« Creating a respectable online identity | Main | Judging a book by its cover »
September 03, 2007
The establishing shot
In an age of omnipresent media, the age old skill of storytelling becomes the critical success factor; it's the motor of the present experience economy. In order for media to reach an audience, the stories they 'travel in' have to be good. And one place where an audience engages with a story is on a website; especially but not exclusively the homepage.
A story 'feels' good when you can immerse yourself in it, therefore a key element is creating a strong sense of place. The homepage should create a strong sense of place by showing an elaborate 'establishing shot', which goes well beyond creating a mere atmosphere through look&feel (and the regular 'window dressing' imagery).
The following picture already tells you a lot of things.
It triggers resembling memories and therefore emotions – even though you don't know when and where it is – just by looking at it. If the appropriate introduction is made on the starting page, with the appropriate imagery, browsing a website will feel like following and being part of a story.
Posted by Almar at September 3, 2007 05:14 PM