Your Online Resource Centre
The Thumbshots Revolution
By: Mihaela Lica
We often talk about visual impact, about that ?first impression? that can make the difference between like and dislike, success and failure. This is what many think that a thumbshot of a website is: a first impression, a tool that allows the web users to visualize any website before clicking. Is that all?
Thumbshots are not here to replace text links, but to enhance them, to bring a plus of attentiveness when it comes to website design and to awake public awareness for quality, style and web value. A good visual representation of a website will enhance the click-through rate and traffic by increasing the attractiveness of the site. People react positive at a good visual representation, and that applies not only for websites, but also for any other products.
Thumbshots.org makes it possible for the users to discover easily a good website. It?s true that not all well designed websites have quality content, but most of them do. When a website owner employs resources that increase user experience (and graphic design plays a very important role in this challenge), that?s a sign that he or she was creating a web resource worth the time and the attention of the web surfers.
Thumbshots and The Importance of Good Web Design
Put it this way: good design means good business. Design is a dialogue between a website and its visitors. When users discover a website easily, by simply performing an online search, they expect to obtain the information they seek as fast as possible. Some webmasters struggle for high rankings in the search engines, overlooking the main target of a website: the web users. It?s amazing to see how many ?web pages that suck? are there. It?s also amazing to see that serious business owners still don?t realize the importance of design in increasing the reputation of a company, product or service.
Take the Google logo: it?s probably the most famous graphic design in the online world nowadays. Yahoo follows shortly after. How many websites can pride with such accomplishments? How many online businesses are recognized in a flash? What makes Google recognizable? Its logo and its chameleonic transformations? Or is it maybe its austere, ad-free homepage? The answer is simple: a good visual representation, a branded image.
Now Thumbshots determines the rest of the online businesses to be concerned about image and visual representations. Web designers will soon understand that a website thumbnail is not just a simple ?preview? or a visual cue that acts as a shortcut in recognising a website, but a declaration of quality, functionality and structure.
The initiators of Thumbshots, probably not intentional, have started a revolution. This is no longer a world where websites with chaotic layouts could continue to exist. Branding and image, already crucial for a good website and for a professional online business, will become important for personal web pages as well. Ridiculous web design techniques will be severely penalized by the users. Sites using such techniques will lose their ?face? to the public, will not gain any new clients and their old customers will simply turn to websites that are user-friendly and better suited to their needs.
Savvy designers already understand what Thumbshots means and how this initiative will shape the online world in the near future. The question is: how soon are the website owners going to acknowledge the importance of good web design for their online businesses?
Mihaela Lica is a professional journalist, with more than 10 years experience in the field, four as TV journalist. Since 2002 she works as an online public relations and media consultant, making all possible efforts to promote quality web content. |  |
