Let’s face it. Things are pretty bad out there. The economy is hurting, credit markets have seized up, and consumers are clamping down on their spending. Companies of all types are cutting back, slashing budgets, laying off employees and figuring out how best to weather this ongoing storm.
When the time comes to reduce costs, it’s easy to consider design non-essential. But long-term, this is a poor strategy. Whether it’s your company’s website, marketing materials, or even PowerPoint presentations, a bad economy makes effective and aesthetically pleasing design crucial to survival.
Though the below reasons are true regardless of economic climate, a downturn like this one makes them more important than ever.
EffectivenessLittle design changes make a big difference to your business.
Rewriting some text, switching a color, or changing the placement of an element on your webpage can make a big difference. When times are tough, it’s easy to ignore the type of ongoing testing and tweaking that should be part of your online strategy. In tough times, there is a tendency to go with “good-enough” and consider constant changes on your site a luxury or, even worse, unnecessary. When little changes can lead to big increases in your business, effective design can make all the difference.
For example, one major e-commerce site found that when they changed the text on a button from
Register to
Continue, they increased sales by 45%, which meant an extra $300 million in revenue for the year. If a website can have a
$300 million button, it's worth testing and redesigning constantly.
TrustCustomers are scared and seem to have lost trust in institutions of all types. It is important your company present itself as professional, efficient, and trustworthy. Having clean, modern, efficient design can help earn a customer’s trust.
For example, right now people are unsure of whom they can trust with their money. With such a turbulent market, the safety of a high-yield savings account with
ING Direct would seem like an attractive option. But their site doesn’t do much to inspire confidence. The bold colors, the amateurish design, and the full-screen stretched layout does not create the impression of a well-polished financial institution; a perception even more damaging for a bank whose primary presence is online.
I’m actually a customer of ING, and a happy one at that. However, many times I have suggested ING to someone only to have them question the company once they visit the site. With a website whose look and feel hinders the effectiveness of word-of-mouth virality, ING would be well-served to redesign their site.
Even if your business isn’t online, good design is still an important part of inspiring confidence. Imagine a start-up who is out trying to raise funding in an impossibly tough investment market. Powerpoint or promotional literature are no-doubt part of their presentation. Having clean, well-designed materials projects the image of a team with high standards, who knows what they are doing and can be trusted with other peoples’ money. If Powerpoint is part of your business, having a designer create a unique look instead of a standard template can have a big impact. The best Powerpoint presentations don’t look like Powerpoint presentations at all.
MoodThe aesthetics of design can also alter a customer’s mood. The colors that you choose for your corporate branding or website can impact the perception of your company and the behavior of a customer or user. As a bad economy can affect the mood of your audience, it’s wise to reexamine the design of your image, and decide if changes, like a shift in your color palette, make sense.
For example, red is an emotionally intense color and can stimulate a faster heartbeat and breathing, while blue is considered to be peaceful and tranquil. Yellow is considered optimistic and an attention getter, but is also the most difficult color for the eye to take in and can be overpowering if not used sparingly. People may have an appetite for high impact colors and a dynamic palette when they are feeling ambitious and confident, but in uncertain times, a more soothing and reassuring palette could help ease tensions and make your audience comfortable.
To use the example of ING, having a bold palette of harsh orange and dark blue may not be a good idea when people are already uneasy about banks. Since these colors are a part of their corporate branding, they could still use a similar palette, but in a different way. Adding more white space and grays to their site along with orange and blue accents could make their site more soothing. They could also tone down the boldness of the two colors, such as using lighter blues.
It’s important to remember that your designs should not only reflect your company, but should also help capture the mood of your audience. When users can see a bit of themselves reflected back in your corporate image, it helps them feel at ease.
Make Design a PriorityTumultuous times can be scary, and as humans, we have a tendency to go with “safe” and “easy” when we feel uncertain. But if your company loses focus, and doesn’t ensure that effective and efficient design is important regardless of economic climate, you might not be around when the clouds start to part.
So another online campaign didn't end up the way the creators thought it would. The Internet has a way of throwing a wrench into the gears.
