Creativity in a results driven industry
Digital is an interesting medium. To many it is seen as creative, cutting edge and innovative, yet in the background it is providing us with data and insight like no other advertising or information channel.
The problem is that these two areas don’t really go together as so much knowledge to what is happening behind the scenes, has the result of sanitising things. Practicality, usability and accessibility can overcome the outlandish and absurd. Notoriety is good but doesn’t necessary pay immediate dividends, and in the instant web world isn’t therefore measurable.
Such sanitisation isn’t confined to just digital. We’ve seen this in car design as aerodynamics and manufacturing techniques homogenise the look and feel across the major manufacturers. In effect we’ve both polished off all the sharp edges to create something that may work much better but doesn’t leave any creative elements to chance or design for design sake.
I believe the aim for good designers is to instil personality and creativity into their work, but give true consideration in ensuring that the appropriate hooks for statistical data to support their actions are present.
Standard web analytics will only provide the views, funnels and the user browsing behaviour. They don’t measure enjoyment, pleasure of form, the ‘LOL’ moments, good typography or brand love. They don’t provide site owners with the knowledge of whether a little bit of conscious has gone over to their brand and loyalty increased.
So you need to provide additional hooks such as user generated content, social monitoring and ratings to further emphasis the importance of the work. Put the work up to critical acclaim and try to get a ground swell of approval.
This way we can maintain the advantage that analytics can provide, but allow a larger degree of individualism. Designers can apply a bit more risk and personal contribution in this results driven yet creative industry. Think Philippe Starck does web design.
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