Patrick Lynch over at “A List Apart” has some useful thoughts about balancing design and content in web site construction. And his thoughts on that balance have implications beyond the web site, and throughout how arts and cultural managers do their work. Says he:
In academia, text (and lots of it) is the only way serious people make serious arguments, and very polished presentations are often seen as prima facie evidence that the presenter may be hiding a weak argument with graphic frou-frou.
This is also true in business settings, or with governing boards, where brilliantly visual managers suddenly turn dry and text-heavy when they’re preparing the annual budget, annual report, or other bits of essential evidence about the organization. Powerpoint slides become walls of bullet points. Spreadsheets become dense and disconnected. Somehow we forget that the very thing that brings energy and insight to our creative work is equally valuable in our business communications, and our ‘serious’ conversations about our organization.
Says Lynch again:
The visual aesthetics that frame and define content are much more than
simply a “skin” that we can apply or discard without consequence. Users
react in fast, profound, and lasting ways to the aesthetics of what
they see and use, and research shows that the sophisticated visual
content presentation influences user perceptions of usability, trust,
and confidence in the web content they view.
It’s not an argument for going crazy with clip art and flowery fonts. But bringing at least some of your organization’s design sensibilities into your business communications might help keep the conversations and decision-making focused and fresh.
Patrick Lynch is so accurate – in our visually over-crowded world, it is hard to remember to keep things simple, balanced and straight-forward. But it does pay off frequently.