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Breaking the Rules to Create a Talk Worthy Web Site

January 14th, 2008 in Design Inspiration

by: Matthew Griffin

In the spring 2005 I decided that having a talk worthy website is a critical advantage for an independent web designer. That realization prompted me to build the latest iteration of Liquid Design Media—the web site for my design studio.  All the top search engine marketing and usability experts would disagree with almost every decision I made in building that site. I had a splash page, I used Flash, and the layout was abnormal. But I didn't design it to impress SEO and usability experts. I designed it so that someone looking for a web designer would see it and say, "Wow...", and the competition would fade into the background.

It worked. The site accomplished exactly what I wanted it to and, In the process, an additional pleasant but unexpected result emerged. I discovered that clients who choose me because of my cool website are some of the best clients in the world.

They're already convinced that I'm an expert. The initial call usually begins with a shower of compliments—a great intro to an interview. It completely relieves the pressure of convincing them I know what I'm doing. I can get right down to the business of helping them out and skip over the awkward self promotion phase. Also, since the client is the one that put me up on the expert chair a greater trust is cultivated than if I clawed my way up there and took the seat myself.

I'm telling this story to make this point: Always take a step back and consider the purpose of a web site before you dive in. It's the conveyance of meaning and design that is the soul of a web site, not merely it's adherence to a set of laws. The SEO laws are good and helpful but applied alone, all they can produce is the same web sites over and over. If you need some inspiration, check out the new talk worthy web site by Meomi and make sure you mouse over all the little creatures in the peripheral parts of the design.

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