I’ve been thinking a bit lately about time and its relationship to different forms of art. Though I have never questioned the necessity of time for letting ideas unfold in music, film and theatre, I had never built that into the equation for painting, drawing and photography. My maintaining a position in front of a Degas as other visitors to the Museum of Fine Arts rushed past provided the opportunity to change that understanding.

In the past-paced world in which we live, one has few chances to “live” with things that don’t demand our attention. Because our environment is filled with images that constantly come and go, it’s hard to think of a two-dimensional piece of art as rewarding you in new ways when you give it some face time. If you resist the temptation to move on, a painting or drawing can reveal what a glance will not. Your own experience of discovery may even in some ways resemble the “story” found in a play or piece of music. I’m not talking about the implied text of a painting with recognizable elements. What I’m getting at is the recognition—in the language of the particular art form—that something has taken place. Perhaps with you.

Whether you’re in charge of a website that represents an individual, a small business, or a large corporation, there are certain approaches that will help make your website successful. Many people assume that the success of a website depends on the code that drives its performance. To a certain extent they are right, but if you don’t put some effort into thinking about a few things first, you’re probably bound to fail.

First, your site must be found for it to make any difference.

Second, you have about 15 or 20 seconds to convince a visitor that he or she is in the right place before they move on.

The smart use of search terms is very important to your site being found. Identifying them before you construct the site will enable you use these keywords as the file names of the pages—set up with dashes or underscores between words—which can be read by search engines.

It will also provide you with a good list of words that will help you write the pithy first paragraph for the homepage. Google and other search engines use special algorithms that pick up this text to qualify your site as an appropriate return on a search. They also use some of this text as an important part of the descriptions that support the links they deliver on the results page. This helps someone to decide which sites—typically out of a long list—to examine.

Links to your site from others also increase the chances that you will be seen as a better “answer” to a query than competing sites using the same keywords. Encouraging others to do this should be part of any search engine optimization strategy.

Once you’ve convinced someone to visit your site, you need to deliver a quick, coherent story for your target audience(s) to stick around. What’s the best way to do that?

1. A site’s look and feel broadcasts information about the nature of the site, so it’s important to get it right.
You have to employ the correct language or visitors will misunderstand who you are. For example, a corporation’s site should not look like that of a university. The visual language of the site also sends a message about the level at which the company or institution operates—a poorly designed website suggests that the “business” it represents might not be as professional as what a visitor is searching for.

Pay attention to these details, and you’re off to a great start.

2. The visual identity of the company or institution must be clear and not in conflict with the look of the site. Visitors will leave quickly if they are confused by what they see. There are many names that look and sound like others, so it’s important to provide the right context. For example, the homepages of the town of Harvard, Massachusetts and Harvard University both immediately indicate which “Harvard” it is.

3. The navigation should be labeled in such a way as to begin to tell a story. For example, if a major area on a company website is called “Case Studies,” one can assume that the business has a record of success, or they wouldn’t be providing stories about their work. Without exploring this section of the site, one could also guess that they view themselves as providing expertise in a number of areas. It might also be an opportunity for them to share the names of impressive clients. Of course, the names of the links in the main navigation should also operate in the original way they were intended—to organize the content in logical sections, describe the breadth of content on the site, and provide a quick way to get to a
particular page.

4. The homepage text must quickly explain the company or institution and describe what it does. This seems obvious, but many sites generalize here—you should resist the temptation to describe your business in the ambiguous terms of the undifferentiated taglines of many companies. Instead, provide focused and well-written paragraphs that help a visitor determine whether their problem or question is within the purview of the institution or company, and whether an answer to a particular question can be found on the site. And, as mentioned earlier, this approach will help your site be found in the first place.

Is Walt Disney now working on genetically modified food?

Maybe I was just looking at this all wrong. (See my post of a year ago.)

Most people don’t usually think of their yards as containing any structures other than their house, their garage (if it’s not attached to their home), and perhaps a garden shed. The nest in this pine tree got me thinking about how many buildings are actually on my property. I’ve tended to think of the animals and birds I’ve seen as visitors just passing through, though with the woodchuck, I think that’s just wishful thinking. Once you begin to look, you see that there is quite a range of design choices!

After a wonderful evening of listening to free improvisation at the Outpost in Cambridge last night, I took part in a discussion about the phrase “you have to learn the rules before you break them.” It was agreed that it was a relatively meaningless phrase. However, the beauty of the music that proceeded the discussion showed that certain rules were indeed in play. Perhaps a better way to describe it is that they all shared a language that allowed everyone there to mine possibilities and construct some rather varied “instant compositions” without unintentionally stepping on the feet of the other musicians. I say unintentionally because there was some rather purposeful stomping going on. I guess the idea is that you have to know which rules are in play to take advantage of them, because—whether you like or not—there are always rules.

We are certainly living in a different world. Why did it take a heads up from friends in Sweden to know about a gig at a venue I frequent? Poor advertising? Certainly.  But it’s also a story of how we share information these days. It’s not just friends around the corner, but those in different parts of the globe that often provide us with timely missives about things they know about. As my wife says, we are truly living in a transnational village.

The concert? Jacob Anderskov on piano with the Americans Chris Speed on sax and clarinet, Michael Formanek on bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums. They played pieces from last year’s Agnostic Revelations, released on the ILK label. Squeezed in between a couple of other performers, they managed about 45 minutes of telepathy and interplay. Anderskov’s somewhat angular, and at times economic, style pointed to his Scandinavian jazz roots though the group clearly has forged their own identity. If you didn’t make the gig—and there weren’t many us there—get the album, and look for his name next time he comes around.

Kickstarter is a website that helps creative projects get off the ground with their online fundraising. Many of these you’ve never heard of—and probably won’t, even after they’ve successfully raised funds and launched.

One project that I think you will is from a company called LetterMpress—they are working on a virtual letterpress for the iPad. The interface mimics the actual process of this old way of setting and printing type, resulting in a great “print” when you’re done.  Even if you don’t have an iPad—I don’t—you should check out the video on Kickstarter—you might be inspired to contribute!