KonzeptioNerd

Bashing the blurb

I usually have a hard time finishing Gerry McGovern’s New Thinking because I can’t scroll very well with two thumbs up (maybe the new MacBook Air with its ingenious multitouch technology could be of help here?). But last week’s instalment? (Great websites do, not say, Jan 14, 2008)

McGovern apparently has a bone to grind (or worse) with certain politicians and / or their websites. But why the blurb-bashing?

Intro texts on a startpage don’t hurt anyone. Let’s face it: no-one reads the stuff, anyway. This is not 98. You don’t hear about a “cool homepage” somewhere, go check it out and wonder what the heck this is all about. Most people come to most websites with at least a half formed idea of what they’re supposed to do there. Word of mouth, adverts, search results, texts that offer URLs for further details all provide contexts to a website which predetermine how we approach this site.

When we access a site with a task or goal in mind, we scan the page for a keyword or input field that will move us closer to where we want to got. On pages we visit often, we might even fly blind past the password dialog and all those exciting new offers on the startpage. Unless I’m feeling really leisurely (or come with a professional interest to look at new features), the first thing I really see of the Amazon webpage is a search results list.

But when things become ambiguous or call for extra distinctness, then the blrub becomes vital. Does this travel site specialize in Northern America? Does this freelance designer do print or interactive? Does this financial institution offer private banking at all?

Candy bars don’t come with manuals because they’re pretty much straight forward and have learned interfaces. Medicaments come with package inserts because our interactions with drugs are inherently more complicated.

Google’s got such a strong brand (by now) that it is currently struggling with becoming too much of a household term for online search in general. www.google.com doesn’t need a blurb. wikia has a complicated and experiential new use case for online searching. It could well use a bit more startpage copy to explain to the new arrival why she should even bother to create an account and log on.

A little well-formulated copy can do wonders for word of mouth. Try “push button publishing for the people”. Says it all (although it’s probably more of a claim than info copy). And if nothing else, I love to find some concise blurb I can copy into the notes-field of my del.icio.us bookmarklet so that in two months time, I can still vaguely recall what it is I saved back then.

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