileage you probably don’t want to drive it that often. On the contrary if you have a car that looks like it’s about to fall apart, but it has great mileage you probably still won’t want to drive it that often either (or you at least probably won’t be taking you’re date to prom in it.) It requires having both design and navigation that really enhances a website.
While visuals and navigation are important Jones does make the clarification that if a website is not updated frequently it overall doesn’t matter how well it navigates or looks. People will not want to come back because there is nothing to come back to. People want new updates and something new and entertaining every time they come back. So while Jones puts emphasis on design and navigation she does make the specification that updates are the most crucial part of a good website. This is something I need to keep in mind for myself as I move on in my blog. I hope that I can keep content rolling in to have people have a reason to keep coming back.