Websites That Choose Function Over Design
18 Minutes to bring data to life
I came upon TED.com accidentally. Searching for something entertaining in the cornfield maze that’s YouTube, I found a video about an MIT professor ‘s research and development of a technological sixth sense, a way to access information online using our environment.
The nine minute video captivated me and led me to the website, where I found hundreds of videos of people from around the globe speaking about issues our world faces today and in the future. Since then, TED.com and it’s simple approach of making its content the central focus of their website has kept me going back almost daily, and provides a model of what a good website should be.
TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, is an annual conference held in Long Beach, California that invites 50 of the world’s most influential and ground-breaking people and gives them 18 minutes to discuss the convergence of information, technology, culture, science and media as agents of social and global change. Limited to 1,000 audience members at a hefty price of $6,000 a ticket, TED.com was created in 2007 to showcase its discussions to the world, free of charge.
The first effective element of the website is its outstanding content. Imagine yourself at a lecture featuring a world-renowned ethnographer, who exposes the trends of modern day communications and social media that are causing a decline in human intimacy. Or a form-and-function scientist displaying a softball-sized device that which sits at your computer, measures the amount of natural light you’ve received during the day, and then emits the remaining amount of light your body needs. Or you can view dozens of charts and graphs from years of a doctor’s statistical research to prove the higher rate of disease in developing countries wrong. The talks are gripping, stimulating, and all at your fingertips.
What’s more effective about TED.com is their simple approach to publicizing their content. The site has a no-nonsense approach, void of any advertisement and a search engine that narrows its talks down into 6 simple categories based on what the subject is: technology, entertainment, design, business, science and global issues. They choose function over creative design, leaving its content and the viewer’s interests to decide what they want to watch. As a millennial consumer, function and accessibility is far more important to me than creative design. Being internet-savvy and aware of what content on websites interest me, I don’t need to be distracted by multiple search engines, links to other areas of the site and other websites, or have the website make suggestions for me.
Brands and marketers can learn something from TED.com; leave behind the bells and whistles of design and layout and let the content do its own talking. We get frustrated by the confusing search results and recommendations that a lot of websites offer, or we get sidetracked from what we’re looking for because its search engine leads you in different directions. How often have you used YouTube for a specific topic and its abundance of “related videos” lead you away from what you were actually looking for?
Bottom line: show us, don’t tell us. If brands have a good product, then let the product do the talking. A great product does not need overdressing. As a generation who expect to get their news, information and entertainment in the shortest and simplest means necessary, millennials will rejoice in the approach TED.com takes to pull viewers in and navigate as they wish. Website users who are in control of what they view without being bombarded by suggestions and broad search engines are happy users.
Image: Erik Charlton
