Personality Conflict

[wenwilder]

I have a theory about websites - the theory is that websites have personalities and that the one's with 'livelier', friendlier, and more entertaining personalities are more successful. The more personality you interject into a site the more people respond to it consciously and subconciously.

I don't believe you can create, whether graphically or transcriptively, without incorporating your personlity into your creation. Webdesigners constantly create new websites for clients, but....not all clients like what the designer does - why? Because, I think, there is a personality conflict. Not between the designer and the client but between the site's 'personality' and the client.

Certain colors have certain personality attributes, IF a webdesigners favorite color is yellow and the clients favorite color is purple - and the designer continually designs graphics with a yellowish theme then it could be a personality conflict - but that's another subject and not where I wanted to go! :)

One of my myriad of peeves is 'boring' sites. They are sites that navigate nicely, look good, have all the right qualities one would want in a site, but they're just............boring! You can't put your finger on it, but you know they lack something! I find myself saying a lot of times that the site just doesn't have a personality, it simply exists.

So now, let me ask a couple of questions:

1. If a site is created by an individual and that individual has a personality, doesn't that personality reflect in the site that is created?

2. What factors attribute to a sites personality? Is it the color? The graphics? The content? The product? Or is a sites personality nothing more than a perceived notion?

3. If sites don't have personality then why are some more "emotionally" interesting than others? Why do visitors get 'bored' with some sites while frequenting others daily?

[janeth]

I have never thought about it before but I agree 100%

As a matter of fact for those that have seen my site know that it changes about once a month.

I'm not happy with it now and have never really been happy with it.

I have a group of designers that work here and work on our site. Maybe the next one I hire I should look at more then just his design and look at his personalitie.

Maybe that is the only way I can find a site that I will be truly happy with.

[OutsourcingDoug]

Can't wait to see where this goes.

I go through the dilemma everyday.


Do I show my "weird" personality on my site and continue to push boundaries.

Should I keep runnng funny poop pen auctions?

Linking to contraversial sites?

Do I shun more potential customers than I attract with my brash or risque personality?

Maybe i will soon find out! I'll be back to read this!

Happy New Year!

[LauraB]

YES! Maybe that is my problem! I am (I fear) boring! And that translates to our site. MMMM how do you become less boring? I wasn't always boring. I swear I wasn't!

But, I do know what you are talking about. I think we get in a rut of seriousness (is that a word?). Our clients want results, and we want to give them what they want. A few of our sites have BAD personalities in my opinion. But, some of them are bad because that is what the client wanted! Logos that are downright ugly, even tacky! But, that is what is on all of their printed material and they WILL NOT even consider changing it.

[BlueTapp]

Yes I agree! A problem arises I believe when a designer gets so stuck in their "personality" that they cannot modify their designs to suit their customers. You've probably seen a designer who might build nicely designed sites but they all look the same? On the other hand, a website that does not convey any hint of the unique "personality" (I would call it "style") of the designer might as well be a boring template site. I think the ideal solution is a balance between reflecting the personality of the designer and the personality of the CLIENT. One of my design niches has always been that the personality of my CLIENT actually determines the design of the site. I get to know my clients and my goal is then to create a website that reflects the "personality" of the business. If you look at my sample websites, you notice immediately that they are all incredibly different, yet they all do have an identifiable unique Blue's ArtHouse style.

[ldyguique]

Wen -

You may be onto something. Everything that anyone of us does has to reflect our inner self--it's inescapable. Self-expression will play this out multiple times, giving each of us our own "voice" that can be identified as unique to the artist (whether it's poetry, prose, 2-D painterly art, etc.) Art critics make a good deal of money defining an artist's voice, and his/her "period," as the voice changes with time.

One of the elements of my voice is asymmetry. It showed up in my graphic design years ago, it showed up in how I hung pictures on a wall, and it definitely showed up in my quilts. My ex's voice was centered. Left to his own devices, he centered everything or evenly balanced it--symmetrical. Left to my own devices, I never did anything on a straight line or in a predictable manner -- asymmetrical was my style.

Whenever I had to heed someone else's taste, and it generally ran to symmetrical, my voice was drowned out. All of my more inspirational or creative flights of fancy became very routine or uninspired. There was no place for me to add in whimsey or happenstance. In other words, my work lacked "shine or sparkle," because it wasn't MY work.

And, it wasn't truly "their" work, either. While they may have overriden me and insisted on elements that reflected them, I was still doing it. It continued to be partially my work, just not the inspirational part of me.

It had diluted personality -- not truly me and not truly them.

And, perhaps, this is why web design has eluded me for so long as an interest. It's too darn symmetrical!! I've not found a way of making it asymmetrical. However, here is the catch--most people are symmetrical, it's in our training. So, if I did manage to find a way to design something that reflected me, it might not be understood or appeal to those using it.

Now, beyond that. Most of the sites that I use on a regular basis are hardly "design marvels." I don't visit them for their design; I visit them for their content. And, if one is going to use good optimization and pay heed to accessibility and compatibility issues, is it possible to give it as much personality as one would if ignoring these essentials? Or is it more important to have a highly functional and useable site that doesn't have a whole lot of personality?

[aaronmp2003]

Yep, I definitely feel that there is something to this concept. I know that I am CONSTANTLY not putting on my site what is actually in my head, because it wouldn't sound professional. It's not that I'm not a professional person, but when I vocalize, I do so in an upbeat manner, and that is not always inline with a professional page structure.

Also, I recently started a brand new site, and the "message" that I want it to deliver is one of stark professionalism, so I had to radically change the look and feel of the site from my norm. My first site is http://www.aaronspersonaltraining.com and my new site is http://www.lifestyleeffects.com, and those 2 sites are polar opposites. I've only just begun the new one, but the difference is still quite apparent.

I don't know if I could be a web designer. Repressing my off the wall personality that often would probably make me loony... ;)

-- Aaron

[LauraB]

Aaron says:

Repressing my off the wall personality that often would probably make me loony... ;)

But, Aaron is this not what we want to stop doing? When reading Wen's original post I was encouraged to let my personality creep into my work, not repress it. Isn't her theory that sites that sparkle with personality do better then lack-luster sites, that are technically adequate but are missing something?

I know that when I am at a site that grabs me, I stay longer. And it's not about bells and whistles, all the facts, figures, flash, and techno crap can't save a bad site. What keeps me there is personality or character or whatever you want to call it.

[inevitable1]

I whole-heartedly agree. A site with personality wins me over every time. After working for five years in a law firm, I welcome the not-so-strait-laced kinda things. In fact, I started my site (still workin' on it in fact) trying to be as professional as I could -- spent 2 1/2 months doin' it too (still doin' it in fact) -- but I couldn't stop there. It was too boring. Even I didn't want to stay too long at my site.

I listened to the "gurus" who said that I shouldn't have games - oh, no, no, no - that would only distract my visitors from buying. Well most people don't buy from you if they don't trust you first. If they get sense of your personality, then they'll stay a while - heck, they may even bookmark my site as one of their favorites. Well, I had to have games, but I didn't want to blatantly display the link so I snuggled it under my "please subsribe" form and called it, "Need a Brain Drain?!" On this page I put a LOT of my personality -- I wanted to distract the heck out of my visitors once they got there, and I tell them why they should stay and why they must inevitably leave.

I'm constantly rewriting my web copy -- I feel schizo at times, jumping from the professional to the "inevitable" ;p) I am my own designer, copywriter and critic and I guess they're always at odds with each other.

[lightning]

Hi Everybody.

What a fantastic post. Exactly what I've been thinking about. You see, I want my website to have more style, more personality. What I can't figure out is what about a site makes it "work" and keep people coming back. They say it is not the graphics. Conventional wisdom says it's the copy. I've purposely avoided having a lot of graphics to avoid page load delays.

It's an information-packed site. I've written the copy in a way, I hope, that projects my personality. Yet we're dealing with people's finances. It's important that in spite of having fun we are seen as knowledgeable, accurate, and caring. Trustworthy.

Houses? No, realtors show houses. I've seen one too many realtor cookie-cutter website.

People signing contracts? No, too stuffy. I do have pictures of people on the website. Smiling, happy people.

Any thoughts on how I might jazz up the site?

-Tony
www.lightning-mortgage.com

[LauraB]

Tony, welcome and what a great subject for a first post!

Nice site. You might want to add some basic side bar navigation. I am getting to an age at which I really appreciate larger font in the navigation, at least in the side bar.

As far as pictures, you have a retired couple and a family, (and other than a single person or a gay/lesbian couple) so you have covered your bases. Pictures can take a while to download on a dial-up modem (lots and lots of people still use dial-up)and really would not add anything to your content.

Good luck, and others will probably add bits of advise.

[Jurgen]

You sure bring up a great subject:

Originally Posted by wenwilder

1. If a site is created by an individual and that individual has a personality, doesn't that personality reflect in the site that is created?

I think a site should have a personality. Knowing that people not necessarely like the design but it should reflect thier own being. A lot of talking is going on here in this forum regarding "professional looks" and layouts. I do agree to a certain agree, but where is the 'individual and personal' look? We don't want to end up looking like everybody else on the "Web".... do we?

2. What factors attribute to a sites personality? Is it the color? The graphics? The content? The product? Or is a sites personality nothing more than a perceived notion?

Well, you want to get your site 'over' to you visitors. I assume you want them to look at your site the same way as you do. Now, that doesn't mean everybody likes it. This is a matter of personality. Some like red, some like blue, some like to look at nice pictures, some like to read (content)..... Question: You tell ME....

3. If sites don't have personality then why are some more "emotionally" interesting than others? Why do visitors get 'bored' with some sites while frequenting others daily?

You got me there.... I guess it is your own personality inside yourself. The same is when it comes to movies or music. Why do people like "Stargates' and others like "James Bond (aka 007)", some like "rap", others like "country".

It is not how YOU see the site, it's how the others see the site. I am sure there are people around you who think that your "frequently" visited sites are "boring".

Who is wrong? You or 'the others'???? then again, just asking.... ;-)

Jurgen
www.absolutelyfabulousflowers.com

[Tubby]

I have never considered the 'personality'of a web page - It is one of those things that someone points out. . . I simply presume it must have been an influence that I never 'registered'

I like to ponder things, thanks Wen.

Now I am pondering how much my regular users donate to any 'Personality' on my own site. Or if a lack of grafix at the top of my pages is a relection of my balding pate?

[wenwilder]

Great input everyone, thank you! :)

Theories are more fun when people agree with them. :)

[shoi]

I am a client of designers and yes I have fought many battles to keep the individuality and quirkiness (until 3 years ago I did the design)

I circulated this article to our marketing folks and I have saved this email to use in the future, many thanks for clarifying the issue

I often used dreamweaver (3) to illustrate what I meant, so maybe that's the way, to ask the client to "sketch" their ideas or wants.

Steve

[Keimos]

WOW, what a great question and some really interesting replies. I just had to answer.

As a business you have to create an atmosphere that attracts "your" customers and the possible window shoppers.

If you have an individual site your personality is totally reflected in the appearance and content. Whereas, if you are designing for somebody else you have to respect there wishes, whilst at the same time allowing for your particular personality to show through. Why the hell did they employ you to do the design if they did not like your work?

Every designer has there own style and experience tells me that the person hiring a designer would not hire them unless they were happy with any previous designs. Normally a designer can refresh a solid design that has existed for years without bringing any conflict to existing customers. ie. Brand retention etc and at the same time can exert an influence that does not cause conflict and in many cases can be of a huge benefit.

A totally wierd sort of example would be if you sold Gothic clothes and presented a site that was all prim and proper. It would work to an extent through curiosity but the people who are into Gothic would be put off.

Why? because the personality of the site did not suit them.

Answer. Create a site that suits the people or personalities that ou want to attract.

Numbers of visitors mean nothing, feedback, interaction or sales do.

[wenwilder]

How do you choose a personality for your site or does it choose you?

I think it's a combination of both, but I'm interested in your answers. :)

[inevitable1]

I think it's an evolutionary thing. I mean, you can start out with a sketch of what you want your site/pages to be, and then write the copy, but once you put 'em all together, well, it's almost like a whole new ball game.

But isn't it true that visitors like it when you keep your content "fresh/new"? I'm not saying to the extent that it's unrecognizable from visit to visit though. I mean, should we rely on visitors' feedback to determine "personality"? After all, isn't that what the design stuff is really all about anyway? Am I correct? Please correct me if I'm wrong -- I can take it ;o)

[Tubby]

inevitable1, is totally correct. you can almost feel the amount of 'listening' to feedback that individual web-owers do.

[joy]

Well, I sure wished I would have found one of you when I was setting up my site! I hunted high and low for a web designer, and finially found one. But have been greatly disapointed! My site is a Country Victorian Gift Store, so I wanted it to have a flavor of yesteryear! I had in mind, something like old worn laces and ribbons, torn and worn fabric, aged, and stained, like it might have just been pulled from a damp trunk. You know, old victorian treasures! For me, it was not just a choice, it was a need, I surround myself with this look, and for me, it feeds my artistic nature. As most of what I sell online are my designs, and are things I create. I had created pictures, gave him samples, and the web designer mademy site purple and pepto bismo pink. I wanted to cry every time I went to the site, and often did! I have since taken a Dreamweaver class, and have been trying to fix my site, by myself. My story is a reminder, to look or listen, or just feel what your client is wanting. I think of my site as an extention of who I am and of my company. And although it is not all completely the way I want it to look, it's getting there! Thanks for the great encouragement, I don't feel so bad now, to hate the pink and purple pepto bismo site!

[DrTandem1]

I think a lot of it has to do with how much the designer listens to their client. I have made samples for clients as a starting point that may follow your theory. However, I encourage client input throughout the design process. It usually takes on their personality.