Taking Your Talent to the Web- P7:It was a simple solution to a complex problem. On one side, thousands of designers and art directors are eager to take their talents to the Web but aren’t sure how. On the other, web agencies could not find enough good web designers to get their work done. | Taking Your Talent to the Web 71 Business as Cruel and Usual How would ineffective web designers and clients approach the Narcotics Anonymous project It wouldn t be by providing immediately engaging content nor by offering a streamlined menu with both global and linear functionality. They would likely present a standard menu bar with five to ten choices a tedious welcome message stock photos of smiling families implicitly representing addicts in recovery at least in the designer s mind and overtly commercial tie-ins to an online retailer selling self-help books. The interior of the site might offer similar content to that contained in our imaginary prototype but the content would be buried several layers down in the site s hierarchy where only the most dedicated would stand a chance of finding it. Instead of capturing and presenting the essence of the client s message the site would merely mimic the boring professional surface appearance of thousands of other sites. Instead of potentially saving lives the site would merely be one more roadblock in an addict s troubled life. How would cutting-edge web shops approach the project Possibly by creating a 250K introductory Flash movie featuring a spinning hypodermic needle. The needle might morph into a rotating navigational device. Or it might fill with blood that drips to form letters spelling out some horrific statistic on the mortality rate of drug addicts. Such a site might win awards in a graphic design showcase but it would not help a soul. In all probability the Narcotics Anonymous organization would never commission a site like any of these nor would we expect many drug addicts to go online in search of help. We ve chosen this example because it quickly dramatizes the difference between effective and ineffective web design. In the case of Narcotics Anonymous it could mean the difference between life and death. But this is equally true for any business or organization that requires an online identity except that
