Darren Hoyt on the secrets of web success

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

Darren Hoyt makes some great points about the extent to which good content gets ignored as an element in a site’s success:

Easiest conclusion—interesting, addictive content is not valued enough. Often it’s an afterthought, barely discussed with the client. It’s like magic dust and neither guru nor client knows where it will come from. The final product is a sparkly site with forgettable content. It’s like building a car and considering the engine last. Or just as often, neglecting to install one.

…To generalize greatly, there is too much time spent lost in the tunnel-vision world of shiny gadgets, tech trends and empty “social media” promises and way too little time on basic human psychology and the fundamentals that made 1960s advertising so powerful—figuring out what the public wants and finding smart, persuasive ways to give it to them.

…In web design and blogging, most would say “compelling content” is what eludes us. But even after 10 years, no two people even agree on what “compelling content” means. If anything, it’s a constantly moving target, consumed by a fickle audience who travel the web too quickly to differentiate between fast-food addictions like Mashable and healthier “slow web” addictions to sites like A List Apart, Design Observer, Good, N+1 or The Smart Set.

Web design conferences could use an equivalent to Jamie Oliver’s “Teach Every Child About Food” speech to remind people of how nourishing good content can be.

Post external references

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    http://www.darrenhoyt.com/2010/08/30/moving-target/
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