Art & Life for June 2006
Photo of the Month
June is... time to think about getting a move on, putting on that new addition, slowing down and taking it easy...and stop tailgating!
I took the above photo just outside of Cairo in the mid-90s.
Oh the humanity of it all…
This month's featured humanity is Architecture. Site architecture that is…
Traditional Web site architecture is dead. The notion that a set hierarchy based around a company's offerings is obsolete and it is time that companies stopped creating sites that revolve around their vision of their company, but rather on one based on user interaction and relevance. More and more site traffic is directed to pages deep within the site. In today's era of information and connectivity the online market is hyper-competitive. This convergence means that all pages must be treated like the homepage.
Hopefully, but not all the time, companies have a marketing strategy in place for their homepage. It can be as simple as: the point of the homepage is to get the user to try our demo; visit our product page; sign up for our newsletter, etc, which translates into designing a site built on visual and textual cues - a sort of "Press here!", "Do this" approach. This kind of thinking needs to be applied to all key pages.
Imagine a Web site where each relevant page is designed with both text and graphic united to respond to user interaction. Search is not just how people query major search engines for particular phrases, but how they scan and search your site - where does the visitor click, once on a page, how does the eye move to catch those "candy" areas? Each click becomes a step in the persuasive process, an act of conversion.
Search engine marketing/optimization has to look through the bigger lens. It isn't about moving from 17th place to 3rd in Google. It can't be. It needs to move past being simply "search engine friendly" and into the realm of "user friendly." (I mean, truly…not just lip service!) So, if you are considering a new site, think about this: what do your prospective clients want? How will they search for it, interact with it, and, ultimately, utilize it?
Long live the age of persuasive architecture.
Wine of the Month
2004 Aura Rueda VerdejoThe perfect pick for June - clean and refreshing! The Verdejo grape had been almost forgotten by winemakers for decades, and then in the 70s, Spanish winemakers started working with it again and over the years it has become the primary grape of the Rueda region. Crisp and slightly grassy the wine comes alive in the glass, and has a slight floral that draws the nose (and the lips!) back for more.
$18.70 - 4 stars out of 5
2001 Sassoalloro, Jacapo Biondi Santi - Toscana
To mark a festive occasion chez nous, we indulged in this lovely red given to us by friends. It was a lot of "S" words - soft, subtle, scrumptious, smoooooooth…It is intense, complex and lingers. And that is a very, very good thing.
$41.75 - 4 stars out of 5
Cool Sites for Wasting Time
This month's sites...
Top 10 Stock Photo Clichés - We've all seen 'em...now someone gathered examples as a guide of what not to put on your site.
Free the Gnomes - Stop oppressive gardening!
Why Bush Won - In the media, a picture is worth a thousand words...
Unrealized Moskow - I find this site amazing. Take a look at architectural projects from the 30s to 50s that were never built.
Stuff That Disturbs Me
I don't know if "disturbs" is the right word…perhaps more begrudging admiration. I'd like to think of myself as advertising savvy - in fact I would go so far as to say advertising cynical - so imagine my surprise as I looked at the fine print of those delicious looking "Europe's Best" frozen fruit packages and saw "Product of Chile." Wow. I had bought into it hook, line and sinker.
Stuff I Love
This month? This month I am grooving on:
- Ladies and Gentlemen by Hot Hot Heat
- President's Choice new Naan Bread (great packaging!) - not as good as fresh from the tandoor, but a close second!
- The Montreal Jazz Festival - June 29 to July 9, 2006
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