A well designed blog is a luxury item

Posted by Peter F on August 19 2005 in Blog Design. There are 7 comments. Add yours!

I think it’s time for another good rant on the role of design on the business blogosphere.

The central conversation surrounding design in an RSS world goes like this:

Good design is important because it will stop browsers for long enough to read your content, it will make your site easier to read (which again increases the odds of your content being read), it adds non-verbal cues to your message, it can highlight certain key areas of the page, it talks to the subconscious areas of the brain, yadda yadda yadda.

All very important. All valuable. All true.

There’s one aspect of good design that never comes up in the conversation though. And it’s this: good design feels good. It’s a luxury. It’s not only a luxury of course; it does have tons of value. But having something nice feels good. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Think of it like this: a perfectly serviceable Typepad site is like a Timex watch. Sure, it tells the time. But there isn’t a whole lot of emotional attachment there. A custom site is like a Patek Phillipe (only way less expensive!). You put that watch on and you feel great. You love that watch, and you show it to your friends.

The argument that I’m going for here is that by investing in great design, you feel good about your site, you take care of it, it flourishes, etc etc. But I have to remind myself that there is no point to luxury other than making you feel good: there’s no need to make a business case for it. It is its own justification.