Today, we hear from Sharon Wolff, who has a unique perspective on a practical element of building a creative library: making a good impression online! If you want to bring creatives through your door, begin with a well-designed website. ~Erinn
by Sharon Wolff
This blog is all about using libraries and museums to foster a creative spirit in the young and old alike. Things like programs, events, and exhibits encourage people to be involved in art and learning, which is a wonderful thing. But one of the major challenges is to get people through the door first, and the best way to do that nowadays is online. Being involved in social media is a good start, but most institutions also have their own website, which for a lot of people is the first impression of the place they might want to visit.
Having a good web page design is more important than you might think.
What makes a good web page? In my opinion a good design is like a great film score: for the most part it flies under the radar. If the first thing the user notices about your website is the website itself, you have a bad design. It is a misconception to think that the page has to “pop” to make sure the institution gets attention. The emphasis should be on the content of the site and the institution, not on the background color or “cool” mouse-over animations. A site that looks like this:
is just distracting. And it really does matter, I was sitting in class the other day when my professor was showing us a resource we could use for our final project and the two other people I was sitting with literally burst out laughing when the page came up. It contained a very useful resource but none of us noticed that at first because we were all immediately distracted by the design of the site.
…if you are considering making the background color anything other than neutral, don’t.
So what is to be done? Well, if you are considering making the background color anything other than neutral, don’t. There should be images of course, but they should not be wall-papering the site. And there should only be a few moving things on the site, maybe one place that rotates through several pictures or a navigation bar that changes color when rolled over. The simpler the design is; the better. If you want an example, try this:
or look at the blog around this post. Mostly neutral colors with clean lines and text on a white or off-white background are key features. Not too many images; and not too many moving parts. These will overload the page, and bright colors will appear garish in anything other than a highlight.
The key with web designers is: let them do their job. Just like a plumber or a home inspector, you hired them because you can’t do what they can.
There are plenty of options if you don’t know how to build a web page. Most servers have an option for templates that can be personalized, or you can hire a web designer. The key with web designers is: let them do their job. Just like a plumber or a home inspector, you hired them because you can’t do what they can. Of course your input is necessary to work toward the end product that you want, but at the end of the day you could do more harm than good. (See this amusing web comic for reference.) And one final option, cliché as it may be, ask an intern, volunteer, or anyone around the age of 25 or younger what they think of the design. Even if they have no experience with creating a website either, chances are they can tell a good site from a bad one if they are at all active on line.
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