Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Good Graphic Designers are the like Hot Girls

I recently decided to upgrade the theme on one of my websites to bring in the new year and to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the organisation - AdventFellowship. So I took the SAME old theme and design and changed it from blue to red - added a few more pictures and some pretty writing. From a webdesigner's perspective I thought the over 150 users would just see it as a nice colour change, since there was no significant design alteration.
To my surprise I was getting a lot of comments on the forum and from people I spoke to about the new design. i was like ummm... I only changed a few colours... People said they liked the crisp new look and feel of the site, in fact traffic went up significantly that month.

Then I got ANGRY!!! WHY??!! The hours and hours of work on the back-end, the millions of features, the cool capabilities!! I never heard anyone marvel over these... But 2 hours or so just to change a few colours and pictures on the theme made the site a hit. So then I ask, do we need web developers? Or all we need are good graphic designers, do we need people with knowledge and experience in Web 2.0 and 3.0 practices, SEO, and general website management skills? People who try to keep content flowing on the website, and invent methods to keep users engaged. Newsletters, forums, chatrooms, and other "cool features" are not important?

Then it hit me, its the Hot Girl Syndrome(HGS)[yes I made that up]. Humans in general like what they can see. No matter how the plate of food tastes, if it doesn't look good most people wont be attracted to it. Same goes for hot girls, most guys I know (including myself) are attracted to a females exterior first, no matter how some try to deny it. It is well after we get over the looks when we consider the the features in her 'back-end' no pun intended. But the important thing is that the backend features are what keeps you attracted to her, even after the wrinkles start kicking in. These include the cooking, caring, etc... whatever makes up your hot girl into wifey.

WebDevelopers are the 'wifeys' it seems of the internet. And rightly so, they are who keep the users coming back. But I guess every now and then the wifey needs to spruce herself up with a little style and design.

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