Are You Using the Right Voice?
When you’re designing a website for a client what voice do you speak in? Who are you talking to when you’re writing the text for the site and does the design combine with the text to speak with one voice?
It seems to be a problem for many web designers and one that many web designers don’t even seem to recognise and it’s certainly that our clients don’t understand either. But it’s a very real problem that can have a very negative effect on a website’s ability to communicate effectively with its target audience.
For example if the website you’re working on has other businesses as its target audience are you using language and design that is appropriate for those businesses or are you talking to them as if they were ordinary web surfers? If the website is supposed to sell a product does it actually sell the product or is it merely entertaining?
On Monday I was asked to take a look at a new website that a large design business here in town had just built for a local industry. This industry has a very specialised product that can be used by governments and businesses all around the world. It’s really very innovative and arousing the interest of those who would buy it would be so easy.
But, instead of targeting those who would buy this product the website set out to entertain. The language used was weak and almost apologetic. Important aspects of the product and testamonials from high ranking users were either overlooked or hidden so deep in the site that most people wouldn’t see them.
It’s a website that definitely speaks in the wrong voice despite the fact that it obviously cost the client a lot of money.
Kim Krause Berg, a usability expert, has written a piece that every web designer should read and apply to all their designs. You’ll find it here.
We may have never experienced the product or service that the website we’re building is promoting but that’s no excuse for not getting it right.