In his autobiographical book Come and Gone: A True Story of Blue-Collar Bike Racing in America, author Joe Parkin describes how the great Belgian bike racer, Eddy Merckx, was so obsessed with adjusting his seat position to improve performance, that team mechanics were asked to keep tools out of his reach. Many racers at one time or another share this habit of being overly concerned about bicycle setup. A rider in peak form though doesn’t bother with finicky adjustments and can comfortably ride almost any bike. Having reached that elevated state of physical and emotional fitness where pain, suffering, and equipment hindrances cease to register, a rider in form can crash, then get up and back into the chase with undiminished focus, strength and endurance. A racer without form though will worry over torn handlebar tape.*
A Website That’s Out of Form
A website publisher tasked with developing and maintaining a web presence that is not in peak form, shares similar traits of a bike racer who hasn’t acheived peak fitness form. With such a site, the focus is turned to endlessly tweaking superficial details: the background image; or font choice, color, or size. Ultimately focusing on such refinement distracts from fulfilling the main purpose of a site: to efficiently deliver high-value, high-quality content to a targeted audience. Some of the main characteristics of an out-of-form site are the following:
• Lack of an established and clearly defined purpose
• Not understanding the needs of a target audience
• Design elements that draw attention away from content
• Overuse of flashy attention-diverting functionality
• Site focus on broadcasting a message instead of engagement and interaction
A Website in Peak Form
A website that performs at a high level has an entirely different feel. Without ignoring the important support role that design performs for the user experience, a well-tuned site provides a visitor with relevant, easily found, high-value and pertinent information. Here are some of the traits of a website in good form.
• The site purpose is clearly defined.
• The site targets a specific user profile.
• High-value content has a higher priority than graphic design.
• Functionality plays a secondary support role to content delivery
• Engaging with visitors is a high priority.
I need to make one thing clear: I love graphic design. Who doesn’t? I know there are many examples of great design where the design is the message and the high-value content. Not to belabor the point but in my experience people too often try to find expressive satisfaction in styling a web presence to their unique vision. This is a trap. Within a development team this can rapidly become a power struggle that culminates in a lose/lose situation.
Unless a particular site is meant to be a personal creative outlet, toning down visual statements and distractions will do more to guide visitors to important information simply by staying out of the way. As is often true in other situations, less is more.
* Joe Parkin, ‘Come and Gone: A True Story of Blue Color Bike Racing in America’, Velo Press 2010 AVAILABLE AT AMAZON
Photo Credit: Christian Klempp
