Comments on: What Kind of Personality Does Your Website Have?

By: Bill Slawski

Bill Slawski — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:18:23 +0000

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Design is an important aspect of how a site might communicate with its visitors, and a broken design can harm tht communication. A broken design or poor graphics sends as much of a message as the textual content of a page.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:16:36 +0000

In my opinion, the most important questions listed here are:

Is it cold or warm and welcoming? Is it credible and trustworthy and does it display expertise? Is it graceful in design and practical in appearance? Does it give something of value away for free? Is its focus upon the benefits that it offers viewers, or upon the features of the organization that it belongs to?

I think that these question should be closely considered when launching or maintaining any website or blog if a professional appearance is to be given.

The question: “Is it graceful in design and practical in appearance?” probably stands out in my mind more than all others.

One thing that really annoys me about websites that I visit occasionally is a layout that the browser cannot read correctly, specifically, Internet Explorer. It is famous for incorrectly interpreting HTML code from what I have found. Any time I ever launch a new website, I always check to see how the browser of any visitor interprets the code to make sure that the true personality of the website shines through and that my visitor are not distracted by sloppy graphics.

Mark

By: CRT/tanaka Blog » Blog Archive » Five rules to start with

CRT/tanaka Blog » Blog Archive » Five rules to start with — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:22:07 +0000

[...] 4. Develop a Personality. Remember ‘The Dating Game’ where contestants had just a few seconds to describe themselves in a manner that would entice the poor sole behind the curtain to select them as a potential mate? Think of your web site that way…well…sort of. Imagine if your web site had a personality? Would it be masculine or feminine? Bold and punchy or soft and relaxing? Trendy or traditional? Assigning attributes to your message can have a powerful effect on the user experience and how you engage them with your brand. But as Dan notes, be careful – define the persona of the company/project – NOT your own. (Take a look at some other questions to ask your team while defining your web sites personality at SEO by the Sea’s article by William Slawski) [...]

By: Bill Slawski

Bill Slawski — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:03:20 +0000

Hi dekguss99,

I’m not always sure that the mood of an author always comes through when we read a page. But I do think there are things that we can try to make it more likely that it does.

That’s part of the reason why I mostly used questions in my making this post, rather than trying to lecture on different aspects of a site, and how they might reveal the personality behind the site. I tried to make the post a little playful, and as a peer sharing the questions instead of as someone lecturing.

By: dekguss99

dekguss99 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:21:51 +0000

Site’s personality, IMO, is the reflection of its owner/author. Especially when we read the post, somehow it’s like we can feel the mood of the author when he’s writing it.
Answering the question in your post title, I want my blog to be warm and welcoming my reader well. Unfortunately, I’m not really sure whether I have done it right or wrong.

By: Bill Slawski

Bill Slawski — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:17:33 +0000

Thanks, Shane.

I hope you enjoy using them.

By: Shane

Shane — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:43:13 +0000

Great post, its true that websites have a personality.

Thanks for the list of useful questions to ask myself next time i’m designing.

By: Agra

Agra — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:58:14 +0000

Thanks William for your kind words.

Ultimately to achieve some thing you need to think and start working and that’s the key for success.