Yellow Brick Road

Apr 15, 2000 -- I watched The Wizard of Oz last week with my 10-year-old son. (He's been cast as one of the Munchkins in a local theatre production.) I was struck by how this 1939 film classic still captivates and delights, even in today's world of MTV and Microsoft, wireless and Web.

The Wizard of Oz doesn't feature the ground-breaking visual effects of Star Wars, nor the high-tech wizardry (computer animations set against live action backgrounds) that Disney's upcoming release, Dinosaur, will.

Instead, the film grabs your attention with lip-syncing Munchkins, a white horse sponged down with different colors of Jello, a good witch who arrives in a bubble and a "kindly philosophy," which, as MGM says, time has been powerless to put out of fashion.

Does your Web site lack this kindly philosophy? Does it have courage and heart? Or, is it, like the Scarecrow, a failure, because it was built without a brain? If so, follow this Yellow Brick Road:

• In spite of all the broadband hype, the Web remains a reading-and-writing zone. So, hire a professional writer. Netizens (Internet citizens) are smart and savvy. Most are college educated with annual incomes above $60,000. Good copywriters know how to get inside their minds. They also know to increase results dramatically, you must improve your offer dramatically.

• Don't require that visitors download some plug in or have a specific browser to view your site. If they came to the door of your bricks-and-mortar store, would you require them to sport a Craftsman wrench or Perry Ellis shirt before you'd let them in?

• If your site uses Macromedia's Flash, give visitors a choice of loading the high-bandwidth page or the low-bandwidth page. Or, you could add a JavaScript that detects if your visitors' browser supports Flash. If it does, the script will direct them to the Flash-enhanced page. If it doesn't, they'll be directed to the low-bandwidth page.

• Choose your graphics (clip art, animations, photographs, backgrounds...) carefully. Although the number of surfers using DSL and cable-modem is growing, it's still a 28.8k world. The more graphics you use, the longer your site will take to download.

• Sound can enhance a visitor's experience. It can also ruin it. Don't put a sound that plays continuously on your page. Allow visitors to stop or re-play the sound by adding the following code for WAV files: autostart="true"

• Every tool can be used for good or for evil.

• Interactive multimedia experiences are only cool the first visit.

• Vigorous Web design is concise. Your Web pages should contain no unnecessary design elements, your site no unnecessary high-tech glitz, for the same reason a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. (I'm paraphrasing authors William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, who said something like this about writing.)
• There is no place like a home page that's effectively designed and written.

Questions or comments? feedback@i-genuity.com

<<< Back

About The Author

Mary A. Sicard is president of i-Genuity, the Click-Here Strategy and Services firm in Augusta, Georgia.

Sign up for Clickolution. Simply fill in the information below and click "Subscribe." We'll send a short e-mail once each month that tells you about new articles we've posted.

Under no circumstances will any of the information you share with us be rented, sold or otherwise distributed.

Copyright