Corporate Copycats?

Remember the old gag, What’s Black and White, and Red allover? Well the answer may well be Australian corporate websites!

Has anyone else noticed the growing number of corporate websites in Australia that look the same? I have.

Now, I have to declare up front, that I was the Head of Online at NAB when we did the redesign back in 2004, which is why I have noticed this strange phenomenon. But I don’t feel you need to have been me, to have noticed. Take a look at the following websites. I just took a screen capture of them all at the same time 5.35pm, 28th July 2009, AEST.

 

The trigger for this post, was the recent refresh done at QANTAS, which until the most recent change I was a big fan. But the new colour palette,  and the portal technology are not working, in favour of the user. I tweeted as much and found I had some support. Now I am aware, by and large, that QANTAS has been an absolute leader in corporate Australia for web development and online services and they are to be commended for this, certainly I used them as evidence for the 3 years I led nab.com.au. But the most recent release, hasn’t shown, or worse, communicated, anything about the enhancements for users. Did I miss something? 

 Anyway, I don’t have a gripe with QANTAS, I don’t fly enough to care, but I am still very curious about the colour amendments, sorry enhancements? You see it presents for an interesting debate about visual brand and usability. One which continues to be won, for some strange reason, by brand managers. Even thought they tend to know nothing about interface design, human factors design,  WC3 standards etc.  And as a staunch advocate of using common web/software interaction standards to drive user simplicity (usability) I never expected the web to migrate towards a common set of colors. And admittedly four websites does not make a flock, but I find this fascinating in a market where differentiation should be easier. There just isn’t that many major corporates in Australia.

Now, a recent blog post http://physicalinterface.com/view/that-design-is-moneyoutlines about the design process that WellsFargo, (another of my reference organisations) took towards redoing the ATM interface design. You should be aware, that whilst ATM interfaces arent quite as sophisticated as web (yet), the premise is the same – human user interaction. And strangely, the blog post commented, that for some reason the client (WellsFargo) changed the decision to run with the design users liked, to run with one thats supported the the corporate colour palette. Which again makes no sense to me. I know which of these will last longer, and its not the colour palette. (Which will inevitably be changed when the new marketing director appears – every 2yrs 3months, on average!)

And I know there would be plenty of people out there saying, why does it matter? Or what is the commercial imperative? But if they stopped for a minute and considered how it is that  Apple is a company many time larger than their, or why Google won the search race off a marker of about 4 years, then I guess they’d start to ask me what they should do, rather than argue that it doesn’t matter. And the answer is – put the brand user experience (usability) ahead of the colour palette. It may look nice, but if I can’t read it as a color blind person then it doesn’t matter how pretty it is.

And as for evidence, I am yet to hear how taking campaign colours and applying them to the website delivers a better experience. Imagine if microsoft did that to their software like, word or powerpoint, users would smash the computers / devices. Its the consistencey of the user experience in standards that makes it easy. So easy that users, can adopt, learn, routinise, forget,  and still be happy to use it!

You see its like doin your Saurday morning shopping with the brand you trust and love. Its like going to get pampered at the health Spa you know will take the strees out of everything. It really is like a shopping centre. The cusotmer knows the location, the car park entrance, the order of shops, the aisles. They never change. And if they do, its a bloody stressful nightmare for many customers.

So I guess my point is this. Visual brand managers, back off! Let the user interface designers do what best for the customer. You can get away with cluttering up the physical store with posters, brochures and walls with branded imagery, but online we know the impact. We can see the ‘store’ traffic get frustrated and turn away.

Anyway,I am getting off track and I have written far more than I planned. I am still in search for the top 20 read, black and white Australian websites.
Be sure to let me know if you find any other look alikes.

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