The Persuasive Power of Typography

This is fascinating. I was just catching up on one of my favorite blogs, Neuromarketing, and I read about a recent scientific study that tested the theory that the simpler the typeface in an advertisement or marketing piece, the more persuasive the it will be. Their hypothesis was that the simpler a person thought an exercise regimen would be, the more likely they would be to do it. Fair enough.

To test this hypothesis, they split the sample into two groups, one that read the exercise regimen in a simple typeface, and one that read it in a more complex, script font. The result? The group that read it in the simple font thought the exercise would take about 8 minutes, and the script group thought it would take 15.

I can't restate Neuromarketing's takeaway any better than they did, so I'll let them take it from here:

"if you need to convince a customer, client, or donor to perform some kind of task, you should describe that task in a simple, easy to read font. Since this phenomenon is related to the concept of cognitive fluency, you should also make the type size easy to read and use simple words and sentence structure. These steps will minimize the perceived effort needed to accomplish the task, and your success rate will increase."

by Garret Ohm

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Hey, We’re Featured!

It's always fun when our work gets featured. In this case, we were featured as one of 115 inspirational Twitter background designs over at Garmahis. Here's the background, just in case you haven't seen it:

We're honored, but here's the truth: While the design of our Twitter background is pretty cool, it becomes much, much cooler when you see it in context with the rest of our brand identity. If you've been to our website (which, I guess you have, since you're here NOW) you've seen our science theme, which helps to communicate all of the "elements" (tactics) that we use to create integrated campaigns. There's more to it, but that's for another blog post, coming soon... (elipses used to keep you on the edge of your seat)

Oh, and while we're on the subject, are you following us on Twitter yet?

by Garret Ohm

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User Experience and Corporate Decision Making

As @c2austin pointed out yesterday, Fast Company's Twitter stream recently rehashed an ongoing debate about website user experience design in large corporations and the potential havoc having too many departments involved in the design process can have. The Fast Company article, which you can read in its entirety here, describes how a peeved designer wrote an open letter to American Airlines blasting such a high-profile company for having a website that is incredibly difficult from a usability standpoint. He wrote:

If I was running a company with the distinction and history of American Airlines, I would be embarrassed--no ashamed--to have a Web site with a customer experience as terrible as the one you have now...Your Web site is abusive to your customers, it is limiting your revenue possibilities, and it is permanently destroying the brand and image of your company in the mind of every visitor.

To prove his point, he even donated some time and offered up a solution, seen here as compared to the original:

His open letter actually received a response from a member of the user experience team at American Airlines explaining that, unfortunately, it's not their lack of abilities, but rather the sheer size of the company and numerous corporate layers and that inhibit them from delivering a positive user experience.

Sad. But true. It highlights a problem that we wrestle with often when clients come to us to deliver a new interactive experience for their business: Too many cooks in the kitchen. While at times we understand the need for more than one party within a company to be responsible for making design decisions, we also feel strongly that the best designs come from a clear, singular vision. This vision, combined with a solid understanding of user wants/needs, and an interactive design team adept at creating the best possible solution will always result in a stronger end product than anything that comes from design by committee.

by Garret Ohm

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Is this the future of magazines?

I'm going to be short on the commentary and let the video I found do the talking, but could this be the future of magazine publishing?

We're torn on this. On one hand, we have a deep-seated love and respect for print as a medium. After all, it's where we started back in 1987. That said there's something about holding a tangible printed piece in your hand that the digital media just can't convey. On the other hand, we're a full-service marketing firm with a serious command of interactive media and we love exploring ways that we can use new technologies to communicate our clients' brands (and hey, who knows, maybe yours someday...).

Is it possible to be both a little sad and positively thrilled at the same time? That's where we are right now.

by Garret Ohm

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TSG Twitter Profile: “Beautiful & Unique”

At The Sutter Group, we certainly know the importance of a properly branded social media presence, both in terms of the messages that are being communicated as well as the design aesthetic. That's why we were so pleased when while browsing an article titled "50 Beautiful & Unique Twitter Designs," we noticed that we had made the list at #11.

The list, compiled by Six Revisions, a weblog that provides practical, useful information for the modern standards-compliant web designer and developer, is billed as a "look at some impressive Twitter profile designs that stand out from the micro-blogging site's millions of users."

Feel free to browse the link and check out some of the other great designs, and check out our Twitter profile for yourself at http://www.twitter.com/suttergroup (make sure you're following us!). And as always, if you are looking for help making sure all your marketing channels are properly branded and on-message (even social media), please don't hesitate to contact me - garret[at]sutter-group[dot]com.

by Garret Ohm

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