Audience

In the course of designing websites, I often get requests from clients that simply go against normal design conventions. I think that the struggle that most people have is that design conventions have changed but nobody told them.

Design from the 90s like large logos, starbursts and bright, obnoxious colors were great when the web was in its infancy and pages were built by amateurs. Your clients expect more from businesses today and don't want to look at a site that doesn't take into consideration current design principles.

Remember. Bigger isn't always better... it is just bigger. More color doesn't necessarily mean better.. it is just more.

When you are redesigning or redefining your company’s image, one of the things that is very hard to do it to step back and understand who your real audience is.

Designing a logo, a website, a brochure or even something as simple as a blog post is not a task to have the attitude of, "I like it, so it is good."

The most important thing about any design is to remember your audience. Who are the people that you want to attract? When you do something personal, it is all about you. When you do something for your business, it is all about them.

When designing and managing your website, one of the hardest things to remember is who your audience is.

But, why is this hard?

I tend to think that it is hard because we want to write to people that are just like us. We tend to think of ourselves as our audience. We think that we know what our customers want to hear because we have worked with them so long that we just naturally know what they are looking for.

We are convinced that we know best.

Let me be blunt. You probably don't know what your clients want to read. You probably don't know what your clients want to hear.

How rude, why would I say that about you? After all, we just met.

Well, it, in my mind, is simply because you are so focused on running your business that you have become disconnected from what your clients need. You are focused on selling your hardware and software and therefore forget to learn about their business.

Don't get mad at me... read on...