vendredi 9 mars 2012

Minimize The Noise

Noise was a big feature of site design before Google happened. Do yo u remember those sites from 1999 full of text and links and images and banners?

Of course you do – if you are a web designer, you probably have nightmares about it.
But then Google happened. Do you remember the joy (and the surprise/shock) of seeing a simple page with a large logo and a search box? While other search engines of that era (AltaVista, Yahoo, etc.) were full of pictures and banners, here was Google in all its Spartan glory. No wonder people took to it like a fish to water. Not only did it have a superior search product, it offered the one thing other sites didn’t: noise
What exactly do I mean by noise?
It’s somewhat difficult to describe such a term since it can mean different things to different people. To me, noise means anything – a design element, a color, a link, a banner – that distracts from the main site content.
A color that doesn’t fit in with the overall site design, a text link that just doesn’t go along with the site’s font structure, a banner that just seems out of place, excessive flash animation, a jarring color – all these elements make up noise.
If you were (are) a member of MySpace, I’m pretty sure you know what I’m
talking about. Here’s an example, just in case:

Jarring colors, animated background...these are all elements that create noise
and distract from the content. Contrast this with the site design for NYT:


Sure, there are tons of links, but everything seems harmonious, in place.
Nothing “pops out” and grabs your attention excessively.
Noise is not the same thing as escape routes. An escape route is merely something that takes your visitor away from your site. Noise, on the other hand, is something that distracts your visitor and probably makes him click
the browser back button and head on to something else.
Do a quick analysis of your site design and identify any elements that might contribute to your site noise. Is your logo of a color that doesn’t match with the whole site? Are there excessive banners on your site? Do the images seem too big and appear abruptly in the middle of the content? It shouldn’t take you very long to identify the source of the noise and rectify.
For us AdSense marketers, noise can also be a very good thing. Noise, by virtue of its very definition, attracts a visitor’s attention. So rather than letting him get distracted by a flash banner of a jumping dog, why not distract him with your AdSense ad? In the later sections, you will learn how you should make your ads stand out from the overall design to attract attention to them.
Reduce the noise in your site design. Increase the noise in your ads.
Simple enough...

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