Mon, Mar 12, 2007
There is no demand for messages; site personas create better communication
Messages are one way, conversations two. Personify your product or service as someone your users want to talk to.
I came across this brief 1998 Web Informant essay from Doc Searls about messaging:
THERE IS NO DEMAND FOR MESSAGESLet me see a show of hands: who here wants a message? Right: none. And who wants to shield themselves from messages they don’t want? Exactly: everybody.
The problem is relevance. Highly relevant communication is useful. It’s what you want, and what you need. It’s the communication interface and is as important as, if not more important than, the user interface.
(Not that you can really separate communication from the interface, but hopefully you get the point…)
As a tool to counter “messaging” and enable “communication”, I’ve found it useful to ask: if the website (or whatever) was a person, who would they be and how would they talk to the audience? This kind of gets to the site’s tone, but it’s useful to know. Is the site like a reference librarian? Is it a used car salesman? Or is the site a knowledgeable friend? A friendly and helpful customer service rep? Perfunctory? Didactic?
Giving your site a persona can help convert messaging into communication.
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